"What You Need" is a song recorded by the Australian band

INXS INXS (a word play, phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian Rock music, rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboar ...

. It is the leadoff track from their 1985 album, ''

Listen Like Thieves ''Listen Like Thieves'' is the fifth studio album by Australian Rock music, rock band INXS. It was released on 14 October 1985. It spent two weeks at number one on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart. Considered an internati ...

''. "What You Need" was the lead single off the album in Australia and New Zealand, while it was in USA and Europe the second single after "This Time" and was the band's first American Top Ten hit, peaking at #5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart. After the album ''Listen Like Thieves'' was recorded and ready to be given to the record label for inspection, producer Chris Thomas was worried that the album didn't have a "hit". As Andrew Farriss recalled in a 2005 interview; "'What You Need' is another example of a huge hit that essentially took no time at all. We'd already finished the ''Listen Like Thieves'' album but Chris Thomas (the producer) told us there was still no "hit". We left the studio that night knowing we had one day left and we had to deliver "a hit". Talk about pressure. The band's performance on that track is amazing. We absolutely nailed it." A remixed version of "What You Need" was featured in the soundtrack of sports video game ''

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''.

Music video

The music video for the song was created using an animation technique known as

rotoscope Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a glass panel and traced o ...

. At the ''Countdown'' Music and Video Awards for 1985, the award for Best Video for "What You Need" by INXS was shared by

Richard Lowenstein Richard Lowenstein (born 1 March 1959) is an Australian filmmaker. He has written, produced and directed: feature films, including '' Strikebound'' (1984), ''Dogs in Space'' (1986) and ''He Died with a Felafel in His Hand'' (2001); music videos ...

and Lynn-Maree Milburn.

Track listing

UK 7" INXS 12 # "What You Need" – 3:35 # "Sweet As Sin" – 2:20 UK 12" single INXS 512 # "What You Need" (Remix) – 5:35 (Remix: Nick Launay) # "Sweet As Sin" – 2:21 # "What You Need" (Live) – 3:56 # "The One Thing" (Live) – 3:31

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Notable appearances in other media

* This song played in an episode of the American crime drama series ''

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'' on 2 May 1986. * This song played in an episode of the British soap opera series ''

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'' in May 1986. * This song played in the

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original movie '' Hysterical Blindness'' in 2002. * This song played in the American crime drama movie ''

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'' in 2003. * This song played in the American sci-fi comedy movie ''

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'' in 2010. * This song played in the American romantic comedy-drama '' Take Me Home Tonight'' in 2011. * This song played in an episode of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

original series ''

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'' in 2019.

References

{{Authority control INXS songs 1986 singles APRA Award winners Songs written by Andrew Farriss Songs written by Michael Hutchence Song recordings produced by Chris Thomas (record producer) 1985 songs Atlantic Records singles