An Open-Hearted Plea: The Pure, Uncomplicated Yearning of a Teen Idol
“I Wanna Be With You” embodies the sweet, urgent, and uncomplicated desire of young love in the shimmering, sun-drenched era of the late 1970s.
If you were a young person with a radio dial glued to your ear in the summer of ’77, chances are your heart had already been utterly captured by the phenomenon that was Shaun Cassidy. His debut album, simply titled Shaun Cassidy, was a tidal wave of infectious pop, and while it was the covers—the doo-wop delight of “Da Doo Ron Ron” and the pure rock energy of Eric Carmen’s “That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll”—that provided the massive commercial punch, it’s often the deeper cuts that linger in the memory, holding a more intimate, reflective space. “I Wanna Be With You” is one such track. It appeared on the U.S. version of his debut album, released in June 1977, and it served as the B-side to the hugely successful single, “That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll,” which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1977. While “I Wanna Be With You” didn’t chart independently, its presence on the flip side of a Gold-certified, major Top 10 hit ensured it reached millions of turntables, becoming an essential, quieter part of the Shaun Cassidy soundscape.
The story behind this song, an original composition by Michael Lloyd, who was also the album’s producer, isn’t one of grand, tumultuous romance, but rather one of skillful teen-pop alchemy. Shaun Cassidy himself was riding an unprecedented wave of celebrity, fueled by his role as Joe Hardy in the wildly popular television series The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. Every song he released was instantly magnified by his teen idol status—a torch he had taken up from his legendary half-brother, David Cassidy. This context is crucial. The song’s meaning is in its simplicity and sincerity: it is a straightforward, earnest declaration of longing. The lyrics paint a picture of a youthful infatuation so complete that everything else fades away. “I wanna be with you, just you, all the time, all the way…” It’s the ultimate uncomplicated sentiment, free from the cynicism or complex arrangements of later decades.
For those of us who came of age during that time, this track, with its shimmering guitars and Shaun’s slightly raw, yet utterly charming vocal delivery, evokes the pure, dizzying sensation of a first crush. It’s the soundtrack to long summer drives, phone calls that lasted until 2 AM, and the bittersweet ache of knowing you were hopelessly in love, but maybe too shy to say it out loud. It was Shaun Cassidy who said it for us, wrapping that emotion in a perfect, polished pop package. Michael Lloyd’s production is bright and airy, a perfect complement to Shaun’s image—wholesome, energetic, and overwhelmingly appealing. While his biggest singles were covers, this song shows the strength of the original material that helped define his sound, ensuring that even the lesser-known tracks from his debut album, like this one, remain deeply etched in the collective memory of a generation.