This was written by Bread keyboardist and singer David Gates, who said, "I had written the song on piano, and when we recorded it on piano, it had no life. I went home demoralized, because I knew it was a good song. So I tried it on guitar and raised it a whole key, then redid it. It made all the difference in the world."
Diction was a prerequisite in soft-rock songs of the '70s, so it was surprising when Bread elided "baby I'm going to want you" into "baby I'm-a want you." David Gates came up with it when he was hashing out syllables that would fit the melody. The "I'm-a" worked so well, he decided to leave it in. Following the "it's not a mistake if you keep doing it" philosophy, he made the next line "baby I'm-a need you" so there'd be no doubt.
One of Bread's trademark songs, it earned the group a Gold single and was the second of their four #1 hits on the Adult Contemporary chart.
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