This Guy's in Love with You

"This Guy's in Love with You" was written and copyrighted in 1967, but was not released commercially that year. There are differing accounts from Hal David and Herb Alpert regarding the song's original song title and lyrical storyline.

Music historian Robin Platts wrote that the original song was titled "That Guy's in Love" and told the story of an unfaithful lover, as seen in the following lines:[2]

That guy's in love, he looks at you the way I do
When he smiles, I can tell
You know each other very well
Why don't you greet him
You know I'd like to meet him
...
Yes you're in love, in love with that guy
And I could just die

Platts quotes Hal David regarding modifications to the original lyric done for Herb Alpert:

[Alpert] wanted to do that song on a TV special he was doing....It was a song he was going to sing to his wife. And [the original lyric] was not quite appropriate for what he wanted to say. He asked us whether we could change [the lyric] so it would fit what he needed. And I did.[2]

Bacharach and David first copyrighted the song as "That Guy's in Love" on June 15, 1967.[3] Singer Danny Williams released the song in the U.K. as "That Guy's in Love with You" on his Deram Records LP Danny Williams in early 1968, singing the lyric about a man who suspects his partner is cheating on him. This recording was not released as a single in the U.K. (and was not released at all in the U.S.), and did not make it to the U.S. or U.K. music charts.[4]

The copyright was later re-registered on April 15, 1968 as "This Guy's in Love with You", which was a week before Alpert appeared in a pre-recorded music video singing the song on his TV special The Beat of the Brass. Herb Alpert released his single "This Guy's in Love with You" with the revised lyrics in May of 1968. After Herb Alpert's recording became a #1 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, several versions by well-known female artists were released under the title "This Girl's in Love with You", shifting the title and perspective of the song yet again. These artists included Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, Petula Clark, Ella Fitzgerald, Connie Francis, and Diana Ross & The Supremes.

Alpert, quoted in Bacharach's 2013 memoir Anyone Who Had a Heart, had a different recollection of the original title from Hal David. Alpert told an interviewer that the song first came to him as "This Girl's in Love with You". He explained: "There’s a question I always ask great writers that I asked Burt that day over the phone. 'Is there a song you have tucked away in your drawer or someplace or a song that didn’t get the right recording that you find yourself whistling in the shower?' And he sent me 'This Girl’s in Love with You.' I called Hal David in New York and asked him if he wouldn’t mind changing the gender."[5]

Alpert recognized in the song qualities that made it a good fit for himself as a singer and trumpet player. The composition had a recognizable Bacharach-David feel, a spot for a signature horn solo in the bridge and in the fadeout, and it was an easy song to sing for singers like Alpert with a limited vocal range.

Alpert's filmed version of "This Guy's in Love with You" appeared on April 22, 1968 as a part of his CBS television special The Beat of the Brass. In the film, which has a studio recording of the song as its soundtrack, Alpert can be seen walking around in various natural environments in Malibu, California (including a woodland and a beach), singing the song to his wife Sharon. In response to numerous viewer telephone calls to the network following the broadcast, Alpert decided that the song should be released as a single recording. Alpert's commercially-released recording featured a slightly different vocal performance than the recording used as the film soundtrack in the television special. His single reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in June of that year, remaining in the top position for four weeks. It was not only Alpert's first No. 1 single, but it was also the first No. 1 single for his A&M record label, as well as the first No. 1 in the U.S. for Bacharach & David. The song also spent ten weeks at No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart. For the single's B-side, Alpert chose "A Quiet Tear" from his first album in 1962, The Lonely Bull.