I Honestly Love You Lyrics
It is about two people who cannot be together but are in love. They are both with someone. And "If we both were born / In another place and time" they would be together. Great song. Sad in so many ways.
The lyrics were written by Peter Allen, and the word is that it is from the perspective of a gay man singing to another gay man, both of whom are in relationships with women, hence the line "there you are with yours and here I am with mine." Allen was gay and was famously married to Liza Minnelli, so this makes sense.
That said, it is written so it can be applicable to any person in a relationship who falls for someone else they cannot be with. If you saw "The Wedding Planner" it's amazing that anyone would choose this for a wedding song, but those would be the same folks who see "Born in the USA" as a flag-waver.
It is a gorgeous song, heartbreaking really, and Olivia's original version totally deserved the Grammies it won.
The lyrics were written by Peter Allen, and the word is that it is from the perspective of a gay man singing to another gay man, both of whom are in relationships with women, hence the line "there you are with yours and here I am with mine." Allen was gay and was famously married to Liza Minnelli, so this makes sense.
That said, it is written so it can be applicable to any person in a relationship who falls for someone else they cannot be with. If you saw "The Wedding Planner" it's amazing that anyone would choose this for a wedding song, but those would be the same folks who see "Born in the USA" as a flag-waver.
It is a gorgeous song, heartbreaking really, and Olivia's original version totally deserved the Grammies it won.
I consider this one of the most...honest? sincere? true? authentic?...maybe I'd just better echo the lyrics and call it "pure and simple" - love songs ever written. It's beautiful in the way that simple truth is, and its genius lies in the unaffectedness of its lyrics. It isn't at all what people think of when they say "poetic," but that's what makes it profoundly brilliant poetry.
I can kind of understand why people want to sing it at their weddings, because it has that utter genuineness that no other love song I know of really expresses. When I was in the throes of my (unrequited) high school crush, this was the song that ran through my head because the refrain seemed to say it better than any other words I knew. (I just avoided thinking about the last verse at the time - such is the power of love-inspired blindness! I guess that's what the "sing-it-at-our-wedding" folks are doing, too; but nowadays I consider the song's tragedy part of its intrinsic beauty, and I don't think you can really separate the two.)
Oh how I miss my youth! As a young man, I was always looking for a girlfriend like ONJ. Maybe I still am. LOL
This song reminds me again of just how rare is her beauty of innocence and sweetness. It's probably the only plain direct "I love you" song sang with such melodious tones and plain honest emotions. She wears her heart on her sleeve, giving everything and asking for nothing in return. No dancing around the issue of love.
There are very few voices in all of history who can portray such simple, maybe even naive, openness. It's all the beauty of a young woman. Without any twists. It's like the song was especially written just for her (although it's not).
Definitely a timeless piece. No other singer could've pulled it off.
@veryken Whether ONJ is sweet or innocent is not something one can determine from just hearing her sing this or any song. Olivia was not a song writer and did not write "I Honestly Love You". What she is , is a fantastic interpreter of the songs of others. Who knows what she is really like other than her friends and family. Peter Allen is the songwriter and he wrote it in memory of a situation tha occurred while he was married to Liza Minelli. He had worked with Liza's mother Judy Garland who fixed the 2 of them up....
@veryken Whether ONJ is sweet or innocent is not something one can determine from just hearing her sing this or any song. Olivia was not a song writer and did not write "I Honestly Love You". What she is , is a fantastic interpreter of the songs of others. Who knows what she is really like other than her friends and family. Peter Allen is the songwriter and he wrote it in memory of a situation tha occurred while he was married to Liza Minelli. He had worked with Liza's mother Judy Garland who fixed the 2 of them up. But there was something he never told them which is that he was Gay. And while married to Liza he fell in love with a friend of his who like him was also Gay and Married to a Woman. It isn't clear if he ever told his friend but he and Liza were Seperated after less than 3 years of marriage and divorced after 6. He may have. The song is not about the response he received but the emotions that made him want to say something. Looking at it that way lines like "we both know I've got somewhere else to go" & "There you are with Yours and here I am with Mine" make far more sense. Far from being innocent the song is about complex emotions like loving 2 people simultaneously. Yet realizing that the other person's happiness may be more important than your new found feelings of love. The emotion is noble but not necessarily innocent. It is not spelled out because doing so would make the song's meaning only apply to a small niche group of people instead of feeling universal as it does. The Song and probably Olivia too is far deeper than it appears at face value. Appearances may or may not be deceiving.
As a gay person, I relate to the lyrics a lot. And the way she sings it, with tears in her eyes and so much heart... Oh boy!
The song is about a single mother of five who feel in love with the owner of the bar she worked at for her secound job! He was married and she had survived two marriages and was cheated on! She could not destroy his marriage as hers was destroyed! She loved him, but would not take it any ferther!
I know this because my mother wrote this as a poem to the bar owner! It came up missing at the end of her shift and three months latter it was on the radio!
@Drnash1221 I'm certain your mother told you this with much emotion and it may have applied to a situation she was once in.But Peter Allen wrote the song about his own experience of being Married to Liza Minelli & being in love with another Man who like him was married. Hence lines like "There You are with Yours and here I am with Mine" that do not apply to the situation you describe. It was written and recorded as a demo with Peter singing it more than 3 months before it was a hit for Olivia Newton John.
@Drnash1221 I'm certain your mother told you this with much emotion and it may have applied to a situation she was once in.But Peter Allen wrote the song about his own experience of being Married to Liza Minelli & being in love with another Man who like him was married. Hence lines like "There You are with Yours and here I am with Mine" that do not apply to the situation you describe. It was written and recorded as a demo with Peter singing it more than 3 months before it was a hit for Olivia Newton John.
"I honestly love you." is what she told the guy she\'s currently with, and is now having an emotional love-affair with someone else, and regretting her predicament. The song actually became an anthem for no-fault divorce in the 70s - that actually being in a committed relationship/marriage is akin to oppression, and gave rise to you-go-gurl divorces that continue today. Don\'t let a man keep you down when you find someone else you like better. And she even leave the option open at the end of the song, "So I guess we\'ll just be leaving it at this". I guess... maybe not - here\'s my phone number in case yours goes out of town.