If there’s one song I’ve learned to appreciate with age, it’s today’s featured track. Heck, I doubt I’d have cared much for This Guy’s in Love with You even ten years ago. It’s from my parents’ time – the kind of tune my father might have played to woo my mother before their wedding in 1969. You can almost picture the scene: polished wooden furniture, soft lighting, and the faint scent of mahogany in the air as couples slow-danced in their living rooms. Like the style of that era, This Guy’s in Love with You belongs to its time – and in keeping with what people like to say, they don’t make music like this anymore.
The song was written by the duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who were behind countless pop standards of the 1960s. It was first recorded by Herb Alpert, best known as the trumpet-playing leader of the Tijuana Brass. Alpert wasn’t known as a vocalist, but the story goes that he asked Bacharach if he had a song he could sing to his wife on a television special. Bacharach handed him This Guy’s in Love with You – and what began as a casual request turned into a defining moment in Alpert’s career.
Alpert’s vocal isn’t polished in the traditional sense, but it’s sincere, almost shy – which gives the song its charm. Audiences were taken by surprise that the trumpet man could deliver such a heartfelt vocal. Behind him, Bacharach’s signature arrangement of gentle horns and strings completes that unmistakable late-’60s sound: lush, romantic, and slightly wistful.
Released in April 1968 it became the first number-one hit for Herb Alpert topping the Billboard for four weeks and selling over a million copies. It even displaced Simon & Garfunkel’s Mrs. Robinson (coming up real soon here btw) from the top spot. It went on to become one of Bacharach and David’s most-covered compositions, recorded by many from Andy Williams to Noel Gallagher.
You see this guy, this guy’s in love with you
Yes I’m in love who looks at you the way I do
When you smile I can tell we know each other very
Well
How can I show you I’m glad I got to know you cause
I’ve heard some talk they say you think I’m fine
This guy’s in love and what I’d do to make you mine
Tell me now is it so don’t let me be the last to
Know
My hands are shaking don’t let my heart keep
Breaking cause
I need your love, I want your love
Say you’re in love, and you will be my guy ( in love with this guy), if not
I’ll just die
Tell me now is it so don’t let me be the last to
Know
My hands are shaking don’t let my heart keep
Breaking cause
I need your love, I want your love
Say you’re in love, and you will be my guy ( in love with this guy), if not
I’ll just die
References:
1. This Guy’s in Love with You – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
This is awesome and goes perfectly with that picture… I love that living room! I never knew it went to number 1 for Herb Albert.
Yes, it’s a good time capsule song as I like to call them.
Just waiting here at the cine to see the Springsteen biopic.. I know you’re not a big fan of the musician biopic, but have you / will you see this one?
I’ll probably see that one. The Bob Dylan one won me over a bit. If they stick to real life I’m happy with it…I know some aspects will will be exaggerated…but you know what I mean. In the Bob Dylan one…it was really close to the truth…if they do that…I’ll be happy.
My understanding is Springsteen had his hands all over this movie and apart from the hybrid girlfriend it’s supposedly very accurate. We’ll see. Have a good day and good luck tonight. That double play last night was something else. Lol
Well that is good! I’m glad he was involved. Yes…you know…this World Series….the two best teams are really involved…it’s a coin toss.
Talk about ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’. ‘Deliver Me from Nowhere’ was not only the best music biopic I have seen, but also the best about Depression. It’s easily in my top 50 favourite movies ever. I hope you get to see it on the big screen Max.
I know Herb Alpert mainly by name and his 1979 instrumental hit «Rise.» I didn’t realize he also sang. I agree the vocals aren’t exactly superb, but they do fit the song.
Such a beautiful song , Bacharach was one of a kind !
A friend sent me this song out of the blue years ago and I faintly remembered it from a bygone era, but it stuck with me ever since. I only now realise how prolific Bacharach’s music is — and I’m glad it’s finally found its way here.
He was one of a kind. So many great collaborations with Hal David. Thanks for the great music. 🎶
My father was a big Bacharach fan ~ we had the Hal Davis/Burt Bacharach songbook growing up for the piano ~ words & music ~ I’m sure my kid brother has it now. As for Herb Alpert, he was another big favorite ~ we had most of his albums. I remember wanting to be the girl in the cover photo of the “Taste of Honey” album ~ that was 60 years ago. I was FIVE. LOL
As for the song “This Guy’s In Love With You”, my father insisted that Bacharach had “sneaked around the sliding glass door one night” ~ our piano was right next to the door ~ & heard him doodling on the piano, working out melodies, the way he did ~ he said that was HIS melody. He also said that mathematically ~ he was a math genius ~ there were only so many melodies possible so there were “bound to be duplicates & triplicates” & so on.
He loved music. Music & math. & isn’t music mathematics in sound waves? He would have definitely said so.
I miss him. This song brings him back to me. He would have been 92 later this month.
Until a friend sent me this song, I couldn’t have pointed you to Bacharach’s music with a flashlight — it’s never really been in the vicinity of my usual taste. But this one has grown on me over time, like the taste of a fine vintage wine.
It’s always fascinating to read about your deep family connection with music — in this case, Bacharach’s legacy. I hadn’t realised just how prolific and popular both he and his trumpet-playing counterpart, Herb Alpert, were, despite them being so far removed from my usual listening habits. Still, it’s always enriching to explore musical styles and compositions I might not otherwise have stumbled upon. I had to look up the Taste of Honey album too — what a gorgeous cover, perfectly suited to its title and I can see your instant attraction to it as a wee lass. Hehe.
Your father’s reflections on This Guy’s in Love with You are so vivid and touching. When you mention “HIS melody,” do you mean Bacharach’s or your father’s? – I imagine the latter. I also appreciated your point about the connection between musical composition and mathematics — and that thought-provoking question your father felt answered itself. It’s always bittersweet when a song can instantly transport us back to someone we’ve loved and lost.
Thanks, as always, for sharing your heartfelt and beautiful memories here..It always broadens and deepens my appreciation and understanding of music.