‘All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You’ is a song by American rock band Heart. It was composed by veteran songwriter and producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange and released as the lead single from the band's tenth studio album, Brigade, in March 1990. The song was first recorded as ‘All I Want to Do Is Make Love to You’ by Dobie Gray in 1979, though with different lyrics. The Heart version tells the story of a woman who sets out to seduce a hitchhiker in order to become pregnant because although there is a man in her life, he is infertile.
‘All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You’ was a success, spending two weeks at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number eight on the UK Singles Chart (becoming their last top ten in the US and UK), and reaching number one in Canada and Australia. At the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards, the song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group, and is the only one of Heart's singles to have been certified gold by the RIAA. On the Adult Contemporary chart, the song climbed to number six, becoming the third of Heart's four top-ten AC hits (after ‘These Dreams’ and ‘Alone’).
In the liner notes of Heart's album The Road Home, Ann Wilson commented on the band's dislike for the song, stating, "Actually we had sworn off it because it kind of stood for everything we wanted to get away from. It was a song by 'Mutt' Lange, who we liked, and it was originally written for Don Henley, but there was a lot of pressure on us to do the song at the time." Ann Wilson has made a number of comments on her dislike for the song, calling the song's message "hideous" in an interview with Dan Rather. In that same interview, Ann mentions that she's surprised at how many of their fans, especially in Australia and New Zealand, want to hear the song to this day when Heart plays live. Although Heart does not perform this song any more due to Ann's dislike of it, Ann did eventually perform this song on her 2017 tour, though her version of the song had a few changes.
In the Heart version of the song, which is also played out in the accompanying music video, interspersed with sequences of the band performing the song, singer Ann Wilson sings of a one-night stand with a handsome young male hitchhiker. After an implicit agreement to remain anonymous, they make their way to a hotel room in which to have sex. The lyrics make the suggestion that this may not be the first time the female protagonist has engaged in such behaviors, noting her familiarity with this particular hotel. The song explicitly highlights the sexual prowess of the young man, and his ability to easily and repeatedly bring the female protagonist to orgasm. She leaves a note with instructions for the man to make no attempt to contact her or track her down. It is subsequently revealed that her intent all along was to use the encounter as a way to become pregnant. The lyrics explain later, when she accidentally crosses paths with the one-time lover, that her baby is the result of their tryst and she did it only because the man she is in love with is not able to father children.
Label – Capitol
Songwriter – Robert John "Mutt" Lange
Producer – Richie Zito
SONG LYRICS
It was a rainy nightWhen he came into sight
Standing by the road
With no umbrella, no coat
So I pulled up along side
And I offered him a ride
He accepted with a smile
So we drove for a while
I didn't ask him his name
This lonely boy in the rain
Fate, tell me it's right
Is this love at first sight?
Please don't make it wrong
Just stay for a night
All I wanna do is make love to you
Say you will, you want me too
All I wanna do is make love to you
I got loving arms to hold onto
So we found this hotel
It was a place I knew well
We made magic that night
Oh, he did everything right
He brought the woman out of me
So many times, easily
And in the morning, when he woke
All I left him was a note
I told him I am the flower
You are the seed
We walked in the garden
We planted a tree
Don't try to find me
Please don't you dare
Just live in my memory
You'll always be there
All I wanna do is make love to you
One night of love was all we knew
All I wanna do is make love to you
I got loving arms to hold onto
Whoa, oh, we made love
Love like strangers
All night long
We made love
Then it happened one day
We came 'round the same way
You can imagine his surprise
When he saw his own eyes
I said, "Please, please understand
I'm in love with another man
And what he couldn't give me, oh, whoa
Was the one little thing that you can"
All I wanna do is make love to you
One night of love was all we knew
All I wanna do is make love to you
Come on, say you will, you want me too
All I wanna do is make love to you
One night of love was all we knew
All I wanna do is make love to you
Say you will, baby, want me too
All night long, all night long
All night long, all night long
All I wanna do, all I wanna do
All I wanna do, all I wanna do
All I wanna do is make love to you
One night of love was all we knew