| No Tell Lover | |
| Cover: | No Tell Lover cover.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Chicago |
| Album: | Hot Streets |
| B-Side: | Take a Chance |
| Released: | December 1978 |
| Genre: | Soft rock |
| Length: | 3:48 (Single version) 4:13 (Album version) |
| Label: | Columbia |
| Producer: | Phil Ramone & Chicago |
| Prev Title: | Alive Again |
| Prev Year: | 1978 |
| Next Title: | Gone Long Gone |
| Next Year: | 1979 |
"No Tell Lover" is a song written by Lee Loughnane, Danny Seraphine, and Peter Cetera for the group Chicago and recorded for their album Hot Streets (1978), with Cetera and Donnie Dacus singing lead vocals. The second single released from that album, it reached No. 14 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 5 on the adult contemporary chart.[1]
Cash Box called it a "classy pop single" that tells "a sultry tale of masked love."[2] Record World said it "has the feel of a classic Chicago ballad."[3] In 2019, Billboard said about the song, "While the lyrical content — an ode to extramarital affairs — hasn’t particularly benefitted from the passing years, “No Tell Lover” is still a beautifully penned number from Chicago’s transition into soft-rock nobility."[4]
After "No Tell Lover", Chicago failed to chart a single in the U.S. top 50 for nearly four years, finally breaking their slump with the 1982 No. 1 hit, "Hard to Say I'm Sorry".
| Chart (1978–79) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada RPM Top Singles[5] | 10 | |
| Canada RPM Adult Contemporary[6] | 20 | |
| New Zealand[7] | 22 | |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[8] | 14 | |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary | 5 | |
| U.S. Radio & Records | 9 | |
| U.S. Cash Box Top 100 | 14 |
| Chart (1979) | Rank | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada[9] | 87 | |
| U.S. (Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual)[10] | 106 |
