Arctic Monkeys‘ 2013 song, “I Wanna Be Yours” has been slowly climbing the charts on Spotify this year, as it currently sits at No. 11 globally, thanks to a boost from TikTok and new listeners discovering it.
Here’s what to know about the lyrics behind the romantic track.
Arctic Monkeys’ “I Wanna Be Yours” Lyrics, Explained
The band’s song reached a billion streams earlier this year. However, what some might not know is that the song originally was a poem by John Cooper Clarke, who sat down for an interview with The Guardian about Arctic Monkeys’ success using it.
“Is that a lot?” Clarke had asked about the billion streams stat. “An American billion is different to a British billion – and I don’t know what either of them is. But it’s a f*ck of a lot of listens.”
Clarke first wrote it in 1982, and it gained popularity in the ’90s after being added to the UK school syllabus — which is where Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner first heard of it.
He also spoke with the publication about the line, “I wanna be your electric meter / I will not run out / I wanna be the electric heater / You’ll get cold without,” pointing out that he wanted the poem to be about “elevating yourself to the level of a commodity for the person of your desire. When you’re in love with somebody, you want to be useful to them, indispensable even.”
The band and Clarke have stayed close in the decade since “I Wanna Be Yours” released, with the poet coming out to a few of their concerts this year to recite the words.
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