If You Asked Me To

"If You Asked Me To" is a song written by American songwriter Diane Warren and produced by Stewart Levine and Aaron Zigman. It was originally recorded by American singer Patti LaBelle for her ninth studio album, Be Yourself (1989), and also for the soundtrack to the James Bond film Licence to Kill. The song was released as the soundtrack's second single on June 12, 1989 by MCA Records. The lyrics are from the point of view of a woman who pleads to her significant other: "If you asked me to, I just might change my mind, and let you in my life forever". Three years later, Canadian singer Celine Dion covered the song for her 1992 self-titled second English-language studio album. Released as the album's second single, Dion's version topped the Canadian charts and peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100.

"If You Asked Me To"
US retail cassette release; the US CD release was promo-only
Single by Patti LaBelle
from the album Be Yourself and Licence to Kill
ReleasedJune 12, 1989 (1989-06-12)
Recorded1989
Length3:58
LabelMCA
Songwriter(s)Diane Warren
Producer(s)
Patti LaBelle singles chronology
"Kiss Away the Pain"
(1986)		 "If You Asked Me To"
(1989)		 "Yo Mister"
(1989)
Music video
"If You Asked Me To" on YouTube

Background

"If You Asked Me To" was first featured on the soundtrack of the 1989 James Bond movie, Licence to Kill. The song's title refers to dialogue from the film. LaBelle's version peaked at number 79 on the US Billboard Hot 100, at number 10 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs,[1] and at number 11 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks. The song appeared on the daytime soap opera General Hospital in 1989.

Critical reception

Pan-European magazine Music & Media described the song as "a smooth, mid-tempo ballad with a synthesizer-dominated AC production by Stewart Levine".[2]

Music video

The music video for "If You Asked Me To" was filmed the day after the funeral of LaBelle's sister Jacqueline "Jackie" Padgett who died of lung cancer at age 43. (She was the third of LaBelle's sisters to die; all three of Patti's sisters died before age 44.) As such, the context of the song changed dramatically, as a mourning LaBelle, dressed in black, sings the song in a church (with candles and mourning lilies), intercut with shots of her in tears.

Personnel

Chart performance

Despite being a Top 10 hit on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts,[3] the song did not crossover to the pop charts until Celine Dion covered it three years later. Regarding the subject, LaBelle once explained during an interview used for the liner notes of her 1999 Greatest Hits album what she believed to be the reason for this fact: "I knew the song was a hit when I recorded it, and I was happy that Celine did it and did so well with it. But the arrangements are so close and we both have pretty powerful voices...so who knows why my version didn't take off. Maybe it was timing..".[4]

Charts
Chart (1989) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100[5] 79
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[6] 11
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[7] 10

Celine Dion version
"If You Asked Me To"
US CD variant of standard artwork
Single by Celine Dion
from the album Celine Dion
B-side"Love You Blind"
ReleasedApril 13, 1992 (1992-04-13)
Studio
  • Criterion
  • Village Recorders
  • Music Grinder
  • Oceanway
Genre
Length3:55
Label
Songwriter(s)Diane Warren
Producer(s)Guy Roche
Celine Dion singles chronology
"Je danse dans ma tête"
(1992)		 "If You Asked Me To"
(1992)		 "Nothing Broken but My Heart"
(1992)
Music video
"If You Asked Me To" on YouTube

Celine Dion's cover version of "If You Asked Me To" was released as the second single from her 1992 self-titled studio album. It was produced by Guy Roche and released in Canada and the United States in April 1992 and later the same year in the rest of the world.[8] The single includes a non-album B-side, "Love You Blind", written by Sheryl Crow and Jay Oliver, and produced by Walter Afanasieff. Later, "If You Asked Me To" was included on the North American versions of Dion's greatest hits albums, All the Way… A Decade of Song (1999) and My Love: Essential Collection (2008).

Critical reception

AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine named "If You Asked Me To" a standout song of the album, along with "Beauty and the Beast" and "Love Can Move Mountains".[9] An editor from Billboard called it a "lush" and "dramatic" ballad.[10] Another editor, Larry Flick, wrote that Dion reinterprets Patti LaBelle's hit "with highly positive results". He stated that "she proves she is on the road to developing a fine and distinctive vocal style".[11] Clark and DeVaney from Cashbox noted, "Now that the world knows who this Canadian songstress is", viewing the song as "powerful and emotional".[12] Dayton Daily News said it is "hauntingly beautiful".[13] Dave Sholin from the Gavin Report felt that Dion "deserves all the accolades she's gotten the past few years, and surely her rendition of this touching Diane Warren ballad [...] takes her to a new level".[14] Another editors, Rufer and Fell, stated that the singer "makes it fresh and uniquely her own".[15] Geoff Edgers from Salon Magazine wrote that "If You Asked Me To", "with Dion's moaning, pleading, screaming take-me vocals, works when reassessed as a chunk of modern soul as worthy as anything recorded by Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey".[16] Jonathan Bernstein from Spin declared the song as "sensational", adding that it "proves that astringency, urgency, and dressing down may win out over homogeneity, artifice, and insincerity, but a good Diane Warren hook lives forever."[17]

Commercial performance

The single was a hit in the United States and Canada. "If You Asked Me To" reached number four on the US Billboard Hot 100, and did even better on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, spending three weeks at number one. Also in Canada, it reached number one. The single had moderate success elsewhere. "If You Asked Me To" was released twice in the United Kingdom: first, in June 1992, when it peaked at number 60, and the second time in December 1992, when it reached number 57.

