![]() | It has been suggested that this article be split out into a new article titled I Wanna Be Yours (Arctic Monkeys song) . (Discuss) (July 2025) |
"I Wanna Be Yours" is a spoken word poem by British poet John Cooper Clarke, on his 1982 album Zip Style Method . The poem was brought to wider audience via an adaptation by Arctic Monkeys on their 2013 album, AM .
The poetic spoken lyrics recount the love of one person for another, using metaphors around various domestic equipment:
I wanna be your vacuum cleaner
Breathing in your dust
I wanna be your Ford Cortina
I will never rust. [1]
The poem was included in a GCSE English anthology. [2] Clarke re-used the title of the poem for his autobiography published in 2020. [3] In March 2023, The Guardian noted that "if it was previously Britain's favourite wedding poem, it's now quantifiably the world's favourite British poem, full stop". [4]
"I Wanna Be Yours" | |
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![]() | |
Song by Arctic Monkeys | |
from the album AM | |
Released | September 9, 2013 |
Genre | |
Length | 3:04 |
Label | Domino |
Composer(s) |
|
Lyricist(s) | John Cooper Clarke |
Producer(s) | |
Official audio | |
"I Wanna Be Yours" on YouTube |
The English rock band Arctic Monkeys brought the poem to a wider audience via an adaptation [6] which appears as the closing track on their 2013 album, AM . The adaptation, produced by James Ford and Ross Orton, contains novel lyrics written by lead singer Alex Turner. It was not released as a single, but the song still gained popularity organically as part of AM, in May 2025, the recitation reached 3 billion streams on Spotify. [7]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada (Music Canada) [33] | 5× Platinum | 400,000‡ |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [34] | Gold | 45,000‡ |
Italy (FIMI) [35] | 2× Platinum | 200,000‡ |
Portugal (AFP) [36] | 5× Platinum | 50,000‡ |
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [37] | Platinum | 60,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [38] | 2× Platinum | 1,200,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [39] | 4× Platinum | 4,000,000‡ |
Streaming | ||
Greece (IFPI Greece) [40] | Diamond | 10,000,000† |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
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