INXS – Need You Tonight | Live at Wembley Stadium, 1991

VIDEO: INXS – Need You Tonight – Live at Wembley Stadium, 1991

“Need You Tonight” is a song by the Australian rock band INXS, released as the first single from their 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” is basically a musical booty call, with lines that could work if you’re Michael Hutchence (“All you got is this moment,” “There’s something about you girl that makes me sweat”), but would get the rest of us laughed out of the room. It’s not clear how his night ends, but he takes his best shot at the end:

I’ve got to let you know
You’re one of my kind

Hutchence didn’t overthink it – he wrote the lyric in one night.
In 1988, MTV showed their appreciation by handing out five Video Music Awards to “Need You Tonight/Mediate,” including Video Of The Year.

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.

INXS
Michael Hutchence – lead and backing vocals
Andrew Farriss – electric guitar, E-mu Emulator II, synthesizer, Roland TR-707 programming
Tim Farriss – electric guitar
Kirk Pengilly – electric guitar, saxophone
Garry Gary Beers – bass guitar
Jon Farriss – drums, Roland TR-707 programming

“Need You Tonight” – Single by INXS from the album Kick
Released 21 September 1987
Label WEA
Songwriters Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence
Producer Chris Thomas
Charted Ni.1 in US; No.2 in UK; No.16 in West Germany; No.3 in Ayustralia; No.2 in Ireland; No.1 in Italy