Theatrical Melanie C }} English singer
Melanie C performed "I Don't Know How to Love Him" in the role of Mary Magdalene during the
Jesus Christ Superstar Live Arena Tour which had its initial UK run in September – October 2012 also playing the
O2 Dublin 12 October 2012, followed first by an Australian tour in May – June 2013 and then an encore UK run in October 2012. Melanie C had debuted her performance of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" on 25 July 2012 when she sang the song to Andrew Lloyd Webber's piano accompaniment on the final of the reality-TV talent show
Superstar broadcast by
ITV. The
Adelaide Now review of the
...Live Arena Tour's 4 June 2012 performance at the
Adelaide Entertainment Centre stated: "Melanie C absolutely blitzes her big number 'I Don't Know How to Love Him' bringing a more raw rock edge to the bridge before hitting the final big notes right out of the arena." Melanie C made a studio recording of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" for her 9 September 2012 album
Stages, a show tune album produced by the singer's longtime collaborator
Peter-John Vettese from which "I Don't Know How to Love Him" had been issued in
digital download format as a preview to rank after its first week of release at #20 on the
UK Independent Singles Chart.
Charts Credits and personnel Credits for the album version of "I Don't Know How to Love Him". •
Andrew Lloyd Webber – songwriter •
Tim Rice – songwriter •
Peter-John Vettese –
producer • Mark 'Tufty' Evans –
engineer • Tony Cousins –
mastering • Ian Ross –
art designer • Tim Bret-Day – photographer
Release history Others In 1992
Claire Moore sang "I Don't Know How to Love Him" on a 20th Anniversary re-recording of the
JCS soundtrack. and
Julia McKenzie (
The Musicals Album – 1992),
Non-theatrical versions Helen Reddy Upon the release of the original
Jesus Christ Superstar album
Capitol Records executive Artie Mogull heard the potential for a smash hit in the track "I Don't Know How to Love Him" and had pitched the song to
Linda Ronstadt, then on the Capitol roster; after Ronstadt advised Mogull: "she hated the song, [saying] it was terrible" Mogull invited the then-unknown
Helen Reddy to record "I Don't Know How to Love Him" as part of a one-off single deal with Capitol. Reddy herself did not care for "I Don't Know How to Love Him" agreeing to cut the song to serve as B-side for the track she wished to record: the
Mac Davis composition; "
I Believe in Music" (later a hit for
Gallery).
Background and recording In her autobiography
The Woman I Am, Helen Reddy states that Mogull invited her to record a single after seeing her perform on a
Tonight Show episode (the guest host
Flip Wilson had invited Reddy to appear; Wilson knew Reddy from the club circuit). Mogull himself attributed his interest in Reddy to the solicitations on her behalf by her then-husband and manager Jeff Wald who called Mogull three times a day for five months asking him to let Reddy cut a song. Larry Marks produced Reddy's recording of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" and "I Believe in Music" at A&M's recording studios. According to Reddy, her extreme anxiety – "I had waited years for this shot and I didn't think there would be another one" – manifested in her vocals making "I Believe in Music" ineffectual but "I Don't Know How to Love Him" convincingly plaintive, clinching the decision to make the latter the A-side of the single, released in January 1971. In a 1974
Billboard tribute to Helen Reddy, writer Cynthia Spector states "I Don't Know How to Love Him" became a hit due to the efforts of Jeff Wald "who stayed on the phone morning to night, cajoling, bullying, wheedling airplay from disk jockeys. Using $4,000 of his own money, his own telephone credit card and his American Express card to wine and dine anyone who would listen to his wife, he made the record happen." In April 1971 WDRC
program director Charles R. Parker would relate how Reddy and Wald had visited WDRC to thank the station for its initial support of Reddy's "I Don't Know How to Love Him," with Reddy and Wald expressing how they "were more than delighted and surprised to see [the track] break on
Top 40 at WDRC."
