"I Want to Be Wanted" is a

popular song Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Funk ...

performed by

Brenda Lee Brenda Mae Tarpley (born December 11, 1944), known professionally as Brenda Lee, is an American singer. Performing rockabilly, pop and country music, she had 47 US chart hits during the 1960s and is ranked fourth in that decade, surpassed only ...

Background

It is an Italian song, ''Per tutta la vita'' (''For all lifetime''),written by Pino Spotti and Alberto Testa. The song was in the original version of ''

Never on Sunday ''Never on Sunday'' ( el, Ποτέ την Κυριακή, ) is a 1960 Greek romantic comedy film starring, written by and directed by Jules Dassin. The film tells the story of Ilya, a Greek prostitute (Melina Mercouri), and Homer (Dassin), an Am ...

''. The English lyrics of "I Want to Be Wanted" were written by

Kim Gannon James Kimball "Kim" Gannon (November 18, 1900 – April 29, 1974) was an American songwriter, more commonly a lyricist than a composer. Biography Gannon was born in Brooklyn, New York to an Irish-American family from Fort Ann in upstate New ...

Chart performance

"I Want to Be Wanted" was a number-one song in the United States during the year 1960. It topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart for the issue dated October 24, 1960, and remained there for one week. This was Brenda Lee's second number-one single, her first being " I'm Sorry". In the UK, the song went to number thirty-one.

Cover versions

Andy Williams Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...

released a version as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

to his single "

Stranger on the Shore "Stranger on the Shore" is a piece for clarinet written by Acker Bilk for his young daughter and originally named "Jenny" after her. The tune was written on a single scrap of paper by Bilk and handed over to Leon Young (1916-1991) who crafted th ...

". *The song was covered by

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...

on her 1992 album '' Back to Basics: The Essential Collection 1971–1992''.

References

1960 singles 1962 singles Songs with lyrics by Kim Gannon Songs with lyrics by Alberto Testa (lyricist) Brenda Lee songs Andy Williams songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles 1960 songs Decca Records singles {{1960s-pop-song-stub

Background

Chart performance

Cover versions

See also

References