Music video

The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Dominic Orlando and filmed in Chatsworth and Hollywood, Los Angeles. It was released in April 1992 and included later on Dion's 2001 DVD video collection All the Way… A Decade of Song & Video.

In the video, Dion performs the song in a manor. In the beginning she is sitting alone in a room, by a large window. A scene shows a hand stroking her cheek. In other scenes she is dressed in a white dress and surrounded by mirrors. Some outdoor scenes also shows Dion, as she walks outside the house. When the video ends, a man holds her around where she sits in her room.

Accolades

In 1993, "If You Asked Me To" won an ASCAP Pop Award for most performed song in the United States.[18] It was also nominated for the Billboard Music Award for Hot Adult Contemporary Single of the Year and Juno Award for Single of the Year (the latter was won by Dion's "Beauty and the Beast").[19] About.com placed the song at number one in their ranking of "Top 10 Celine Dion Songs" in 2017, describing it as a "big midtempo ballad".[20]

Personnel

Track listings

Charts

Release history
Region Date Format(s) Label(s) Ref.
Canada April 13, 1992 Cassette Columbia [8]
United States
  • 7-inch vinyl
  • CD
  • cassette
 Epic
Japan May 21, 1992 Mini CD SMEJ [37]
United Kingdom June 22, 1992
  • 7-inch vinyl
  • CD
  • cassette
 Epic [38]

See also

References
  1. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004. Record Research. p. 337.
  2. "Previews: Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. August 19, 1989. p. 18. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  3. "Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart". Billboard.com. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  4. "Patti LaBelle Biography". Infobuddy.com. Archived from the original on June 30, 2010. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  5. "Patti LaBelle Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  6. "Patti LaBelle Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  7. "Patti LaBelle Chart History (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  8. Glatzer, Jenna (2005). Céline Dion: For Keeps. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-5559-5.
  9. "Celine Dion - Céline Dion | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  10. "Album Reviews" (PDF). Billboard. April 11, 1992. p. 43. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  11. "Single Reviews" (PDF). Billboard. April 4, 1992. p. 67. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  12. Clark, Randy; DeVaney, Bryan (April 18, 1992). "Music Reviews: Singles" (PDF). Cashbox. p. 5. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
  13. "Recordings On Review". Dayton Daily News. November 19, 1999.
  14. Sholin, Dave (April 3, 1992). "Gavin Picks > Singles" (PDF). Gavin Report. No. 1899. p. 52. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  15. Rufer, Diane; Fell, Ron (April 3, 1992). "A/C: Reviews" (PDF). Gavin Report. p. 22. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  16. Edgers, Geoff (December 1, 1999). "Arts & Entertainment >> Music". Salon Magazine. Archived from the original on January 15, 2009. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  17. Bernstein, Jonathan (December 1992). "The Year In Pop". Spin. p. 42. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
  18. "ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards: 1993". IMDb. Retrieved February 15, 2014.
  19. "Awards: Artist Summary". CARAS. Archived from the original on January 8, 2014. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  20. Lamb, Bill (November 24, 2017). "Top 10 Celine Dion Songs". About.com. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
  21. Gavin Ryan (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
  22. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 2151." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  23. "Top RPM Adult Contemporary: Issue 2166." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  24. "Hits of the World" (PDF). Billboard. June 27, 1992. p. 40. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  25. Nanda Lwin (1999). Top 40 Hits: The Essential Chart Guide. Music Data Canada. ISBN 1-896594-13-1.
  26. "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 36, 1992" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  27. "Céline Dion – If You Asked Me To" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  28. "Céline Dion – If You Asked Me To". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  29. "Palmarès de la chanson anglophone et allophone au Québec" (in French). BAnQ. Archived from the original on August 9, 2018. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
  30. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  31. "Celine Dion Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  32. "Celine Dion Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  33. "The RPM Top 100 Hit Tracks of 1992" (PDF). RPM. Vol. 56, no. 25. December 19, 1992. p. 8. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  34. "The RPM Top 100 Adult Contemporary Tracks of 1992". RPM. December 19, 1992. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  35. "The Year in Music: 1992" (PDF). Billboard. December 26, 1992. Retrieved May 16, 2015.
  36. Lwin, Nanda (July 1, 2000). "Top 100 Cdn. Singles of all time". Jam!. Archived from the original on August 12, 2004. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  37. "セリーヌ・ディオンの作品" (in Japanese). Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  38. "New Releases: Singles". Music Week. June 20, 1992. p. 19.
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