I Only Want to Be with You


"I Only Want to Be with You" is a song written by Mike Hawker and Ivor Raymonde. The debut solo single released by British singer Dusty Springfield under her long-time producer Johnny Franz, "I Only Want to Be with You" peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles chart in January 1964. Three remakes of the song have been UK chart hits, the first two by the Bay City Rollers and the Tourists matching the number 4 peak of the Dusty Springfield original, while the 1989 remake by Samantha Fox peaked at number 16. In the US on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, "I Only Want to Be with You" has been a Top 40 hit three times, with both the Dusty Springfield original and the Bay City Rollers' remake peaking at number 12 while the Samantha Fox remake peaked at number 31. "I Only Want to Be with You" has also been recorded by a wide range of artists, several of whom sing the song with lyrics translated from the original English.

Dusty Springfield version

Background

According to Jean Ryder, the ex-wife of songwriter Mike Hawker, "I Only Want to Be With You" was written soon after she and Hawker married on 1 December 1961, being inspired by Hawker's intense romantic feelings for his new bride. Ryder, who would later be a member of the Breakaways, had been a member of a vocal chorale, the Vernons Girls. Reportedly, she and Hawker had intended that she herself would record "I Only Want to Be With You". However, no formal arrangement for this eventuality had apparently been made by the autumn of 1963, when Hawker received a phone call from Philips A&R director Johnny Franz. Ryder paraphrases Franz as saying "Look we need something which is going to put this girl into the charts, because everybody is knocking her, everybody is saying she'll never make it - have you got a song that's a guaranteed hit?" Springfield had already recorded nine solo tracks, none of which was deemed the right vehicle to launch her solo career. With Ryder's permission, Hawker submitted "I Only Want to Be With You" to Franz, having made a demo featuring Ryder singing while keeping the beat by tapping on a biscuit tin lid. Franz, and then Springfield, approved the song, which Springfield recorded in a 25 October 1963 session at Olympic Studios, arranged and conducted by Ivor Raymonde, and recorded by engineer Keith Grant. Jean Ryder was included in the vocal chorale on the session. For unknown reasons, a version with unadulterated vocals was rejected.
Released in November 1963, three weeks after the Springfields' final concert, "I Only Want to Be With You" was a global success, reaching number 4 UK, number 12 US, number 6 Australia, and number 21 Canada. In the US, Dusty Springfield was the second artist of the British Invasion, after the Beatles, to have a hit, entering the Billboard chart at number 77 in the last week of January 1964.
Raymonde's arrangement is unmistakable, with its relentless "ticker-ticker" beat and cascading drum rolls, full-on choirs and "Tower of Power" horn section pitched against soaring rock strings. It set the production standard for Springfield's later hits, such as "Stay Awhile" and "Little by Little". Springfield also recorded the song with an almost identical arrangement in German, with the title "Auf dich nur wart' ich immerzu".
The song was performed by Springfield on the first-ever edition of the BBC's Top of the Pops, on 1 January 1964.
Springfield's version was re-released in 1988, coinciding with its use in a soft-drink commercial, as a 7" & 12" single, peaking at number 83 in the UK.
Springfield's "I Only Want to Be with You" served as theme song for the HBO sitcom Arliss, from 1997 to 2002.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Bay City Rollers version

