Need You Tonight

"Need You Tonight" is the first single to be released worldwide from Australian rock band INXS's 1987 album, Kick, as well as the fourth song on the album. It is the only INXS single to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also achieved their highest charting position in the United Kingdom, where the song reached number two on the UK Singles Chart; however, this peak was only reached after a re-release of the single in November 1988. On its first run on the UK charts in October 1987, it stalled at No. 58. It was one of the last songs recorded for the album, yet it would arguably become the band's signature song.

"Need You Tonight"
Single by INXS
from the album Kick
B-side
  • "I'm Coming (Home)"
  • "Mediate" (music video)
Released
  • 23 September 1987
  • 1 June 2005 (remixes)
GenreFunk rock[1]
Length3:00
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Chris Thomas
INXS singles chronology
"Good Times"
(1987)		 "Need You Tonight"
(1987)		 "Devil Inside"
(1988)
Music video
"Need You Tonight" on YouTube

In February 2014, after the Channel 7 screening of the INXS: Never Tear Us Apart mini-series, "Need You Tonight" charted again in Australia via download sales. It peaked at No. 28 on the ARIA Singles Chart.[2] In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Need You Tonight" was ranked number 69.[3]

Background

In INXS's official autobiography, INXS: Story to Story, Andrew Farriss said that the famous riff to the song appeared suddenly in his head while waiting for a cab to go to the airport to fly to Hong Kong. He asked the cab driver to wait a couple of minutes while he grabbed something from his motel room. In fact, he went up to record the riff and came back down an hour later with a tape to a very annoyed driver.

The song is a much more electronic track than most of the band's material before or after, combining sequencers with regular drum tracks and a number of tracks of layered guitars. To approximate the sound on the recorded track, the band often utilizes click tracks for a frequent synthesizer chord as well as rim shots heard throughout the song.

On the Kick album, the song is linked to the next song, which is entitled either "Mediate" or "Meditate", depending on the pressing of the album. On some compilations, the two tunes appear together and on others, only "Need You Tonight" appears (rarely, if ever, has "Mediate" appeared on its own).

Music video

The music video combined live action and different kinds of animation. Directed by Richard Lowenstein, the video was actually "Need You Tonight / Mediate", as it combined two songs from the album. Lowenstein claimed that the particular visual effects in "Need You Tonight" were created by cutting up 35mm film and photocopying the individual frames, before re-layering those images over the original footage.

For "Mediate", it segues into a tribute to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues". The members flip cue cards with words from the song; the last one displays the words "Sax Solo," at which point Kirk Pengilly starts a saxophone solo. Beneath the lyric "a special date" in the "Mediate" portion of the video, the cue card shown reads "9-8-1945" which in Australian date format is 9 August 1945, the date which the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

The video won five MTV Video Music Awards including 1988 Video of The Year and was ranked at number twenty-one on MTV's countdown of the 100 greatest videos of all time.[4]

Track listings

Charts and certifications

Rogue Traders remix
"One of My Kind"
Single by Rogue Traders vs. INXS
from the album We Know What You're Up To
Released2003
Length
  • 3:20 (radio edit)
  • 4:18 (album version)
LabelVicious Grooves
Songwriter(s)James Ash
Producer(s)James Ash
Rogue Traders vs. INXS singles chronology
"Give in to Me"
(2002)		 "One of My Kind"
(2003)		 "Stay?"
(2003)

Rogue Traders covered and remixed "Need You Tonight" and released it as a single in Australia. The song was renamed "One of My Kind", where it reached No. 10 on the Australian Top 100 Singles Chart, becoming their first top-10 hit. "One of My Kind" is the second single released by the Rogue Traders for their debut album We Know What You're Up To.

