This is the very first song Todd Rundgren ever wrote -- back in 1968 when he was in a band called the Nazz, and was originally issued as a b-side to the band's debut single, "Open My Eyes." It didn't come out in this form until his 1972 solo double-album Something/Anything? (which is a stone classic from start to finish).
Can you imagine this as the FIRST SONG YOU EVER WROTE? It'd be all downhill from there, ha.
Funny to think of a ballad about the slow breakup of a relationship as being a song that instantly makes me feel better, but the melody is evergreen and the sentiment is relatable to pretty much everyone -- "I'd never want to make you change for me." You really want the WHOLE of someone (warts and all) to be the person who is YOUR person. Maybe that's why we're still spinning this more than fifty years after it first came out.
PS: the soul singing outro (off the cuff as it is, when it dissolves) may be the best part of the song.
