'I'm Not in Love' by 10cc Used Vocals Recorded by The Band's Secretary
Musicians end up using a variety of tools and instruments while in the studio, but few have gone down the route of 10cc, who used a member of staff at Strawberry Studios in Greater Manchester to lay down some vocals on the now-classic soft rock song, "I'm Not in Love," released in 1975.
Cathy Redfern, then a 19-year-old secretary receptionist at the "Abbey Road of the north", was taken aback when the English group's drummer, Kevin Godley, suggested she may be 10cc's missing piece for its middle eight.
"I could see they were very busy, so I just went to the door and whispered to Eric [Stewart, co-writer of the song]: 'There's a phone call for you,' Redfern recalled to BBC News. "They just said 'That's it."
There, the idea was born: Redfern would whisper the iconic, sultry message: "Be quiet - big boys don't cry/big boys don't cry/big boys don't cry," something the shy secretary was initially reluctant to do.
"I immediately said, 'No way, I can't sing," she remembered. However, another band member, Lol Creme, "put me over his shoulder and carried me back to the studio," where "Kevin Godley came into the studio with me and would tap me on the shoulder when they wanted me to speak - I managed to do it in around three to four takes."
"I never thought I would be hearing it 50 years later," Redfern said. "My grandson is really impressed, though, because his teacher is a massive 10cc fan."
The iconic whispered mantra, perhaps a nod to Stewart's own sense of pride, also had an unusual origin story. "I met this gorgeous girl called Gloria at Halifax town hall. I was 18. She was 16. Three years later, we got married. A few years after that, Gloria told me: 'You don't say ‘I love you' much anymore,'" Stewart told The Guardian in 2018.
"I told her that, if I said it all the time, it would sound glib. But I started wondering how I could say it without using those actual words. So 'I'm Not in Love' became a rhetorical conversation with myself – and then a song."
"Initially, the song had a middle section that went: 'Don't feel let down. Don't get hung up. We do what we can – do what we must,' But it was pathetic," Stewart continued. "We knew it needed something else. Just as we were discussing this, our secretary Kathy popped her head round the door to tell us someone was on the phone. Lol heard her voice and said: 'What about Kathy?' She took some persuading, but he got her to speak the words: 'Be quiet, big boys don't cry.' It was beautiful."
"That was 1975. Gloria and I have now been married for 51 years. And every day I tell her: 'I love you.'"
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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This story was originally published May 16, 2026 at 9:30 AM.