“Need You Tonight” by INXS

"Need You Tonight" was the lead single from Kick, the sixth album by Australian band INXS, in 1987, and it's a masterclass in doing more with less. Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence wrote it, and Chris Thomas produced it and mixed it with Bob Clearmountain, with David Nicholas engineering and Paula Jones assisting.

The groove is everything: a taut, clipped guitar lick that barely raises its voice, a beat you feel in your hips more than your ears, and acres of empty space where lesser bands would pile on noise. Hutchence doesn't so much sing as purr, all sultry, coiled cool, and the song never breaks a sweat. It's funk rock stripped to the bone, and it's as slinky as anything the '80s produced.

It went to number three at home in Australia and all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, their only American chart-topper, while making the top five in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK. It came back in February 2014, when the Channel 7 mini-series INXS: Never Tear Us Apart sent download buyers after it and it reached No. 28 on the ARIA chart. In 2018 Triple M's Ozzest 100, a rundown of the most Australian songs of all time, put it at number 69, and in 2025 it placed 59th on the Triple J Hottest 100 of Australian Songs.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.