I Want to Be Wanted

October 1960

And so here's the second of two #1s by Brenda Lee, following "I'm Sorry." It spent a lone week at the top of the chart in October.

It's worth mentioning again that Little Miss Dynamite was only 15 years old in 1960. And here she is, pining for romantic love in a pop song – a little unsettling, no? Let's even put aside the fact that at 15, we can assume she has no idea what love really means. Any love she may have experienced at this age would be firmly of the "puppy" variety.

But who's the target audience for this song (or any of her other songs, for that matter)? I'm sure at least partly, it's 15-year-olds. But as the song was #1 in America – a substantial portion of the people buying and listening to this record must have been quite a bit older. And without dancing around the issue, there is a definite sort of simmering sexuality to this song. The line about wanting "his lips to really kiss me," and even just the general idea/title are not things you'd expect to hear from a person this age. My imagination can't help but conjure up an image of an unshaven old man, sitting at home playing the record with his wife out of the house, licking his lips and sweating. Think about how many copies this sold – statistically, this must have happened at least once. Think about it. Eeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhh.

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