Need You Tonight


"Need You Tonight" is a song by the Australian rock band INXS, released as the lead single from their sixth studio album, Kick. In additional to reaching number three in Australia, the song became a chart hit worldwide, peaking at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart to give INXS their only number-one single in the United States. It also entered the top five in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
In February 2014, after the Channel 7 screening of the INXS: Never Tear Us Apart mini-series, "Need You Tonight" charted again in Australia via download sales. It peaked at No. 28 on the ARIA Singles Chart. In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Need You Tonight" was ranked number 69. In 2025, the song was ranked at number 59 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of Australian Songs.

Music video

The music video combined live action and different kinds of animation. Directed by Richard Lowenstein, the video was actually "Need You Tonight / Mediate", as it combined two songs from the album. Lowenstein claimed that the particular visual effects in "Need You Tonight" were created by cutting up 35mm film and photocopying the individual frames, before re-layering those images over the original footage.
For "Mediate", it segues into a tribute to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues". The members flip cue cards with words from the song; the last one displays the words "Sax Solo," at which point Kirk Pengilly starts a saxophone solo. Beneath the lyric "a special date" in the "Mediate" portion of the video, the cue card shown reads "9-8-1945" which in Australian date format is 9 August 1945, the date which the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
The video won five MTV Video Music Awards including 1988 Video of The Year and was ranked at number twenty-one on MTV's countdown of the 100 greatest videos of all time.

Track listings

7-inch single
  1. "Need You Tonight" – 3:01
  2. "I'm Coming " – 4:54
7-inch single
  1. "Need You Tonight" – 3:01
  2. "Need You Tonight" – 7:02
12-inch single
  1. "Need You Tonight" – 3:01
  2. "Mediate" – 2:35
  3. "I'm Coming " – 4:53
12-inch single
  1. "Need You Tonight" – 7:02
  2. "Move On" – 4:47
  3. "Kiss the Dirt " – 3:54
12-inch single
  1. "Need You Tonight" – 7:18
  2. "Move On" – 4:47
  3. "New Sensation" – 6:30
Maxi-CD single
  1. "Need You Tonight" – 3:05
  2. "Don't Dream It's Over" – 4:00
  3. "Need You Tonight" – 6:36
  4. "Need You Tonight" – 4:03
UK Re-release CD single
  1. "Need You Tonight" – 5:11
  2. "Move On"
  3. "Original Sin"
  4. "Don't Change"

    Personnel

Personnel are sourced from Mix.

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position

Chart Peak
position

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Belgium 67
Canada Top Singles 19
Europe 51
UK Singles 51
US Billboard Hot 1002
US Cash Box16
West Germany 66

Chart Position
Europe 63

Certifications

Release history

Rogue Traders remix

covered and remixed "Need You Tonight" and released it as a single in Australia. The song was renamed "One of My Kind", where it reached No. 10 on the Australian Top 100 Singles Chart, becoming their first top-10 hit. "One of My Kind" is the second single released by the Rogue Traders for their debut album We Know What You're Up To.
The music video is set in a dance party where the lizard on the single cover wanders around looking for a girl of his kind. He finds one looking lonely. The two sit together and he sings the line 'you're one of my kind' before the video ends.
The Sam Bennetts and Rising Sun Pictures directed music video was nominated for Best Video at the ARIA Music Awards of 2003.

Track listings

Maxi-CD single
  1. "One of My Kind"
  2. "One of My Kind"
  3. "One of My Kind"
12-inch vinyl
  1. "One of My Kind"
  2. "One of My Kind"
  3. "One of My Kind"
Australian CD single
  1. "One of My Kind"
  2. "One of My Kind"
  3. "One of My Kind"
  4. "One of My Kind"
  5. "Make It Better"

    Charts

The single spent 15 weeks on the ARIA Charts, nine of which were in the top 50. The single also topped the ARIA Club and Dance charts.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Other cover versions