I Believe in Music (song)

"I Believe in Music" is a 1970 song written and recorded by Mac Davis and later included on his second album I Believe in Music.[4] Gallery covered it in 1972 as the second of three singles off their Nice to Be with You album[5] and the follow-up release to their title track.

"I Believe in Music"
Single by Mac Davis
from the album I Believe in Music
B-side"Hollywood Humpty Dumpty"
ReleasedOctober 1970[1][2]
August 31, 1971[3] (re-release)
Recorded1970
GenrePop
Length3:13
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)Mac Davis
Producer(s)The Tokens, Dave Appell
Mac Davis singles chronology
"Beginning to Feel the Pain"
(1971)		 "I Believe in Music"
(1970)		 "Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me"
(1972)
"I Believe in Music"
Single by Gallery
from the album Nice to Be with You
B-side"Someone"
ReleasedAugust 1972
Recorded1971
GenreSoft rock
Length2:26
LabelSussex Records
Songwriter(s)Mac Davis
Gallery singles chronology
"Nice to Be with You"
(1972)		 "I Believe in Music"
(1972)		 "Big City Miss Ruth Ann"
(1972)

Gallery's version reached #22 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #13 on the US Cash Box Top 100. It hit #5 in Canada.[6]

Mac Davis's original had been released as a single nearly two years earlier and made a minor dent in the pop charts (US #117). His effort achieved #25 on the Adult Contemporary chart.[7] It later became his signature song and an iconic anthem of the early '70s.[8]

Inspiration
Davis in 2010. Davis said the line about lifting voices to the sky "epitomized the whole song. That's what music is about".[9]

In a 2017 interview, Davis said the song was inspired while he was in England at the home of Lulu and Maurice Gibb, who were married at that time:[8]

I went to the kitchen and fixed myself a drink at the party, and there were a bunch of hippie types and they were gonna have a séance. They asked me if I would like to join them. And I said, "No man, I don’t think so." (laughs). It wasn’t my thing. Then someone asked, "Don’t you believe in the occult?" I said, "No man, I believe in music." And the second I said it, I just went … "I believe in music". I looked around … it was like a God-shot. I saw one of Maurice Gibb’s guitars sitting on a stand, and I picked it up and started strumming it. I had the hook before I left there … (he sings) "I believe in music, I believe in love". Years later, "I Believe In Music" became my signature song. I closed every show with it.

Davis said he kept and framed the piece of paper from the hotel room where he completed the song. According to him, the line "Lift your voices to the sky, God loves you when you sing" was inspired by a piece of folk art he had seen that said, "God respects you when you work, but He loves you when you sing".[9]

Chart performance
Mac Davis original
Chart (1970) Peak
position
US Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100[2] 117
US Billboard Easy Listening[10] 25
Marian Love cover
Chart (1971) Peak
position
US Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100[2] 111
US Billboard Easy Listening[11] 27
Gallery cover

Other cover versions

Helen Reddy's version was the first commercial recording of the song, and it was featured as the B-side of her first American success, "I Don't Know How to Love Him," which became a hit in February 1971.[16] "I Believe in Music" has also been covered by Marian Love (#111, 1971; AC #27), Donny Hathaway, B.J. Thomas, Liza Minnelli, Perry Como, Louis Jordan, Lee Towers, Wayne Newton, Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, Lynn Anderson and The Statler Brothers.

References
  1. Whitburn, Joel (1993). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993. Record Research. p. 66.
  2. Joel Whitburn's Bubbling Under the Billboard Hot 100 1959-2004
  3. "Mac Davis - I Believe in Music".
  4. Stambler, Irwin and Landon, Grelun. (2000). "Davis, Mac". Country Music: The Encyclopedia. Macmillan. p. 123. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  5. "Gallery – Nice to be with You (1972, Sonic Pressing, Vinyl)". Discogs. 1972.
  6. "Image : RPM Weekly". Library and Archives Canada. 17 July 2013.
  7. "Adult Contemporary Chart". Billboard.
  8. Kawashima, Dale. "Special interview with Mac Davis, legendary songwriter & artist who’s written many hits, from Elvis Presley and Kenny Rogers, to Bruno Mars". September 13, 2017. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  9. "'I Believe in Music' by Mac Davis". Songfacts.com. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
  10. Whitburn, Joel (1993). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993. Record Research. p. 66.
  11. Whitburn, Joel (1993). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993. Record Research. p. 144.
  12. "Adult Contemporary Chart". Billboard.
  13. "CASH BOX Top 100 Singles, November 11, 1972". Archived from the original on December 31, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  14. "Billboard Year-End Charts 1972" (PDF).
  15. Whitburn, Joel (1999). Pop Annual. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. ISBN 0-89820-142-X.
  16. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
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