Format CD
7"
12"
cassette | Genre New jack swing | |
B-side "70's Love Groove"
"New Agenda" Released October 11, 1994 (1994-10-11) Recorded Fall 1992; Flyte Tyme Studios
(Edina, Minnesota) Length 4:46 (single mix feat. MC Lyte)
5:05 (album version) | ||
"You Want This" is a song by American singer Janet Jackson from her fifth studio album, Janet (1993). Released as the album's seventh single (sixth and final in the U.S.) in October 1994, the track was written and produced by Jackson and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The single version, also used in the music video, featured an additional rap verse from MC Lyte. The song was listed in the Rock Song Index: The 7500 Most Important Songs for the Rock and Roll Era (2005) by Bruce Pollock.
Contents
Song information
Based on samples from Diana Ross & the Supremes' 1968 song "Love Child" and Kool & the Gang's 1973 song "Jungle Boogie", the song is about Jackson being told by her girls that a guy is watching and wanting her. Jackson proclaims if the guy wants to be with her, he has to work for it. The single contains two B-sides, the janet. track "New Agenda" and the then-unreleased "70's Love Groove", which also appears on 1995's janet. Remixed.
MC Lyte said of the song: "By that time, Janet and I were friends. It was just a matter of her asking if I wanted to do it. I was just about to go on tour with her and do her U.S. leg. Coupled with that, they asked me to do a song with her that we could perform while we were on that tour.”
Chart performance
The single peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and number nine on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and was moderately successful internationally, making it to the top twenty in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The single entered the UK R&B Singles chart at #2.
Music video
The video was directed by Keir McFarlane in August 1994. Loosely based on Russ Meyer's 1965 film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, it centers around Jackson and her friends encountering two men. Set at a motel in the desert, it features car chases and also contains a dance routine towards the end. Two versions of the video, one black-and-white and the other colorized, are available on the 1994 video compilation janet. The colorized version is featured on the repackage of 2001's All for You as well as the 2004 DVD From Janet to Damita Jo: The Videos.
MC Lyte declared: “I was totally psyched to be in a video with Janet Jackson. The only thing I wish I did know how to do was dance [laughs]. Have I been able to dance I could have really participated."
Live Performances
Jackson has performed the song on four of her tours, janet. Tour, Rock Witchu Tour, the Number Ones, Up Close and Personal, and the Unbreakable World Tour.