THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

620-The Vaccines-If You Wanna’.

2012-Number 35 single.

Best Bit-At 0.48. When they first chose their name, they could not possibly have known that it would become one of the most important words in the English language.

The Vaccines are an ‘Indie Rock’ band who were formed in West London, England, in 2010, by Justin Hayward-Young, (lead vocals, and guitars) Freddie Cowan, (lead guitar, and backing vocals) Árni Árnason, (bass guitar, and backing vocals) and Pete Robertson (drums, percussion, and backing vocals.) In 2016 Robertson left the group, and the bands touring musicians, Timothy Lanham, (keyboards) and Yoann Intonti, (drums) both became full time members. In 2023, Freddie Cowan left the group, having just become a father, stating that he didn’t want to tour all of the time.

The Vaccines who have sold in excess of two million records worldwide to date, have released six studio Albums between 2011-2024, and 26 singles between 2010-2023, there is also one official live Album available. In the UK, all of their studio Albums have reached the top 5 on the Album chart, with their second release ‘Come of Age,’ in 2012, making the Number 1 spot. Four of their singles have also reached the UK top 40 singles chart, with ‘Post Break-Up Sex,’ peaking the highest at Number 32, in 2011.

‘If You Wanna” was the third of six singles released from The Vaccines debut studio Album ‘What Did You Expect from the Vaccines?’ from March 2011, with the writing credits shared amongst all four group members at that time, and the production being by Dan Grech-Marguerat. In 2014 ‘If You Wanna” was used in a television advertisement for the Spanish beer ‘Estrella Damm,’ and due to that, the song reached Number 9 on the ‘Productores de Música de España,’ the Spanish singles music chart, giving The Vaccines their only significant chart hit outside of the UK.

‘If You Wanna” was produced by Dan Grech-Marguerat, who was born Daniel James Grech-Marguerat, on July 11th, 1981, in Bedford, England, he is renowned for his audio mixing of recorded music. Dan Grech has worked with many of the top artists of the 21st Century, including mixing the ‘Scissor Sisters’ second Album ‘Ta-Dah,’ and it’s UK Number 1 single ‘ I Don’t Feel Like Dancin.” Other notable work from Dan Grech includes, the mixing of George Ezra’s second studio Album, ‘Staying At Tamara’s,’ (see also best songs 355) in 2018, and producing eight of the 12 tracks on Liam Gallagher’s debut solo Album As You Were, in 2017. Gallagher has said on working with Grech, ‘I’ll play him a tune very badly and he’ll go, ‘Yeah, I get where you’re coming from,’ and get the acoustics down, and away we go.’

”If You Wanna” is a song 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,’As with a lot of the lyrics on the record, I’ve tried to be as direct as possible. Sometimes when you want to say something it’s best to not be too clever about it. 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.’ Haywood-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.’

The Vaccines, most notably on their earlier Albums, had a retro sound, dating back to the ‘Punk’ era of the mid to late 1970’s, and ‘If You Wanna,” 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.

‘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.’