Chart impact Reddy's recording of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" entered the national charts in March 1971 – showing in the Top Ten in
Dallas and
Denver that month – but its momentum was so gradual as to not effect Top 40 entry until that May; by then
MCA Records had issued the original Yvonne Elliman track as a single and from 15 May 1971 to 26 June 1971 both versions were in the Top 40 with Reddy's version maintaining the upper hand peaking at No. 13 while Elliman's version peaked at No. 28. "I Don't Know How to Love Him" became Reddy's first major hit single in her native Australia, peaking at No. 2 on the
Go-Set Top 40 chart for two weeks in August 1971 with an eventual ranking as the No. 8 hit for the year 1971. On Australia's
Kent Music Report, the song also reached No. 2, but stayed at that position for eight consecutive weeks. The track also afforded Reddy a hit in Europe with a March 1972 peak of No. 14 in Sweden—the Swedish production of
Jesus Christ Superstar had begun a record-setting run in February 1972—and an April 1972 peak of No. 23 in the Netherlands. The success of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" led to Reddy's being signed to a long-term contract by Capitol who released her ''I Don't Know How to Love Him'' album in August 1971. The track issued as a follow-up single: a version of
Van Morrison's "
Crazy Love" stalled short of the Top 40 at No. 51, while the album charted with a moderate No. 100 peak; Reddy's subsequent success, however, garnered her debut album sufficient interest for it be certified as a
Gold record in 1974. Also of note, the ''I Don't Know How to Love Him'' album included an initial arrangement of Reddy's signature song, "
I Am Woman" which via a 1972 re-recording with a new arrangement would prove to be the vehicle to consolidate Reddy's stardom, reaching No. 1 on the
Billboard Hot 100 dated 9 December 1972.
Weekly charts Year-end charts Other non-theatrical versions The earliest single version of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" was by
Karen Wyman, an artist on the roster of MCA/Decca Records, the label of release for the original
Jesus Christ Superstar album: Wyman's single, produced by
Ken Greengrass and
Peter Matz, was released in November 1970 in the US and was also released in 1970 in the UK. Introduced on her May 1971 album release
One Together, Wyman's "I Don't Know How to Love Him" had reached #101 in Record World's "The Singles Chart 101–150" during a December 1970 – January 1971 eight-week tenure. A version of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" done in medley with "
Everything's Alright", also from
Jesus Christ Superstar, was recorded on the
Happy Tiger label by a group credited as the Kimberlys; released in January 1971 the same week as the Helen Reddy version, the Kimberleys' track received enough regional attention to reach No. 99 on the
Billboard Hot 100 that March. Dutch vocalist
Bojoura had a 1971 single release of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" with the song relegated to B-side status, the single's A-side being "
Everything's Alright". The appearance of Helen Reddy's version on the
Billboard Hot 100 also drew the single release of the version of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" by
Petula Clark which single – produced by
Johnny Harris – would be Clark's last released on
Warner Brothers. In the British Isles "I Don't Know How to Love Him" first became a hit in the
Republic of Ireland where
Tina & Real McCoy took it to No. 1 in December 1971. In January 1972 the version by Petula Clark was released in the UK to chart at No. 47 marking Clark's final appearance on the UK Singles chart except for the 1988 remix of her 1964 hit "
Downtown". Clark's "I Don't Know How to Love Him" was to be her final single release on
Pye Records. Concurrent with Clark's version, the original Yvonne Elliman track was issued as a single on a double A-side with "Superstar" by Murray Head; this single peaked at UK No. 47.
Tony Hatch, who had produced Petula Clark's hit singles of the 1960s, had produced a version of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" by his then-wife
Jackie Trent, which was issued as a single 5 November 1971: Hatch would later produce a rendition of the song by
Julie Budd for her 1972 self-titled album. A 1972 version by
Sylvie McNeill on a UK 45, United Artists UA UP35415, was released (11 August) timed for the first UK stage musical of
Jesus Christ Superstar; she had actually performed it on
The Benny Hill Show (original air date: 23 February 1972). Petula Clark also recorded "I Don't Know How to Love Him" in French as "La Chanson de Marie-Madeleine" which served as the title cut for a 1972 French language album which also featured Clark's version of "I Don't Know How to Love Him". "La Chanson de Marie-Madeleine" became a chart item (#66) for Clark in Quebec in March 1972 despite being bested in France by the
Anne-Marie David version from the Paris cast recording which reached No. 29. In 1972,
Cilla Black recorded the song for
Day by Day with Cilla – her seventh and final studio album to be produced by
George Martin. Black revealed in her 2003 autobiography ''What's It All About'' how she had worked so hard to produce the song which she loved but as her record label
EMI Records were having industrial action the album was delayed a year. The singer went on to explain "Disappointed though I was, there was at least a crumb of comfort for me when
Tim Rice hailed my recording as 'the definitive version'."{{cite book
Shirley Bassey recorded "I Don't Know How to Love Him" for her 1972 album release
And I Love You So with the track having a single release as the B-side of
the title track. Johnny Harris, who'd produced Petula Clark's version of "I Don't How to Love Him", was the producer of Bassey's
And I Love You So album (
Noel Rogers was credited as executive producer) and on that album's "I Don't Know How to Love Him" track Harris acted as arranger/conductor. ==References==