Need You Tonight

"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)
Format	12" single, 7" single, CD single, Cassette
Genre	Alternative rock, New Wave
Length	3:00
Label	Atlantic, Mercury Records, WEA
Writer(s)	Andrew Farriss, Michael Hutchence
Producer	Chris Thomas
INXS singles chronology
"Good Times" (1987) "Need You Tonight" (1987) "Devil Inside" (1988)

"Need You Tonight" is the fourth song on INXS's 1987 album Kick as well as the first single from the album released worldwide. It is the only INXS single to reach #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. While it would arguably become the band's signature song, it was one of the last songs recorded for the album.

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. This riff was later described as sounding like a cross between Keith Richards and Prince.

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, 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, followed by a Kirk Pengilly 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 Video of The Year and was ranked at number twenty-one on MTV's countdown of the 100 greatest videos of all time.^[1]

Track listings

7" LP SINGLE - 7-89188 Atlantic/USA 7" LP SINGLE - 888813-7 Mercury/Europe 7" LP SINGLE - INXS8 Mercury/UK 7" LP SINGLE - PD 2573 Mercury/South Africa 7" LP SINGLE - 7-258181 WEA/Australia 7" LP SINGLE - P-2337 WEA/Japan "Need You Tonight" — 3:01 "I'm Coming (Home)" — 4:54 7" LP SINGLE - INXSRA8 Mercury/UK "Need You Tonight" — 3:01 "Need You Tonight" (Mendelshon extended mix) — 7:02 7" LP SINGLE - INXS12 Mercury/UK (OCT 1988) 7" LP SINGLE - INXSG12 Mercury/UK Special 7" Magic Pack "Need You Tonight" — 3:01 "Move On" — 4:47 7" LP SINGLE - INXRA12 Mercury/UK "Need You Tonight" — 3:01 "Need You Tonight" (Mendelshon 7" mix) — 3:58 12" LP SINGLE - 7-86645-0 Atlantic/USA 12" LP SINGLE - INXS812 Mercury/UK 12" LP SINGLE - 0-258181 WEA/Australia "Need You Tonight" — 3:01 "Mediate" — 2:35 "I'm Coming (Home)" — 4:53 12" LP SINGLE - 0-258076 WEA/Australia "Need You Tonight" — 3:01 "Need You Tonight" (Mendelshon extended mix) — 7:02 "Mediate" — 2:35 "I'm Coming (Home)" — 4:53 "Move On" — 4:47 "Kiss the Dirt (Falling Down the Mountain)" — 3:54

12" LP SINGLE - INXS1212 Mercury/UK (OCT 1988) "Need You Tonight" (Mendelshon extended mix) — 7:02 "Move On" — 4:47 "Kiss the Dirt (Falling Down the Mountain)" — 3:54 12" LP SINGLE - INXSR1212 Mercury/UK (OCT 1988) "Need You Tonight" (Ben Liebrand mix) — 7:18 "Move On" — 4:47 "New Sensation" (extended mix) — 6:30 CD3 - 10SW-2 WEA/Japan "Need You Tonight" — 3:01 "I'm Coming (Home)" (edit) — 4:12 CD5 - INXCD8 Mercury/UK CD5 - 888 813-2 Mercury/Germany "Need You Tonight" — 3:01 "Mediate" — 2:35 "I'm Coming (Home)" — 4:53 CD VIDEO SINGLE - O80394-2 Mercury/UK "Tiny Daggers" — 3:20 "Mediate" — 2:35 "Need You Tonight" — 3:01 "I'm Coming (Home)" — 4:53 "Need You Tonight" (video) — 3:50 CD5 - INXCD12 (872 215-2) Mercury/UK "Need You Tonight" (Mendelshon mix edit) — 5:11 "Move On" — 4:47 "Original Sin" — 5:19 "Don't Change" — 4:24

Charts

Chart (1987/88)	Peak position
Austrian Singles Chart[2]	16
French SNEP Singles Chart[2]	10
German Singles Chart[3]	16
Irish Singles Chart[4]	2
Italian Singles Chart[5]	8
UK Singles Chart[6]	2
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[7]	1
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play[7]	7
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales[7]	10
U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks[7]	12
Chart (2005/06)1	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play 1 [7]	16
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play 2 [7]	40

