" I Need You" is a song by American singer-songwriter

Maurice White Maurice White (December 19, 1941 – February 4, 2016) was an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was best known as the founder, leader, main songwriter, and producer of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, and served as the ...

released in 1985 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. The song reached No. 20 on the ''

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Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

chart and No. 30 on the ''Billboard''

Hot Black Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

chart.

Overview

"I Need You" was produced by

and composed by Mary Unobsky,

Priscilla Coolidge Priscilla Coolidge (1941 – October 2, 2014) was an American recording artist and sister of singer Rita Coolidge. Life and career Coolidge was born in Lafayette, Tennessee. Between 1969 and 1979, she was married to Booker T. Jones, who produce ...

and William Smith. The single's

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was "Believe in Magic". Both "I Need You" and "Believe in Magic" came from Maurice White's 1985 self-titled album.

Critical reception

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'' proclaimed that "the brisk ballad (I) Need You is terrific too, especially welcome for White’s stirring vocal." Simon Warner of

Popmatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

noted that the song has "enough lush hooks". Andrew Hamilton of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

also called I Need You "a classy ballad tenderized by White's crafty read."

Personnel

*Backing vocals – Julia Tillman, Marva Holcolm, Maxine Willard *Bass –

Abraham Laboriel Abraham Laboriel López Sr. (born July 17, 1947) is a Mexican-American bassist who has played on over 4,000 recordings and soundtracks. ''Guitar Player'' magazine called him "the most widely used session bassist of our time". Laboriel is the f ...

*Drums –

John Robinson John Robinson may refer to: Academics *John Thomas Romney Robinson (1792–1882), Irish astronomer and physicist * John J. Robinson (1918–1996), historian and author of ''Born in Blood'' *John Talbot Robinson (1923–2001), paleontologist *John ...

*Guitar – Paul Jackson Jr. *Keyboards, Synthesizer – Robbie Buchanan *Percussion – Paulinho Da Costa *Arranged by Robbie Buchanan *Co-producer – Robbie Buchanan *Producer –

*Producer ssociate– Brian Fairweather,

Martin Page Martin George Page (born 23 September 1959) is an English singer-songwriter and bassist. Page has collaborated with artists such as Paul Young, Starship (band), Starship, Robbie Robertson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Heart (band), Heart, Robbie William ...

References

{{reflist 1985 singles Columbia Records singles