The music video is set in a dance party where the lizard on the single cover wanders around looking for a girl of his kind. He finds one looking lonely. The two sit together and he sings the line 'you're one of my kind' before the video ends.[30]

Track listings

Maxi CD single

  1. "One of My Kind" (radio edit)
  2. "One of My Kind" (club mix edit)
  3. "One of My Kind" (Phunked remix)

12" vinyl

  1. "One of My Kind" (12" mix)
  2. "One of My Kind" (radio edit)
  3. "One of My Kind" (dub mix)

Australian CD single

  1. "One of My Kind" (radio edit)
  2. "One of My Kind" (Rogue Traders club adventure)
  3. "One of My Kind" (Swimming in blue mix)
  4. "One of My Kind" (Rogue Traders dub)
  5. "Make It Better" (original mix)

Charts

The single spent 15 weeks in the charts, nine of which were in the top 50.[31][32] The single also topped the ARIA Dance chart.

Chart (2003) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[31] 10

Other cover versions
  • In March 2010, UK rapper Professor Green released a song based entirely on the song called "I Need You Tonight".[33]
  • English singer and songwriter Dua Lipa's 2020 single "Break My Heart" interpolates the song's iconic guitar riff as the melody of a lyrical chorus featuring three staccato notes followed by melodic patter.[34]
gollark: 90% of people who commit the base rate fallacy are GEORGE.
gollark: GEORGE is an emergent property of all sufficiently complex information systems.
gollark: GEORGE lacks nothing.
gollark: GEORGE can have duplicates.
gollark: GEORGE is the reason that amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes.

See also

References
  1. Britt, Bruce (19 March 1988). "Australian Funk-rockers Inxs Get A Kick Out Of Taking Risks". The Morning Call. Retrieved 18 June 2014. One of the best examples of the funk-rock sound of "Kick" is the disc's send-off single, "Need You Tonight"
  2. "Australian-charts.com – INXS – Need You Tonight". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  3. "Here Are the Songs That Made Triple M's 'Ozzest 100'". Music Feeds. 27 January 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  4. "INXS – Need you tonight / Mediate". Mvdbase.com. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  5. "Forum – ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts – CHART POSITIONS PRE 1989". Australian-charts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  6. "Austriancharts.at – INXS – Need You Tonight" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  7. "Ultratop.be – INXS – Need You Tonight" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  8. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 0935." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  9. "Lescharts.com – INXS – Need You Tonight" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  10. "Offiziellecharts.de – INXS – Need You Tonight". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  11. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Need You Tonight". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  12. "I singoli più venduti del 1988" (in Italian). Hit Parade Italia. Creative Commons. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  13. "Nederlandse Top 40 – INXS - Need You Tonight" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  14. "Dutchcharts.nl – INXS – Need You Tonight" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  15. "Charts.nz – INXS – Need You Tonight". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  16. "South African Rock Lists Website SA Charts 1969 – 1989 Acts (I)". Rock.co.za. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  17. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  18. "INXS – Awards". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  19. "CASH BOX Top 100 Singles – Week ending JANUARY 30, 1988". Cash Box. Archived from the original on 7 October 2012.
  20. "Forum – ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts – Top 100 End of Year AMR Charts – 1980s". Australian-charts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  21. "End of Year Charts 1987". Recorded Music New Zealand. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  22. "Jaaroverzichten 1988" (in Dutch). Ultratop. Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  23. "1988 Year End Eurocharts > Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 6 no. 52/1. 1 December 1989. p. 30. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  24. "Top 100 Hits for 1988". The Longbored Surfer. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  25. "The CASH BOX Year-End Charts: 1988". Cash Box. Archived from the original on 7 October 2012.
  26. "Eurochart Hot 100: 1989" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 6 no. 51. 23 December 1989. p. 6. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  27. "Hot 100 60th Anniversary". Billboard. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  28. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2014 Singles". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  29. "British single certifications – INXS – Need You Tonight". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 18 February 2019. Select singles in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type Need You Tonight in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  30. "One of My Kind Music Video" on YouTube
  31. "Australian-charts.com – Rogue Traders vs. INXS – One Of My Kind". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  32. "Discography - Need you to show me – Rogue Traders Debut Single". Archived from the original on 15 September 2007.. Roguetraders.com.au.
  33. "Is anyone ever going to use INXS's "Need You Tonight" in the manner it deserves?". My Chemical Toilet. 15 March 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  34. Future Nostalgia (booklet). Dua Lipa. Warner. 2020.CS1 maint: others (link)
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