Need You Tonight

Exactly 25 years ago, Australian band INXS hit number one on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart with “Need You Tonight.”  The song, which spent one week at the top, would be the band’s only number one hit in the United States and, thus, the biggest hit in the band’s U.S. charting history (though, interestingly enough, in their native Australia, “Need You Tonight” only reached number two, and their earlier single, “Original Sin,” has been their only chart-topper).  “Need You Tonight” was also the first single off the band’s highest-selling album, Kick.

While INXS had hit the top 10 on the Hot 100 once before — with “What You Need” in 1985 — “Need You Tonight” began a string of four straight singles, all from Kick, hitting the top ten — a run that included “Devil Inside,” “New Sensation,” and “Never Tear Us Apart.”  The band would also hit the top ten with two more singles — “Suicide Blonde” and “Disappear” — from their subsequent album, X, three years later.

Things changed for the band when lead singer Michael Hutchence died in 1997, and after some time without a lead singer and some time with Jon Stevens as their front man, in 2005 the band found a new lead singer in J. D. Fortune on the reality television show Rock Star: INXS.

For more on INXS, check out their official website.