¹ Static Revenger/Koishii & Hush Mixes
² Remixes

Preceded by "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson

Billboard Hot 100 number one single 30 January 1988 (1 week)

Succeeded by "Could've Been" by Tiffany

Ac Rock version

"Need You Tonight"
Single by Ac Rock
from the album Acapellago
Released	13 August 1999
Format	CD single
Genre	Pop, A cappella
Length	3:05
Label	Mercury Records
Writer(s)	Andrew Farriss, Michael Hutchence
Producer	Ac Rock

In 1999 A cappella group Ac Rock covered Need You Tonight on their album Acapellago. The a cappella passages in the cover is designed to model the instrumentation of the original, but it is in contrast to the original very pop backed heavy and as a bonus track on the cd-single is a cover of Crowded House song Don't Dream It's Over there. besides there are also different length versions of the cover: For example, an extended version with a length of 6:36 and a 4:03 minute long remix.

Track listings

Maxi CD single

1. "Need You Tonight" 3:05
2. "Don't Dream It's Over" 4:00
3. "Need You Tonight" (Extended version) 6:36
4. "Need You Tonight" (Remix) 4:03

Rogue Traders remix

"One of My Kind"
Single by Rogue Traders vs. INXS
from the album We Know What You're Up To
Released	23 February 2003 (2003-02-23) (Australia)
Format	CD single, 12" single
Recorded	2002
Genre	Dance
Length	3:20 (radio edit) 4:18 (album version)
Label	Vicious Grooves
Writer(s)	James Ash
Producer	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 #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. Because it was the only hit single from the album, the band was publicly considered one-hit wonders until "Voodoo Child" reached #4 in 2005.

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 singles the line 'you're one of my kind' before the video ends.^[8]

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, 9 of which were in the top 50.^[9][10] The single also topped the ARIA Dance chart.

Chart (2003)	Peak position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	10

Other cover versions

• 1998 Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers covered the song for her medley Rock The Party.
• Canadian singer Jacynthe covered this song in 2003 for her album Seize the Day.
• Lostprophets covered this song on The Fake Sound of Progress CD single.
• Portuguese band The Room 74 covered this song in 2005 on their album Metrosexual, giving it an all new Funk sound.
• Australian singer Gilli Moon covered this song in 2003 on her album Woman as a much slower arrangement.
• Cassettes Won't Listen covered the song for the Guilt by Association Vol. 2 compilation, released by Engine Room Recordings in November 2008.^[11]
• DJ McSleazy produced a memorable mashup of this song, mixing it up with Neneh Cherry's "I've Got You Under My Skin". The resultant mashup has been entitled "Got your cherry tonight", and was aired on MTV.
• Crimpshrine has a live cover of this song on the Benecia By the Bay Compilation.
• Rock band Dirtbombs have performed the song live.
• General Hospital's Nathan Parsons sang this song as a karaoke version at a reception on the show 29 September 2009.
• In March 2010, UK Rapper Professor Green released a song based entirely on the song called "I Need You Tonight".^[12]

References

1. ^ Mvdbase.com
2. ^ ^{a b} "Need You Tonight", in French and Austrian Singles Charts Lescharts.com (Retrieved 28 March 2008)
3. ^ German Singles Chart Charts-surfer.de (Retrieved 28 March 2008)
4. ^ Irish Single Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved 28 March 2008)
5. ^ Italian Single Chart [1] (Retrieved 22 July 2008)
6. ^ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved 28 March 2008)
7. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Billboard Allumic.com (Retrieved 1 September 2008)
8. ^ [2] "Youtube: One of My Kind Music Video"
9. ^ [3] "Australian Charts"
10. ^ [4] "Rogue Traders Discography"
11. ^ Matthew Solarski (19 November 2008). "My Brightest Diamond, Frightened Rabbit Do Covers". Pitchfork. http://pitchfork.com/news/34070-my-brightest-diamond-frightened-rabbit-do-covers/. Retrieved 2009-06-11. 
12. ^ http://mychemicaltoilet.com/professor-green-inxs-need-you-tonight/4412