Songfacts®:

• Not to be confused with any song of the same or similar name, this was co-written by Manchester with Carole Bayer Sager, who supplied the lyrics, although the Arista demo version credits it to Manchester and Adrienne Anderson. The official release credits it to Manchester/Bayer Sager, and the B-side is "I Got Eyes."
  
  Written in 1973, it was released two years later, and caused George Harrison to retitle his (totally unrelated) song of the same name. The Manchester song was a big hit, and has become a standard. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England
• The song is about a relationship that has been through the ringer; the singer is looking to give it another try, approaching it from a different angle: "Think of me as your friend."
  
  Bayer Sager's marriage to record producer Andrew Sager was crumbling, and she poured her emotions into the lyrics. "I hoped Andrew would listen to it and make an effort to help us get whatever it was we had back on track," she wrote in her memoir They're Playing Our Song. "I guess, like my dummy in a ventriloquist act I had as a kid, I was letting my lyrics do the talking for me." (The couple divorced in 1978.)
• Other songs Carole Bayer Sager wrote with Manchester include "Just You And I," "Come In From The Rain" and "Home To Myself" - lots of confessional songs from a female perspective. Bayer Sager explained: "I think just by writing about the things we were going through, we were able to tough the hearts of women who were also struggling, so I'm very proud of those songs."
• Melissa Manchester released two hitless albums on Bell Records before signing a deal with Arista, which issued her third album, Melissa, which contains "Midnight Blue." The song went to #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and established Manchester as both a songwriter and artist. Her later accomplishments include co-writing the Kenny Loggins/Stevie Nicks duet "Whenever I Call You "Friend"" and Top 10 singles as an artist with "Don't Cry Out Loud" and "You Should Hear How She Talks About You."