"If You Asked Me To" is a song written by American songwriter Diane Warren and produced by Stewart Levine and Aaron Zigman. It 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. The song was issued as the soundtrack's second single on June 12, 1989, by MCA Records. The lyrics present the perspective of a woman addressing 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 peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Pan-European magazine Music & Media described the track as "a smooth, mid-tempo ballad with a synthesizer-dominated AC production by Stewart Levine".[2]
Commercial performance
Although the song became a top 10 hit on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart,[3] it did not reach similar success on the pop charts until Celine Dion recorded her version three years later. In the liner notes of her 1999 Greatest Hits album, LaBelle reflected on 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 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..".[4]
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 died of lung cancer at age 43. She was the third of LaBelle's sisters to die before age 44, after Vivian Hogan and Barbara Holte. The video's tone reflects LaBelle's grief, showing her dressed in black and singing in a church surrounded by candles and lilies, intercut with scenes of her in tears.[5]
Celine Dion's recording of "If You Asked Me To" was issued by Columbia and Epic Records as the second single from her 1992 self-titled studio album. Produced by Guy Roche, it was released in Canada and the United States in April 1992, followed later that year by international distribution.[10] 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).
Critical reception
AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine described "If You Asked Me To" as one of the album's standout tracks, along with "Beauty and the Beast" (with Peabo Bryson) and "Love Can Move Mountains".[11] A Billboard editor called it a "lush" and "dramatic" ballad.[12] Another Billboard editor, Larry Flick, wrote that Dion reinterprets 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".[13] 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".[14]Dayton Daily News called it "hauntingly beautiful".[15] 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".[16] Other Gavin Report editors, Diane Rufer and Ron Fell, wrote that Dion "makes it fresh and uniquely her own".[17] 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".[18] 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".[19]
Commercial performance
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 BillboardAdult 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 issued 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.
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.
↑"Life Lesson Patti LaBelle Learned from Her Sisters' Deaths". Essence Content via Dailymotion. Retrieved March 31, 2026. …and right after that I did my video of 'If You Asked Me To' and the tears were tears because that was the day that her casket was closed…
↑"Patti LaBelle ARIA chart history to 2024". ARIA. Retrieved July 26, 2024– via Imgur.com. N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.
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