"If You Asked Me To" is a song written by American songwriter Diane Warren and produced by Stewart Levine and Aaron Zigman. The song was first recorded by American singer Patti LaBelle for her ninth studio album, Be Yourself (1989), and also appeared on the Licence to Kill soundtrack. It was released as the soundtrack's second single on June 12, 1989, by MCA Records. The song's lyrics show a woman talking to her partner: "If you asked me to, I just might change my mind, and let you in my life forever." In 1992, Canadian singer Celine Dion recorded her own version for her self-titled second English-language studio album. Released as the album's second single, Dion's recording reached number one in Canada and reached number four on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Background

The song "If You Asked Me To" was first on the soundtrack of the 1989 James Bond movie Licence to Kill. The title mentions lines from the movie. Patti LaBelle's version of the song reached number 79 on the US Billboard Hot 100, number 10 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and number 11 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The song was also played in the daytime soap opera General Hospital in 1989.

Critical reception

The Pan-European magazine Music & Media described the track as a smooth, medium-speed ballad with a production style that mainly uses synthesizers in the Adult Contemporary genre, created by Stewart Levine.

Commercial performance

The song reached the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart but did not achieve the same success on pop charts until Celine Dion recorded her version three years later. In the notes included with her 1999 Greatest Hits album, LaBelle discussed the song's performance: "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 musical arrangements are very similar, and we both have strong voices… so it is unclear why my version did not become popular. Perhaps the timing was not right."

Music video

The music video for "If You Asked Me To" was filmed the day after the funeral of LaBelle's sister, Jacqueline "Jackie" Padgett, who passed away from lung cancer at the age of 43. She was the third of LaBelle's sisters to die before reaching the age of 44, following Vivian Hogan and Barbara Holte. The video shows LaBelle's sadness, with scenes of her wearing black clothing and singing in a church filled with candles and lilies. These scenes are mixed with moments of her crying.

Personnel

• Patti LaBelle – lead vocals
• Aaron Zigman – production, synthesizer programming, synth bass
• Stewart Levine – production
• Darren Klein – recording, mixing
• Michael Landau – guitars
• John Robinson – drums
• Lenny Castro – percussion
• Bunny Hull – backing vocals
• Paulette Brown – backing vocals
• Valerie Pinkston-Mayo – backing vocals

Celine Dion version

Celine Dion's recording of "If You Asked Me To" was released by Columbia and Epic Records as the second single from her 1992 self-titled studio album. Produced by Guy Roche, the song was released in Canada and the United States in March 1992. It was later released internationally later that year. The single includes a non-album B-side, "Love You Blind," written by Sheryl Crow and Jay Oliver and produced by Walter Afanasieff. "If You Asked Me To" was later added to the North American editions of Dion's greatest hits albums All the Way… A Decade of Song (1999) and My Love: Essential Collection (2008).

AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine described "If You Asked Me To" as one of the album's popular songs, along with "Beauty and the Beast" (with Peabo Bryson) and "Love Can Move Mountains." A Billboard editor called it a "lush" and "dramatic" ballad. Another Billboard editor, Larry Flick, wrote that Dion reinterpreted Patti LaBelle's hit "with highly positive results," adding that "she proves she is on the road to developing a fine and distinctive vocal style." Randy Clark and Bryan DeVaney from Cashbox wrote, "Now that the world knows who this Canadian songstress is," and described the song as "powerful and emotional." Dayton Daily News called it "hauntingly beautiful." Dave Sholin from the Gavin Report wrote that Dion "deserves all the accolades she's gotten the past few years, and surely her rendition of this touching Diane Warren ballad […] takes her to a new level." Other Gavin Report editors, Diane Rufer and Ron Fell, wrote that Dion "makes it fresh and uniquely her own." Geoff Edgers from Salon Magazine argued that "If You Asked Me To," "with Dion's moaning, pleading, screaming take-me vocals, works when reassessed as a chunk of modern soul as worthy as anything recorded by Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey." Jonathan Bernstein from Spin called the song "sensational," adding that it "proves that astringency, urgency, and dressing down may win out over homogeneity, artifice, and insincerity, but a good Diane Warren hook lives forever."

The single was successful in the United States and Canada. "If You Asked Me To" reached numbers four and five on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100, and performed even better on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, spending three weeks at number one. In Canada, it also reached number one. The single achieved moderate results in other territories. In the United Kingdom, it was released twice: first in June 1992, when it peaked at number 60 on the UK Singles Chart, and again in December 1992, when it reached number 57.

The music video for "If You Asked Me To" was directed by Dominic Orlando and filmed in Chatsworth and Hollywood, Los Angeles. Released in April 1992, it was later included on Dion's 2001 DVD collection All the Way… A Decade of Song & Video.

In the video, Dion performs the song inside a manor. It opens with her sitting alone in a room by a large window. One scene shows a hand touching her cheek. Other scenes depict her in a white dress surrounded by mirrors. Outdoor shots show her walking around the property. The video ends with a man holding her as she sits in the room.

In 1993, "If You Asked Me To" received an ASCAP Pop Award for most performed song in the United States. It was also nominated for the Billboard Music Award for Hot Adult Contemporary Single of the Year and the Juno Award for Single of the Year (the latter won by Dion and Bryson's "Beauty and the Beast" at the Juno Awards of 1993). About.com placed the song at number one in its 2017 ranking of "Top 10 Celine Dion Songs," describing it as a "big midtempo ballad."

Credits
• Celine Dion – vocals
• Guy Roche – production, synthesizer
• Michael Thompson – guitar
• John Robinson – drums
• Jean McClain – background vocals
• Larry Jacobs – background vocals
• Terry Wood – background vocals

Formats
• 7-inch, cassette, 3-inch CD, and CD single

Track listings
• US 7-inch and CD single
1. "If You Asked Me To" – 3:55
2. "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" – 4:33

• European CD single
• "If You Asked Me To" – 3:55
• "Love You Blind" – 4:35
• "Halfway to Heaven" – 5:05

• UK CD single
• "If You Asked Me To" – 3:55
• "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" – 4:33
• "Love You Blind" – 4:35