"To Be with You" is a soft rock ballad by American hard rock band Mr. Big. It was released in late 1991 as the second single from their second album, Lean into It. The song reached number one on the US BillboardHot 100 for three weeks and topped the charts in 11 other countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.
Background and writing
The song was written and composed by Eric Martin during his teen years, with guitarist Paul Gilbert contributing to its melodic arrangements later on. Writing credit is also given to David Grahame, a songwriter working for the label at the time. While in Gilbert's apartment at Yucca Street in L.A., he and Martin were laying out their compositions. Martin had a ballad called "To Be with You". Gilbert had his psychedelic rock song called "Green Tinted Sixties Mind". Both felt the two songs were strong enough to be included in their upcoming album, despite it being purely rock; and true enough, these songs remained throughout the course of their career as a group and as solo artists.
Content
"To Be with You" is about a man who has his eye on a woman who recently experienced a broken heart from a previous relationship. When Martin was a sophomore in high school, he was friends with his older sister's friend. She would give him rides to school and tell him about all the boy problems she had. Martin had a huge crush on her, but didn't tell her since he knew a senior would never go out with a sophomore. Martin wrote this song about her.
Critical reception
Billboard commented that "headbangers get folky on this harmonious strummer." They noted further that "hand-clapping, sing-along chorus entices, while front man Eric Martin's voice has rarely sounded sweeter."
Music video
The music video was directed by Nancy Bennett and features the band performing in a railroad car. The video changes from black & white to color around the halfway mark.
The Irishpop band Westlife recorded a cover of the song and made it to their Turnaround album in 2003 and performed it live subsequently. It was also performed in their 2003 Unbreakable Tour.
