Format 12"
CD
CS Label Silvertone | Genre Indie rock Writer(s) Ian Brown
John Squire | |
Released Late 1989 (US)
2 September 1991 (UK) Length 4:52 (LP/12" Version)
3:28 (Edit/7" Version) | ||
"I Wanna Be Adored" is a song by the British rock band The Stone Roses. It was the first track on their debut album, The Stone Roses, and was released as a single. The US release charted at number 18 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart in 1990. In 1991, the single was released in the UK, Germany and Japan featuring previously unreleased B-sides.
Contents
Composition
"I Wanna Be Adored" begins with a collage of sounds. The first instrument to enter is the bass guitar, which appears 40 seconds in. This is followed by two guitars, one of which plays a pentatonic scale riff. The bass drum enters at 1:13, and the main portion of the song begins at 1:30.
The song is performed in the key of G. The song features two main sections: a four bar G-D-G-D-Em chord progression, followed by an eight-bar bridge that shifts from D to C repeatedly. The song's lyrics are minimalist, mainly consisting of the lines "I don't need to sell my soul/He's already in me" and the song's title repeated throughout the entire song.
Reception
Ian Brown later performed the B-side, "Where Angels Play", live from 2004, and a new version was included on the B-side of his single, "Time Is My Everything". In 2006, the music magazine Q voted it 32nd in its list of 100 greatest songs of all time. In May 2007, NME magazine placed "I Wanna Be Adored" at number 17 in its list of the 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever. VH2 placed the song at #2 on the Indie 500, a countdown of their top 500 indie songs of all time. Though "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" by The Smiths was at number one, on a condensed version showing just the top 50, the songs had swapped places with "I Wanna Be Adored" at number one. Stylus Magazine also included the song's bassline at number 17 in their 2005 list of the "Top 50 Basslines of All Time".
Oasis refer to The Stone Roses by quoting the song in "Magic Pie": "They are sleeping while they dream/and they who wanna be adored".
The song appears on the soundtrack of the Michael Winterbottom film Welcome to Sarajevo and on the soundtrack of the 2005 film Green Street, directed by Lexi Alexander and starring Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam and Marc Warren. It also appeared on the fifth season of American Horror Story in the episode "Battle Royale".
1989 US release
Cassette (Silvertone 1301-4-JS)
CD (Silvertone 1301-2-JD)
- I Wanna Be Adored (edit) (3:28)
- I Wanna Be Adored (4:52)
- Going Down (2:46)
- Simone (4:24)
1991 UK release
Cassette (Silvertone ORE C 31)
- I Wanna Be Adored (3:28)
- Where Angels Play (4:15)
- I Wanna Be Adored (4:52)
- Where Angels Play (4:15)
- Sally Cinnamon (Live at the Hacienda) (3:52)
- I Wanna Be Adored (7" version) (3:28)
- Where Angels Play (4:15)
- I Wanna Be Adored (12" version) (4:53)
- Sally Cinnamon (Live at the Hacienda) (3:52)
1991 Japanese release
- I Wanna Be Adored (12" version) (4:53)
- Where Angels Play (4:15)
- Sally Cinnamon (Live at the Hacienda) (3:52)
- Fools Gold (Extended version) (9:53)
Music video
The music video for I Wanna Be Adored was made concurrently with Fools Gold for the American release of the single in 1989. Hence the videos share similar visual effects and scenery.
Cover versions
Cover versions of "I Wanna Be Adored" have been recorded by the following musical groups or artists: