When I'm with You
Composition and inspiration
Sheriff's keyboardist Arnold Lanni wrote the song after meeting a woman that he fell in love with, Valeri Brown. "I sat down, put my coffee on the piano, tinkled some ivories, and four minutes later 80 percent of the song was written" he revealed to Billboard's Fred Bronson. For Valentine's Day, Lanni played the song for Valerie and said, "I don't have anything, this is all I can give you right now. It's yours." Valeri loved the song — and married Lanni two years later.Lanni also played the song to his bandmembers in Sheriff. "The band really liked it, so we started playing it live. That was one of the last songs we recorded when we did the record. The producer said, 'Is there anything else?' I said, 'There's this song we play, it's kind of a wimpy song.' So we played it for him and he said 'Yeah, that's kind of nice.'"
"When I’m With You" was also a song from the 30’s and 40's sung by Shirley Temple and Alice Faye; however, they are two different songs.
Chart performance
"When I'm with You" was originally released as the third single off Sheriff's eponymous debut album. It entered the Hot 100 on May 14, 1983, and peaked at number sixty-one four weeks later. Disappointed by the lack of success the band broke up.In 1988, a disc jockey in Las Vegas began playing the song, and other stations followed. This encouraged Capitol Records to re-release the song as a single. On February 4, 1989, "When I'm with You" hit number one in the United States.
By that time Lanni and bassist Wolf Hassell had formed a duo dubbed "Frozen Ghost", and declined to re-form the group. Sheriff's lead vocalist Freddy Curci and guitarist Steve DeMarchi subsequently formed the band Alias and reached the top of the charts again the following year with the similar number-two hit "More Than Words Can Say".
Charts
| Chart (1983) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canadian Singles Chart | 8 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 61 |
| Chart (1989) | Peak position |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary | 1 |
References
- Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. ISBN 0-8230-7677-6.
- "Billboard" Billboard Hot 100 airplay and sales charts. Retrieved June 11 2006.
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Sunday August 24, 2008 at 18:57:37 PDT (GMT -0700)
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