I Want You (Cheap Trick song)

Last updated
"I Want You"
Cheap Trick 1982 Dutch Single I Want You.jpeg
Single by Cheap Trick
from the album One on One
B-side "Lookin' Out for Number One"
Released1982
Genre
Length3:03
Label Epic
Songwriter Rick Nielsen
Producer Roy Thomas Baker
Cheap Trick singles chronology
"If You Want My Love"
(1982)		"I Want You"
(1982)		"She's Tight"
(1982)

"I Want You" is a song by the American rock band Cheap Trick, released by Epic Records in 1982 as the second single from their sixth studio album, One on One (1982). The song was written by guitarist Rick Nielsen and was produced by Roy Thomas Baker. "I Want You" was released as a single in the Netherlands only and reached No. 48 on the Dutch Single Top 100 chart. [1] [2]

Contents

Although the song shares a similar title with Cheap Trick's hit song "I Want You to Want Me", the two songs bear no other similarities. No music video was created to promote the single. The single's B-side, "Lookin' Out for Number One", also appeared on One on One. [3]

Background

In a 1982 interview, guitarist and writer Rick Nielsen described "I Want You" as being about a "guy [who] is crazy about this girl". [4]

Critical reception

In a review of One on One, Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone singled out "I Want You" as one of the album's "depressingly moronic cuts". He commented: "Robin Zander sounds as though he's undergoing total body electrolysis. His hollering is abetted by Nielsen's ultravolume ax thrashings and Roy Thomas Baker's acquiescent production. Not even the solid rhythm section of Bun E. Carlos and new bassist Jon Brant stands a chance against that kind of aural firepower." [5] Bruce Britt of the Detroit Free Press described it as a "wonderfully goofy assessment of pubescent passion as screamed/told by Zander". [6] In his 2017 book Still Competition: The Listener's Guide to Cheap Trick, Robert Lawson noted the "noisy punk rock shouting during the choruses that balance the clean verses well". He also felt that the song "borrows portions of the vocal melody" from "Born to Raise Hell", a song the band recorded for the soundtrack of the 1983 film Rock & Rule . [7]

Track listing

7-inch single

  1. "I Want You" – 3:30
  2. "Lookin' Out for Number One" – 4:14

Personnel

Cheap Trick

Production

Charts

Chart (1982)Peak
position
Netherlands (Single Top 100) [8] 48
Netherlands (Tipparade) [9] 6

References

  1. ↑ "Cheap Trick - I Want You (Vinyl) at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  2. ↑ Steffen Hung. "Cheap Trick - I Want You". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  3. ↑ "Cheap Trick - One On One at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  4. ↑ Derringer, Liz (June 13, 1982). "The magic of Cheap Trick" . New York Daily News . p. 20. Retrieved December 3, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ Christopher Connelly (1982-07-08). "One On One | Album Reviews". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  6. ↑ Britt, Bruce (June 27, 1982). "Briefly noted" . Detroit Free Press . p. 7E. Retrieved December 3, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ Lawson, Robert (2017). Still Competition: The Listener's Guide to Cheap Trick. FriesenPress. p. 82. ISBN   9781525512261 . Retrieved December 3, 2025– via Google Books.
  8. ↑ "Cheap Trick – I Want You" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
  9. ↑ "Cheap Trick - I Want You" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40 . Retrieved 20 December 2024.
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