I Want You to Want Me
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"I Want You to Want Me" is a song by Cheap Trick, originally recorded in 1977 for their album In Color; though the version from the band's 1978 album At Budokan subsequently became better known than the original. Words and music are by Rick Nielsen. It reached the top 10 on the U.S. charts.
More recently the song has returned to prominence through the cover version performed by Letters to Cleo, which features on the movie and soundtrack of the popular teen comedy film 10 Things I Hate About You (1999); the song begins to play during the final moments of the film's story, and as the closing credits begin, the camera view pans upward to show Letters to Cleo set up on the roof of a school building, performing the song. Hard Rock Cafe also makes a shirt reading "I Want You to Want Me," based on this song.
Dwight Yoakam also covered the song on his 2000 album Tomorrow's Sounds Today. The song was featured in a 2002 Coca-Cola television commercial. Pop singer Lindsay Lohan recorded a version of the song for her 2005 album A Little More Personal (Raw). The Smashing Pumpkins have played the song live, and Billy Corgan has played it with Cheap Trick. Chris Isaak also covered the song and included it in his 2006 album Best of (Chris Isaak compilation), and Canadian punk band Propagandhi covered it as I Want Ü 2 Vant Me. Brian Lord of The Hypertonics recorded a version for his solo album. It was also sung by Katie Holmes' character Joey Potter on an episode of Dawson's Creek, and an acoustic guitar version was performed by Chad Michael Murray later that season. The Smoking Popes have posted a version of this song on their MySpace page (as of December 2006) as a duet with Scott Lucas but have not released it in an album. It was also covered by Kelly Clarkson on her Breakaway Tour in the United Kingdom. Most recently, Dilana performed a cover of the song on the television show Rock Star: Supernova
The first song of this name was made in the '60s by Tom Tall and Ginny Wright on the Chart label. However, it is not the same song.
"I Want You to Want Me" has been played by several artists in live performance, including SR-71 during all of their tours, and later by SR-71 frontman Mitch Allan during his solo performances.
There are several acoustic versions of this song. The chorus is more slow paced, and comprises of only one "Didn't I", as opposed to three.
In one interview[specify], Nielsen discussed the song in the context of his lyric writing style, as an example of how he likes to inject surprising or twisted themes beneath the surface of a song. He noted that the surface lyrics seem very innocent on the surface, but the phrase "I'm begging you to beg me" undermines the bright exterior with a bit of sadomasochistic innuendo.
