Step Inside Love / I Couldn't Take My Eyes Off You

CILLA BACKS BEATLES AGAIN

The letters bombarded the BBC. “Please Cilla,” they said, “where can we get a recording of your theme song?“

That’s the Lennon-McCartney song, “Step Inside Love” used on Cilla’s own show.

“So I just had to do a recording,” cooed Cilla this week in that fetching Liverpudlian accent.

“Actually, it’s the first Beatles song I’ve done since ‘It’s For You’.” That was back in July, 1964.

“Oh,” corrected Cilla, “I did do ‘Yesterday’ – but that was used as the B-side to ‘Love Is Just A Broken Heart’. This new one will be the first A side since ‘It’s For You’.“

Why such a shortage of Beatles songs in Cilla’s repertoire? “I never go to people and ask them to write a song for me,” says Cilla. “I think it takes the edge off“.

“Paul asked me if he could do the signature tune for my series. Now I’m recording it because I’ve had so many requests following the TV shows. It’s quite a simple song, but we had three goes at it before we got it right. Paul writes simple songs, but they are difficult to arrange and get the sound you want. On the first recording, Paul played it on guitar, but the key didn’t suit me – I had to have it taken up. Then the second recording was disappointing. I just couldn’t get my teeth into it. But we did a great recording last Wednesday, and the record is out this week. One advantage of doing a TV series, you can experimentally try songs out and see what sort of reaction you get. We got a good one to ‘Step Inside Love’, so we decided to go ahead with it“. […]

From Melody Maker, March 9, 1968

’68 CILLA RAVES OVER THE 1930s

[…] What does she think of the song? “I’m very pleased with it. It’s not an out and out ballad and I’m pleased that everybody likes it. It’s very important to me that my friends like it and that it gets good reviews. I like pleasing my friends“.

She tells how Paul came to write the song. “We had decided on a typical type opener for the show. Ringo was coming on and Paul said he would like to write a song for Ringo and I to sing but Paul’s Dad had already thought of a song we could do. So Paul asked if he could write a signature tune. Everybody thought he was daft when he came up with ‘Step Inside Love’. They all said: ‘You can’t open and close a TV show with a quiet number.’” The song’s success has proved Paul right.

Although the number was never intended as a single, it has been released now due to the fantastic demand from viewers. And it may surprise you to know that up to a few weeks ago “Step Inside Love” consisted of only the beginning and end parts heard in the series. Says Cilla: “It was only when we started getting these letters that I said: ‘How about a middle part?’ So Paul wrote it just before he went away.“

From New Musical Express, March 23, 1968