Inside Tracks #28: "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love"-Melvin & Mervin Steals: Spinners, 1972 w/Covers by Donny Osmond, Worlds Apart, Boyz II Men, Vesta Williams, Paul Stanley
A hat-tip to the new 2023 Rock'n'Roll Hall of Famers with a song written by the Steals twins. With over 30 covers over the decades, "Could It Be" it's enjoyed a wide variety of arrangements?
โCould It Be Iโm Falling In Loveโ quickly followed the Fall 1972 release of โIโll Be Around,โ which peaked at #3 on the U.S. pop chart, despite originally being a B-side! When DJs started flipping โHow Could I Let You Get Away,โ Atlantic Records re-serviced radio with what turned out to be the groupโs first of seven career Gold records, covered in-depth here:
Their second, โCould It Be Iโm Falling in Loveโ (recorded on June 12, 1972), released 5 months later on the vinyl heels of โIโll Be Aroundโ in November โ72, climbed its way to โjustโ #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, but hitting the top spot on the U.S. R&B chart (#11 on the UK pop chart)!
โCould It Be Iโm Falling in Loveโ was written by twins from Aliquippa, PA, Melvin Steals and Mervin Steals, also known (and credited on the label) as โMystro and Lyric,โ according to Songfacts. Theyโve written over 300 songs; 90 have been recorded.
While working for Atlantic Records in 1972, the Stealsโ co-wrote โCould It Be Iโm Falling in Love,โ pitching it to The Spinnersโ producer, the late Thom Bell, who thought it would be perfect for the group. It was inspired by childhood sweetheart, Adrena, whom Melvin (aka โLyricโ) dated as a teenager and married.
The song has sold well over a million copies, and logged well over 4 million radio spins! Other Steals compositions include โTrusting Heartโ by The Trammps and โHoney Beeโ by Gloria Gaynor.โ
A Song is Born
Philadelphia-based songwriters/producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff conducted weekly auditions in their offices for aspiring songwriters in the early โ70s. On one particular Saturday, two financially strapped 22-year-old Beaver County twins walked through the door, according to the January 19, 2013 Timesonline.
โโThey were lucky the meeting happened,โ recalled Mervin, the musical โMystroโ of the duo. When we got off the subway in Philly, we looked like two derelicts,โ Mervin said. โA policeman followed us all the way to Gamble and Huffโs office. I think he thought we were going to rob somebody!โ
โGrungy or not, the Stealsโ impressed Gamble and Huff, who put them to work writing songs for [Houstonโs] Archie Bell & the Drells who had just topped the charts with โTighten Up.โ Melvin was the wordsmith; Mervin crafted the melodies on piano.
โOn a scouting tour to a Pittsburgh studio, Gamble and Huff associate, Thom Bell, heard a batch of seven songs by the Stealsโ that he liked, and agreed to find artists to record them. One of those songs was โHoney Bee,โ that became a successful single in 1974 for future disco star, Gloria Gaynor.
โAnother of those songs, โCould It Be Iโm Falling in Love,โ would be pitched to Peaches & Herb, who rejected it. The Stealsโ then hoped to shop it to Marvin Gaye and his protegรฉ, Tammi Terrell, whom the brothers had befriended, but the Motown hierarchy made it tricky for two little-known songwriters to formally submit such a song.
โAtlantic Records had hired Bell as a producer, and gave him a list of artists he could work with, including The Spinners, who needed a follow-up hit to their 1970 Top-20, Stevie Wonder-penned [and produced] โItโs a Shame.โ Meeting with The Spinners in their Detroit hometown, Bell offered โCould It Be Iโm Falling in Love,โ which the band agreed to record.
โBut the song needed tweaking: Melvin originally penned the lyrics as a duet. The Spinners needed lyrics from a singular point of view. So Melvin went back to the drawing board, crafting lyrical lines inspired by his experiences years earlier courting Adrena. Bell also came up with the idea to slow down the melody, giving it more of an Al Green feel.โ Masters at work.
