"Desperately Wanting" is a song by American alternative rock group

Better Than Ezra Better Than Ezra is an American alternative rock band based in New Orleans, Louisiana, and signed with The End Records. The band formed in 1988 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and consists of Kevin Griffin (vocals and guitar), Tom Drummond (bass g ...

. It was released in December 1996 as the second single from their third studio album, ''

Friction, Baby ''Friction, Baby'' is an album by Better Than Ezra, released in 1996. The album's title comes from a television interview with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. When asked how he and Mick Jagger stayed together for so long, Richards took a lo ...

'', and became a chart hit in the United States, Australia and Canada.

Composition

In an interview with SongFacts.com, Better Than Ezra frontman Kevin Griffin, who wrote this song, explained: "'Desperately Wanting' is a song where someone is looking back on their childhood. Specifically that song is about when I used to camp out with my friends in the summer down in the South, and you'd stay up all night causing havoc, throwing rocks at passing cars, knocking over mailboxes and vandalizing, as red-blooded men are wont to do. And literally, you're running all through the neighborhood and through the yards, and there's the dew on the grass. It was about those nights spent with a friend running around, running through the wet grass. And then it's a story of two people who took divergent paths in life. One person made a lot of bad decisions and ended up having some mental issues. And then just how you lose touch with people. And how when you're young and you're running around all night, and life hasn't had its way with you, the playing field is equal and it's flat. And then life takes everybody on their own journeys. But there's a time where all your potential is untapped and the world hasn't had its way with you. That's an amazing time of promise, and that's what 'Desperately Wanting' is about."

Music video

The video for "Desperately Wanting" was filmed at

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...

Track listings

US CD and cassette single # "Desperately Wanting" – 4:37 # "Palace Hotel" – 3:44 European CD single # "Desperately Wanting" (radio edit) – 4:01 # "Palace Hotel" – 3:44 # "In the Blood" (LP version) – 4:32

Chart performance

"Desperately Wanting" reached No. 48 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking on February 8, 1997. The song was most successful on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...

chart, where it peaked at No. 10. In Canada the single reached No. 13 on both the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Top Singles and Alternative 30 charts. It also made a brief appearance on the

Australian Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

, peaking at No. 83.

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1996 songs 1997 singles Better Than Ezra songs Elektra Records singles Song recordings produced by Don Gehman Songs written by Kevin Griffin