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Just What I Always Wanted

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"Just What I Always Wanted"
Single by Mari Wilson
from the album Showpeople
Released1982
Genre
Length3:22
LabelThe Compact Organization, London Records
Songwriter(s)Teddy Johns
Producer(s)Tony Mansfield
Mari Wilson singles chronology
"Baby It's True"
(1982)
"Just What I Always Wanted"
(1982)
"(Beware) Boyfriend"
(1982)

"Just What I Always Wanted" is a song by English singer Mari Wilson, released in 1982 as the lead single from her 1983 debut album Showpeople.

As Wilson's fifth single release, "Just What I Always Wanted" was her first UK top 40 hit, reaching No. 8 in October 1982.[1]

Robin Denselow of The Guardian said of the song: "With 'Just What I Always Wanted', Mari Wilson found the perfect song to fit her image - emotional, slightly camp & sounding as if it might have been a pop hit back in the early 60s. It was tongue-in-cheek but performed with deadpan panache, treated the same way Mari treats her stage uniform with her long gloves, jewellery & enormous beehive hairdo."[2]

The song's lyrics mention three people while listing things that the singer wants: artist Pablo Picasso ("not one Picasso, he'll give me a pair"), the song's writer Teddy Johns ("a tune from Teddy"), and the song's artwork photographer Peter Ashworth ("an Ashworth snap").[3]

Track listing

[edit]
  • A. "Just What I Always Wanted" (Teddy Johns)
  • B1. "Are You There (With Another Girl)" (Bacharach and David)
  • B2. "Woe, Woe, Woe" (Teddy Johns)

Charts

[edit]
Chart (1982/83) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[4] 76
United Kingdom (Official Charts Company) 8

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "MARI WILSON | Artist". Official Charts. Retrieved 2013-06-26.
  2. ^ The Guardian 17 February 1983 "Robert Denselow reviews the new rock releases" Arts p.12
  3. ^ "Just What I Always Wanted". Discogs.
  4. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 340. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.