Songfacts®:

• Written and sung by Airplane vocalist and guitarist Marty Balin, "It's No Secret" finds him declaring his love in no uncertain terms. If there was ever any doubt, it's now out in the open, as he is now unleashing his feelings without ambiguity.
• Balin wrote this with Otis Redding in mind. In his own words, Balin hung around Redding "like a puppy dog" during Redding's early career. Balin also says he was the one who took Redding's "These Arms of Mine" to promoter Bill Graham so Graham would hire Redding for the Monterey International Pop Festival.
  
  "I just wanted to write him a song that had this kind of groove thing I thought," Balin told Shindig magazine in 2018. Redding never did the song, so Jefferson Airplane recorded it.
• This was part of the group's first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, which got little attention - Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden had not yet joined. "It's No Secret" held up well; it was the first track on the best-of compilation The Worst of Jefferson Airplane, and was redone on their 2015 Good Memories album.