Brenda Lee’s Yearning Whisper: I Want To Be Wanted Echoes Love’s Plea – A Soulful Cry for Love’s Reciprocation, Tinged with Fragile Hope
In September 1960, Brenda Lee released “I Want To Be Wanted (Per Tutta La Vita)”, a single that soared to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 24, holding the top spot for a week and shining at number 7 in the UK a double-sided hit with “Just a Little” that sold over a million copies to earn gold status. Dropped by Decca Records from her album This Is… Brenda, which peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, it was a triumph for the 15-year-old dynamo already known as “Little Miss Dynamite.” For those of us who were there fingers tracing the grooves of a 45 or ears glued to a tinny radio it was Brenda’s voice, small but mighty, that wrapped around us like a secret shared in the dark. Now, in 2025, as I sit with the weight of decades, “I Want To Be Wanted” floats back a tender ghost from a time when love was a dream we dared to speak aloud, and every song felt like it knew our hearts.
The story behind “I Want To Be Wanted” is a tale of translation and tenacity. Originally an Italian ballad, “Per Tutta La Vita” (For All My Life), penned by Pino Spotti and Alberto Testa, it caught the ear of Nashville’s Owen Bradley, Brenda’s producer and mentor. He handed it to Kim Gannon to craft English lyrics, turning it into a raw plea for love’s return. Recorded in Bradley’s Quonset Hut Studio, it was a quick session—Brenda nailed it in a handful of takes, her voice trembling with a maturity that belied her years, backed by strings and a gentle guitar that cradled her like a lullaby. Released as the ‘50s faded and rock ‘n’ roll roared, it was a bridge between the crooners and the new beat, a hit that followed her breakthrough “Sweet Nothin’s” and proved she could rule both pop and heartbreak with equal grace.
The meaning of “I Want To Be Wanted” is a quiet ache it’s a girl laying bare her deepest wish, not just to love but to be loved back, “more than anybody else in this world.” “I want to be wanted, needed each night and day,” Brenda sings, and it’s a longing so pure it cuts, a hope that someone will see her, hold her, make her the center of their sky. For those of us who clung to it in ’60, it was the sound of sock hops winding down, of scribbled notes passed in class, of a summer dusk when you’d wait by the phone, praying it’d ring. It’s not loud or bold it’s soft, a confession whispered through tears, a dream of being enough that lingered in every teenage heart, and maybe still does. That Italian echo “Per tutta la vita” adds a timeless shiver, a vow we wanted to believe could last a lifetime.
Brenda Lee was a prodigy with a giant’s soul, and “I Want To Be Wanted” sandwiched between “I’m Sorry” and “Emotions” was her crown before the Beatles shifted the tide. I remember it spilling from a jukebox in a malt shop, the way we’d hum it under our breath, the flutter it stirred when you caught someone’s eye across a room. For older hearts now, it’s a portal to 1960 of poodle skirts and Brylcreem, of a world where love was a song away, and Brenda was its truest voice. “I Want To Be Wanted” endures a fragile, fervent wish that still tugs at us, reminding us of the kids we were, yearning to be seen.