"Need You Tonight" is a song by the Australian rock bandINXS, released as the first single from their 1987 album,Kick, as well as the fourth song on the album. It is the only INXS single to reach No. 1 on theBillboard Hot 100. It also achieved their highest charting position in the United Kingdom, where the song reached number two on theUK Singles Chart; however, this peak was only reached after a re-release of the single in November 1988. On its first run on the UK charts in October 1987, it stalled at No. 58. It was one of the last songs recorded for the album, yet it would arguably become the band'ssignature song.
In February 2014, after theChannel 7 screening of theINXS: Never Tear Us Apart mini-series, "Need You Tonight" charted again inAustralia via download sales. It peaked at No. 28 on the ARIA Singles Chart.[5] In January 2018, as part ofTriple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Need You Tonight" was ranked number 69.[6] In 2025, the song was ranked at number 59 on theTriple J Hottest 100 of Australian Songs.[7]
Themusic video combined live action and different kinds of animation. Directed byRichard Lowenstein, the video was actually "Need You Tonight / Mediate", as it combined two songs from the album. Lowenstein claimed that the particular visual effects in "Need You Tonight" were created by cutting up 35mm film and photocopying the individual frames, before re-layering those images over the original footage.[citation needed]
For "Mediate", it segues into a tribute toBob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues". The members flip cue cards with words from the song; the last one displays the words "Sax Solo," at which point Kirk Pengilly starts a saxophone solo. Beneath the lyric "a special date" in the "Mediate" portion of the video, the cue card shown reads "9-8-1945" which in Australian date format is 9 August 1945, the date which the atomic bomb was dropped onNagasaki,Japan.
Rogue Traders covered and remixed "Need You Tonight" and released it as a single in Australia. The song was renamed "One of My Kind", where it reached No. 10 on the Australian Top 100 Singles Chart, becoming their first top-10 hit. "One of My Kind" is the second single released by theRogue Traders for their debut albumWe Know What You're Up To.[citation needed]
The music video is set in a dance party where the lizard on the single cover wanders around looking for a girl of his kind. He finds one looking lonely. The two sit together and he sings the line 'you're one of my kind' before the video ends.[50]
Australian singerKylie Minogue performed the song as part of the setlist of herKiss Me Once Tour. Minogue, a one-time romantic partner of the late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence, considered her performances of the song to be a tribute to him.[57]
