I Wanna Learn a Love Song

"I Wanna Learn a Love Song" is a song written and performed by Harry Chapin. The song was included on his 1974 album, Verities & Balderdash. The song is about a guitar teacher who gives guitar lessons to a woman who is falling in love with him.

Background

The song is a true story about how Chapin met his wife Sandra Chapin. The song starts out showing a guitar teacher who only has his guitar to "Keep his belly still". For each lesson, he got a "crisp ten dollar bill". The woman in the song says that she wants to play the guitar and hear her children sing with her. As the song goes on, he tried to teach her some chords, but she only wants to listen to him and his guitar. Finally, she met him in the living room when the house was dark. He could hear her husband playing poker with his friends in the next room over, and he could hear his own heartbeat. Towards the end of the song, it is implied that he and the woman had sex.^[1]

Simple Song

Simple Song is an unreleased version of the song. It was removed from the album, Sniper and Other Love Songs. The song itself is very much similar to "I Wanna Learn a Love Song", with some lyrical changes and is sung in a much softer voice. The song was released in a 2004 double album with Sniper and Other Love Songs and Heads & Tales, but only to Europe. It included a total of 8 unreleased tracks (1 from Heads & Tales and 7 from Sniper and Other Love Songs).^[2]

Chart Performance

Other Uses

• Donna Fargo created a version of the song with virtually the same lyrics, but from the woman's point of view.
• José Feliciano covered the song.

References