When I'm with You
"
When I'm with You" is a
power ballad by
Canadian
arena rock band
Sheriff. It hit number one in the
United States in 1989, four years after the band separated.
Sheriff's keyboardist
Arnold Lanni wrote the song after meeting a woman that he fell in love with, Valeri Brown. "I sat down, put my coffee on the piano, tinkled some ivories, and four minutes later 80 percent of the song was written" he revealed to
Billboard's Fred Bronson. For
Valentine's Day, Lannie played the song for Valerie and said, "I don't have anything, this is all I can give you right now. It's yours." Valeri loved the song — and married Lanni two years later.
Lannie also played the song to his bandmembers in Sheriff. "The band really liked it, so we started playing it live. That was one of the last songs we recorded when we did the record. The producer said, 'Is there anything else?' I said, 'There's this song we play, it's kind of a wimpy song.' So we played it for him and he said 'Yeah, that's kind of nice.'"
"When I'm with You" was originally released as the third single off Sheriff's eponymous debut album. It entered the
Hot 100 on
May 14,
1983, and peaked at number sixty-one four weeks later. Disappointed by the lack of success the band broke up.
In 1988, a
disc jockey in
Las Vegas began playing the song, and other stations followed. This encouraged
Capitol Records to re-release the song as a single. On
February 4,
1989, "When I'm with You" hit number one in the United States.
By that time Lanni and bassist Wolf Hassell had formed a duo dubbed "Frozen Ghost", and declined to re-form the group. Sheriff's lead vocalist Freddy Curci and guitarist Steve DeMarchi reached the top of the charts again the following year with the similar number-two hit "
More Than Words Can Say".
| Chart (1983) | Peak
position | | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 61 |
| Canadian Chart | 8 |
| Chart (1989) | Peak
position |
|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary | 1 |
*Bronson, Fred (2003).
The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. ISBN 0823076776.
*
"Billboard". Billboard
Hot 100 airplay and sales charts. Retrieved
June 11 2006.
*
When I'm with You lyrics