Background

The Bay City Rollers recorded "I Only Want to Be with You" for their 1976 album Dedication in June and July 1976 at Soundstage Studio in Toronto with producer Jimmy Ienner. Dedication was the first Bay City Rollers recorded under the auspices of Arista Records, and it was Arista president Clive Davis who suggested that the group remake "I Only Want to Be with You." Jimmy Ienner was chosen by Davis to produce the Bay City Rollers on the basis of Ienner's work with the Raspberries.
In the US "I Only Want to Be with You" was issued as advance single from Dedication in August 1976: that October the track reached a Billboard Hot 100 peak of number 12, besting the number 28 peak of the precedent Bay City Rollers' single "Rock and Roll Love Letter" while failing to match the Top Ten success the group had enjoyed in 1975–1976 with "Saturday Night" and in 1976 with "Money Honey". "I Only Want to Be with You" appeared to wrap up the group's burst of North American stardom as their next three US single releases were Top 40 shortfalls: however the group's fourth US single release subsequent to "I Only Want to Be With You": "You Made Me Believe in Magic", did afford the group a final Top Ten hit.
Issued in the UK as a non-album single on 3 September 1976, "I Only Wanna Be with You" – so entitled – reached number 4 UK, affording the Bay City Rollers' a tenth and final Top Ten hit.
It's noteworthy that the US and UK chart peaks of the Bay City Rollers' 1976 remake of "I Only Want to Be with You" exactly match the US and UK chart peaks achieved in 1964 by the Dusty Springfield original. However the Springfield original version had had a significantly stronger UK chart run holding at number 4 for 4 weeks – as opposed to the Bay City Rollers remake's one week chart peak – with the original's Top 50 tenure of 18 weeks being twice as long as the remake's. Conversely in the US the Bay City Rollers' remake had a Billboard Hot 100 tenure of 15 weeks while the Springfield original had maintained a Hot 100 presence for 10 weeks in total.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

The Tourists version

Background

In 1979, the song was also covered by The Tourists, a band which included Annie Lennox on vocals. This was the band's biggest hit. The song was used on a montage of stars when Thames Television went off the air in 1992.

Chart performance

Nicolette Larson version

remade "I Only Want to Be with You" for her album All Dressed Up and No Place to Go produced by Andrew Gold and recorded October 1981 - January 1982 at Sunset Sound. Released as a single in July 1982 - parallel with the album's release - Larson's version featured as B-side "How Can We Go On", a track from Larson's 1981 album Radioland which had been an unsuccessful 1981 A-side release.
Reviewing All Dressed Up and No Place to Go, High Fidelity critic Steven X. Rea cited "Dusty Springfield's 60's gem 'I Only Want to Be with You'" as one of several tracks which "Nicolette sings in an awkward warble, devoid of any emotional range": Larson's "I Only Want to Be with You" drew similarly dismissive reaction from Tom Long of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, who rated the original 1963 hit a "swell oldie ingratiating piece of fluff" and Larson's remake "awful despite uninspired vocals and sheet musicianship sounds good on the radio simply because the song itself sounds good and tickles forotten memory synapses", and also Bill Provick of the Ottawa Citizen who opined Larson gave "a rather lacklustre reading of normally effervescent pop-rock classic." Tim Gebhart of the Rapid City Journal was more positive: "Larson version remains true to the original but also contains her own special touch in the vocals."
Despite becoming Larson's fourth single to rank on the Hot 100 chart in Billboard magazine - and her first Hot 100 entry since 1980 - "I Only Want to Be with You" would prove a Top 40 shortfall stalling at #53 in September 1983. Larson's label WB Records, electing not to issue a second single from All Dressed Up and No Place to Go, were motivated by the underperformance of that album and its one single to end Larson's label tenure. Larson would have one subsequent major label affiliation, having two C&W-focused albums released by MCA Records in 1985-86.

Samantha Fox version

In 1988, English singer Samantha Fox covered the song as "I Only Wanna Be with You" for her third studio album, I Wanna Have Some Fun.
Fox would recall the song as being the first song she ever learned to sing, the Dusty Springfield original version being among a stack of singles her mother handed down to Fox when Fox was aged ten.
Released as the follow-up single to the album's title cut, "I Only Wanna Be With You" was promoted with a music video which included scenes of Fox hunting through trash cans, dancing, fireworks, and the singer in bed with her bespectacled lover. Fox also promoted the song via televised performances, including those on Top of the Pops in 1989 and Viva el espectáculo on TVE1 in 1990.
"I Only Wanna Be with You" essentially earned Fox her final global hit single. In the United States, where "I Wanna Have Some Fun" had been a Top Ten hit, "I Only Wanna Be with You" rose no higher than number 31 and would mark Fox's final Billboard Hot 100 appearance: in Fox's native UK her version outperformed her previous six single releases with a number-16 peak, but would also become Fox' final major hit bar her 1998 one-off comeback single "Santa Maria".

