"What I Want" is a song recorded by American rock band Daughtry for their self titled debut album (2007). It was released to

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

radio in the United States on April 23, 2007 as the second US rock single and third overall single from the album. The song features

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band comprised vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKa ...

lead guitarist

Slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...

on guitar, earning him his first featured artist credit on a song. The band opted to release the track to rock radio only, because their second single, "

Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

", was not being played on rock stations due to its lighter sound. Since the band had had success on the format with their first single, " It's Not Over", they wanted to follow the song up, so they opted to release "What I Want". Since this was not a full single release, a music video for the song was not made. "What I Want" is also featured as one of the songs on the '' Guitar Hero: On Tour'' game for the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

Composition

"What I Want" is a

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

song written by

Chris Daughtry Christopher Adam Daughtry (; born December 26, 1979) is an American singer, musician, and actor. He is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the rock band Daughtry, which he formed after placing fourth on the fifth season of ''American I ...

and

Brian Howes Brian Howes, also known as Howes, is a Canadian songwriter and record producer. Career Howes played in a British Columbia band, Young Guns, and later fronted the group DDT which blended punk, ska, and rap. The band was signed to Metallica drumme ...

and was one of the first tracks written for the ''Daughtry'' album. According to the digital sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by

Universal Music Publishing Group Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) is a North American music publishing company and is part of the Universal Music Group. It was formerly known as MCA Music Publishing until it merged with PolyGram. Universal Music Publishing is the worl ...

, "What I Want" was originally composed in the key of

E major E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, ...

and set to a "driving rock" tempo of 140 BPM. Daughtry's vocals range from F – B#.

Charts

The single was one of the most added tracks to rock radio upon its release and peaked at number six on the ''Billboard''

Mainstream Rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent the middle ground between classic rock and active rock ...

chart. It also charted in Canada despite limited promotion, peaking at 93 on the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

2006 songs 2007 singles Daughtry (band) songs 19 Recordings singles American hard rock songs Song recordings produced by Howard Benson Songs written by Chris Daughtry Songs written by Brian Howes {{2000s-rock-single-stub