"When You Come Back to Me" is a song recorded by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

Jason Donovan Jason Sean Donovan (born 1 June 1968) is an Australian actor and singer. He initially achieved fame in the Australian soap ''Neighbours'', playing Scott Robinson, before beginning a career in music in 1988. In the UK he has sold over 3 mi ...

. It was released on 27 November 1989 as the first single from his second album '' Between the Lines.'' It charted in the UK on 9 December 1989, peaking at number two the following week and returning to the same position in January 1990, becoming one of his biggest selling singles in Britain.Official Charts Company
/ref> Reaching a disappointing number 40 in Australia, the track was Jason's final top 40 chart hit in his home country.

Background

As with all Donovan's early recordings, "When You Come Back to Me" was written and produced by the production team Stock, Aitken & Waterman. In addition,

Matt Aitken Matthew James Aitken (born 25 August 1956) is an English songwriter and record producer, brought up in Astley, Greater Manchester, best known as the creative force behind the 1980s and early 1990s songwriting/production trio Stock Aitken Waterman ...

contributed

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

; Mike Stock provided backing vocals, and both played

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

on the track. The track was deliberately composed to evoke the

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

season in the UK, without making any explicit auditory or lyrical references. Composer Mike Stock did not want to write a song that was "exploitative of the Christmas message" and was conscious an overtly festive song would go quickly out of date after Christmas had finished. However the song's evocation of a London Christmas has been blamed for its chart failure in Australia, where the track received a January 1990 release. An instrumental version and three

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

es augmented the standard edit for the single release.Discogs
/ref>

Track listings

* 7" single (PWL46) :A. "When You Come Back to Me" – 3:31 :B. "When You Come Back to Me" (instrumental) – 3:33 * 7" single poster bag (PWLP46) :A. "When You Come Back to Me" (the Yuletide Sleigh List Mix mix) – 4:40 :B. "When You Come Back to Me" (instrumental) – 3:33 * 7" single picture disc (PWLX46) :A. "When You Come Back to Me" – 3:31 :B. "When You Come Back to Me" (instrumental) – 3:33 * 12" single (PWLT46) :A. "When You Come Back to Me (extended)" – 5:48 :B1. "When You Come Back to Me (No Probs mix) – 5:34 :B2. "When You Come Back to Me (instrumental) – 3:33 * Cassette Single (PWMC46) # "When You Come Back to Me" – 3:31 # "When You Come Back to Me" (instrumental) – 3:33 * CD Single (PWCD46) # "When You Come Back to Me" – 3:31 # "When You Come Back to Me" (extended) – 5:48 # "When You Come Back to Me" (instrumental) – 3:33 Note: Mixed by Dave Ford, the "instrumental" version is not the instrumental of the single version to which it accompanied, but rather a stripped back guitar orientated version, identified on the 2009 iTunes releases as the "Guitar instrumental".

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Jason Donovan 1989 singles Jason Donovan songs Songs written by Pete Waterman Songs written by Matt Aitken Songs written by Mike Stock (musician) Dance-pop songs Song recordings produced by Stock Aitken Waterman 1989 songs Pete Waterman Entertainment singles Number-one singles in Finland Irish Singles Chart number-one singles