Track listings

  1. "I Only Wanna Be with You" – 2:45
  2. "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now" – 3:42
  3. "I Only Wanna Be with You" – 4:56
  4. "Confession" – 4:40
  1. "I Only Wanna Be with You"
  2. "The Best Is Yet to Come"

    Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Luis Miguel version

Background

singer Luis Miguel recorded a version of the song, titled "Ahora te puedes marchar" which was released as the first single from his Grammy-nominated album Soy como quiero ser, the first album recorded by the singer under the WEA record label. It was produced by Juan Carlos Calderón and adapted by Luis Gómez Escolar. This single became very successful, peaking at number-one in the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart for three non-consecutive weeks in 1987, being the first chart topper for the singer on the chart. There is previous version of the song in spanish in the 1960's by Spanish pop singer Lita Torrelló, which shares the same title that the one made popular by Luis Miguel 20 years after. At the time, Luis Miguel was the youngest to score a number-one hit on the Hot Latin Tracks at the age of 17, ironically replacing the then 44-year-old veteran Julio Iglesias at the summit. In 2005, Luis Miguel included this song on his compilation album Grandes Éxitos. This version ranked at number 28 in the Hot Latin Tracks Year-End Chart of 1988. The song was translated into Portuguese as "Agora Você Pode Ir" for the Brazilian edition of the album.
The lyrics are considerably different from the original song as long as the song relates about a guy rejecting a girl that is wanting to reform a relationship rather than the unconditional love shown in Dusty Springfield version.

Music videos

Two music videos were shot. The first one was shot with Angélica Rivera, while the second one was shot dancing in a bridge. The second one was included in Grandes Éxitos Videos.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Other versions

1964 Les Surfs as "A présent tu peux t'en aller'" French also recorded by Richard Anthony And Claudette Vandal
1965 Enrique Guzmán on his album Éxitos internacionales as "Sólo quiero estar contigo" Spanish also recorded by Juan Ramón on his album Más corazón que nunca

1966 Les Surfs as "Ahora te puedes marchar" Spanish

1967 Helena Vondráčková as "Chytila jsem na pasece motýlka" Czech

1969 Elin as "Det har jeg altid ønsket mig" Danish
1975 Chelsia Chan on her debut album Dark Side Of Your Mind
1976 Howard Carpendale as "Ab Heute Weht Ein Neuer Wind" German
1977 Pink Lady as on their debut album Pepper Keibu Japanese
1982 Barbara Dickson on her album Here We Go...Barbara Dickson Live on Tour
1983 The Flirts on their album Flirts
1986 Southside Johnny & The Jukes on their album At Least We Got Shoes
1989 Danny Chan on his album Yat sang ho kau

1991 Maywood on their Walking Back to Happiness album

1992 Paula Koivuniemi on her album Se kesäni mun as "Haluun olla luonas sun" Finnish
1993 Beatriz Rico on her album Baila sin parar as "Ahora te puedes marchar" Spanish

1997 Ash covered the song for a promotional tour
1998 Twiggy & Twiggy on the soundtrack of Dead Man on Campus
1999 Argema on their album Milion Snů as "Žába"Czech
2000 René Froger on his album The Passion Tracks

2001 Me First and the Gimme Gimmes on their album Blow in the Wind

2002 Vonda Shepard on her album Songs from Ally McBeal

2003 on her 2003 album Me & Moment in Time

2004 Tommy February6 on her single "Lovely "

2005 Taiwanese female group 7 Flowers on their eponymous album
2007 Tina Arena on her album Songs of Love & Loss
2008 Shelby Lynne on her Dusty Springfield tribute album Just a Little Lovin

2009 Jessica Andersson as "I Only Wanna Be With You" on her album Wake Up
  • Barbee as "Ámor nyila" Hungarian
2011 Amy Macdonald: recorded 2008 for canceled multi-artist Dusty Springfield tribute album: track first released on album Reworked, a multi-artist fundraiser for Save the Children featuring songs used in John Lewis ad campaigns

2013 Lodovica Comello on her album Universo

2018 Super Junior as "Ahora te puedes marchar" Spanish on their One More Time EP

2019 Emma Bunton on her album My Happy Place as a duet with Will Young
‘’’2019’’’
LYRA

Uses on television