"If Only You Knew" is a single written and produced primarily by Dexter Wansel and Cynthia Biggs for American singer Patti LaBelle's sixth solo album, I'm in Love Again.

It was released as the album's official first single in 1983, spending four weeks at #1 on the U.S. R&B chart during January and February 1984; it reached #46 on the Billboard Hot 100.

While respected for her longevity in the music business, LaBelle's recordings were not easily marketable as producers struggled to find a hit for the singer.

In the summer of 1982, while on a break from the Broadway play, Your Arm's Too Short to Box with God, LaBelle entered Sigma Sound Studios to record with writing-producing team Dexter Wansel and Cynthia Biggs.

During the 1982 recording sessions, Wansel and Biggs presented LaBelle with a mid-tempo song titled "If Only You Knew", about a person seeking an unsuspecting love interest.

LaBelle wrote in her memoirs, Don't Block the Blessings: Revelations of a Lifetime, that she got so excited hearing the news of the song reaching #1 that she jumped on the top of her bed in celebration.

Prior to its release, LaBelle's biggest-charting song was the Grover Washington ballad, "The Best Is Yet to Come", which reached #14 on the R&B chart in early 1983, resulting in the singer's first Grammy nomination.

Singer-actress D'Atra Hicks also covered it for her album, Finally My Time and performed it in the Tyler Perry stage play What's Done in the Dark.

Rachelle Ferrell, Ron Isley, Peabo Bryson, and Tamia sang the song in tribute to LaBelle as she was honored at the 1998 Soul Train Music Awards.

[3] Mariah Carey featured LaBelle's rendition of "Over the Rainbow" as part of her live tribute following a brief performance of "If Only You Knew" at the 1998 Essence Awards.