If You Asked Me To

"If You Asked Me To"
UK vinyl single
Single by Patti LaBelle
from the album Be Yourself & Licence to Kill
Released	12 June 1989 (1989-06-12)
Format	CD single cassette single 7" vinyl single
Recorded	1989
Length	3:58
Label	MCA
Songwriter(s)	Diane Warren
Producer(s)	Stewart Levine Aaron Zigman
Patti LaBelle singles chronology
"Kiss Away the Pain" (1986) "'If You Asked Me To'" (1989) "Yo Mister" (1989)
"Kiss Away the Pain" (1986) "If You Asked Me To" (1989) "Yo Mister" (1989) Music video "If You Asked Me To" on YouTube

"If You Asked Me To" is a song written by Diane Warren. It was originally recorded by American singer Patti LaBelle for her ninth studio album, Be Yourself (1989), and the soundtrack of the James Bond film Licence to Kill. The lyrics are from the point of view of a woman who pleads to her significant other:

"If you asked me to

I just might change my mind

And let you in my life forever."

Three years later, Canadian singer Celine Dion covered "If You Asked Me To" for her self-titled second studio album. Released as the album's second single, her version topped the Canadian charts and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100.

Background[edit]

"If You Asked Me To" was first featured on the soundtrack of the 1989 James Bond movie, Licence to Kill. LaBelle's version peaked at number 79 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, at number 10 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs,^[1] and at number 11 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks.

This version of the song appeared on the daytime soap opera General Hospital in 1989.

Music video[edit]

The music video was filmed the day after the funeral of LaBelle's sister Jacqueline "Jackie" Padgett who died of lung cancer at age 43. (She was the third of LaBelle's sisters to die; all three of Patti's sisters died before age 44.) As such, the context of the song changed dramatically, as a mourning LaBelle, dressed in black, sings the song in a church (with candles and mourning lilies), intercut with shots of her in tears.

Chart performance[edit]

Despite being a Top 10 hit on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts,^[2] the song did not crossover to the pop charts until Celine Dion covered it three years later. Regarding the subject, LaBelle once explained during an interview used for the liner notes of her 1999 Greatest Hits album what she believed to be the reason for this fact: "I knew the song was a hit when I recorded it, and I was happy that Celine did it and did so well with it. But the arrangements are so close and we both have pretty powerful voices...so who knows why my version didn't take off. Maybe it was timing..."^[3]

Charts[edit]

Celine Dion version[edit]

"If You Asked Me To"
US CD single
Single by Celine Dion
from the album Celine Dion
B-side	"Love You Blind"
Released	13 April 1992 (1992-04-13)
Format	7" vinyl single CD single cassette single
Recorded	Criterion Studios, Village Recorders, Music Grinder, Oceanway Studios
Genre	Pop pop rock
Length	3:54
Label	Columbia Epic
Songwriter(s)	Diane Warren
Producer(s)	Guy Roche
Celine Dion singles chronology
"Je danse dans ma tête" (1992) "If You Asked Me To" (1992) "Nothing Broken but My Heart" (1992)
"Je danse dans ma tête" (1992) "If You Asked Me To" (1992) "Nothing Broken but My Heart" (1992) Music video "If You Asked Me To" on YouTube

Celine Dion's version of "If You Asked Me To" was released it as the second single from her eponymous album. It was produced by Guy Roche and was released in April 1992 in Canada and the United States, and later the same year in the rest of the world.^[7] "If You Asked Me To" was included on the North American versions of Dion's greatest hits All the Way… A Decade of Song in 1999 and My Love: Essential Collection in 2008.

The single's non-album B-side was "Love You Blind", written by Jay Oliver and Sheryl Crow and produced by Walter Afanasieff.

Music video[edit]

The music video for the song was directed by Dominic Orlando and filmed in Chatsworth and Hollywood, Los Angeles. It was released in April 1992 and included later on Dion's 2001 DVD video collection All the Way… A Decade of Song & Video.

Chart performance[edit]

The song was a hit in the United States and Canada. "If You Asked Me To" reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and did even better on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, spending three weeks at number 1. Also in Canada, it reached number 1. The single had moderate success elsewhere. "If You Asked Me To" was released twice in the United Kingdom: first, in June 1992, when it peaked at number 60, and the second time in December 1992, when it reached number 57.

Reception[edit]

In 1993, "If You Asked Me To" won an ASCAP Pop Award for most performed song in the United States.^[8] It was also nominated for the Billboard Music Award for Hot Adult Contemporary Single of the Year and Juno Award for Single of the Year (the latter was won by Dion's "Beauty and the Beast").^[9]

AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine picked it as one of standout songs together with "Beauty and the Beast" and "Love Can Move Mountains".^[10]

Formats and track listings[edit]

U.S. CD single

1. "If You Asked Me To" – 3:54
2. "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" – 4:32

Worldwide CD single

1. "If You Asked Me To" – 3:54
2. "Love You Blind" – 4:35

Australian/European CD maxi single

1. "If You Asked Me To" – 3:54
2. "Love You Blind" – 4:35
3. "Halfway to Heaven" – 5:05

UK CD maxi single

1. "If You Asked Me To" – 3:54
2. "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" – 4:32
3. "Love You Blind" – 4:35

Charts[edit]

Release history[edit]

Other cover versions[edit]

In 2006, Filipino band MYMP covered this song for their live album MYMP Live at the Music Museum and released it as single. In 2012, Filipino singers Erik Santos and Angeline Quinto recorded their version of the song for the film Unofficially Yours.^[26]

See also[edit]

References[edit]