THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER

620-The Vaccines-If You Wanna.

2012-Number 35 single.

Best Bit-At 0.47.When they originally chose their name, they could not possibly have known it would become one of the most important words in the English language.

The Vaccines are an Indie Rock band formed in West London, England, in 2010 by Justin Hayward-Young (lead vocals, and guitar,) Freddie Cowan (lead guitar, and vocals,) Arni Amason (bass, and vocals,) and Pete Robertson (drums, and vocals.) In 2016 Robertson left the band, and the touring musicians Timothy Lanham (keyboards,) and Yoann Intonti (drums,) both became full time members.To date they have released four studio Albums, including their second release ‘Come of Age’ in 2012,’ which went to Number 1 in the UK, they have sold in excess of 2 million records worldwide to date.

The Vaccines, especially on their earlier Albums, have a retro sound, dating back to the ‘Punk’ era of the mid to late 1970’s, and this song, particularly to my ear sounds like something The Ramones (see also best songs 707 and 102) would have been proud of, perhaps The Vaccines would have been even more successful had they been born 40 years earlier.

‘If You Wanna’ is the third single taken from The Vaccines debut Album ‘What Did You Expect from The Vaccines?’ from 2010, with songwriting credits given to all of the band members. The song is about a break up, with the narrator trying to come to terms with the fact that his girlfriend doesn’t want to be with him anymore. Justin Haywood-Young has said,’The lyrics are pretty defeatist, maybe even slightly pathetic, but we’ve all been there. I wanted us to have a song with really downbeat lyrics, juxtaposed with a poppy, and upbeat melody. Hayward-Young has also said that the song had a different chorus before he came up with a new one,’I thought it was like super cheesy, and I kind of got shivers down my spine like,’Eww, I feel dirty,’ and everyone in the room was like,’No’, that was really cool, that’s a much better chorus.’ I think that was a real turning point for the band, because I think it was like me accepting that I write really cheesy pop songs, and so I should embrace that as a writer.’

‘Well I don’t want to wake up in the morning, but I’ve got to face the day, that’s what all the friends I do not like as much as you say.’