In 1976, 10cc was already making itself known on the charts with hits like “I’m Not in Love,” and later released another love anthem that captured interest. “The Things We Do for Love” became a well-made soft rock track that wasn’t originally liked by a few band members.
The yacht rock classic was created during sessions for the band’s How Dare You!, their fourth album, which was released that same year but didn’t include the track. “The Things We Do For Love” was released as a single and later included in their fifth studio album, Deceptive Bends.
At the time, 10cc was going through some creative differences, with the media honing in on Kevin Godley and Lol Creme working as one creative duo, and Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman as another. As a result, Stewart and Gouldman developed the band’s next ballad, “The Things We Do for Love,” with Stewart once saying it was based on his own experience.
“I remember walking through the rain and the snow when I lived in Manchester and we didn’t have a telephone. I had to go and find a phone box to ring the girl who was about to become my wife. The phones were down, and it was snowing, and these, these vivid pictures are there. If you put them in a song, a lot of people identify with a similar situation,” he said, according to SongFacts.
Gouldman later added that Stewart originally wanted to write the song about suicide, and agreed it wasn’t a good idea after convincing him otherwise. Stewart came up with the track’s title, and Gouldman thought it was great in terms of “What are the things we do for love? What do you do? What should we do for love?”
When it came to Goldey and Creme’s response to the track, they weren’t fans of the direction the band was going in, according to Louder Sound. Stewart recalls what they said after having played the track for them.
“While we were recording it, Kevin was coming out with some heavy statements like, ‘I don’t want to do any more crap like this,’ after I played The Things We Do For Love to him and Lol, but we somehow managed to get enough songs together to release an album,” he said.
Godley and Creme would later leave the band in 1977 after the release of Deceptive Minds. “The Things We Do for Love” was praised by critics as a well-crafted tune and landed at No.5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also landed at No. 12 on the Adult Contemporary chart and No. 4 on Cash Box. Decades later, it was covered by Amy Grant for the film Mr. Wrong.
Related: 1972 Ballad, Originally Written for a Horror Sequel, Became a No. 1 Friendship Anthem