Richard Rudolph was born on 27 October 1946. He started in the music business as a songwriter at Chicago’s legendary Chess Records in 1969. One of his first compositions to be recorded was the title song for Minnie Riperton’s debut solo album, ‘Come to my garden’. This began a multi-song collaboration with Charles Stepney, the renowned producer of Earth, Wind and Fire fame. Together they wrote many songs for Ms. Riperton and The Rotary Connection.
Rudolph’s career as a record producer began when he and Stevie Wonder joined forces to produce Minnie Riperton’s million-selling album, ‘Perfect angel’. Included in this album was the song ‘Lovin’ you’, written by Richard Rudolph and Minnie Riperton, which went on to become a number 1 song around the world. Riperton and Rudolph were married from 1970 until Riperton’s death in 1979.
Dick Rudolph has written well over two hundred songs in the course of his songwriting career. His many production and writing credits include songs and recordings by Minnie Riperton, Stevie Wonder, Teena Marie, The Manhattan Transfer, A Tribe Called Quest, Michael McDonald, Jermaine Jackson, New Edition, 2Pac, Shanice Wilson, Michael Sembello, The Rotary Connection, The Temptations, Julian Lennon, Patti Austin, Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles, Chaka Khan, Lara Fabian, Nuyorican Soul, Kimiko Kasai, Dawn Robinson of En Vogue and many others.
Besides producing music for and music supervising several feature films such as Cocoon, Running Scared, Black Rain, Flatliners, Weekend at Bernie’s, The Black Dahlia, Virtuosity, Duets and many others, Rudolph has also overseen films for cable, mini series and movies made for television. He served as Executive Music Producer on the Whitney Houston film project, Whitney, for Lifetime Movies. Rudolph has also served as the exclusive music consultant to HBO Pictures and was President of the Atlantic Records distributed label Third Stone Records, a company he co-founded with partner (actor/producer) Michael Douglas.
Swedien, Bruce
Bruce Swedien was born on 19 April 1934 in Minneapolis. He graduated from Minneheart Academy High School and studied electrical Engineering with a minor in music at the University of Minnesota. He studies classical piano technique with private teachers from age 10 to age 18. Bruce married Beatrice Anderson soon after graduation from high school. He began his recording interest with the gift of a disc recording machine from his father on his tenth birthday. Ten minutes later, he decided on music recording as a career. At the age of 14 years, Bruce began working in a small basement recording studio in Minneapolis evenings, weekends and summer vacations. He continued his activity all through his high school years. During the summer of 1953, Bruce tried briefly to work as a Disc-Jockey for a small radio station in nearby Wisconsin, but he always seemed to end up somewhere with his tape recorder, recording some willing musical group. At 19, he began to mold an old movie theater on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis in a fine recording studio that it soon became.
In 1957, Bruce moved with wife Bea and the now three children to Chicago, to work for RCA Victor recording studios. While there, he did several recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He worked there for a year, then went independent. He moved his residence and business to the Los Angeles area in December of 1975. In June of 1977, he went to New York to work with Quincy Jones on the motion picture The Wiz. It was at this occasion that he met and began working with Michael Jackson.
His pop work includes Patti Austin, Natalie Cole, Roberta Flack, Mick Jagger, David Hasselhoff, Jennifer Lopez, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross, Rufus, Chaka Khan, Barbra Streisand, Lena Horne, Donna Summer, and Sarah Vaughan.
Swedien is noted for pioneering the “Acusonic Recording Process”, pairing up microphones together on vocals and instruments, a technique enabled by synchronizing several multi-track recorders with SMPTE timecode. This achieved an enhanced roomy ambient sound, some of which is evident on albums produced in collaboration with Jones on such tracks as George Benson’s ‘Give Me the Night’, and the Michael Jackson albums on which he had worked.
Swedien died on 16 November 2020 of complications from a surgery for a broken hip.
Temperton, Rod
Rod Temperton was born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, on 9 October 1949. He attended De Aston Grammar School, Market Rasen and he formed a group for the school’s music competitions. He was a drummer at this time. On leaving school he started working for Ross Frozen Foods in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. He soon became a full-time musician as a keyboard player, and played in several dance bands. This took him to Worms in Germany. In 1974 he answered an advert in Melody Maker placed by Johnnie Wilder Jr. and as a result became a member of the funk and disco band, Heatwave, which Wilder was putting together at the time. Temperton played Wilder tunes he had been composing. The songs provided material for the album ‘Too hot to handle’ (1976) including ‘Boogie Nights’, which broke the band in Britain and the United States, and the ballad, ‘Always and forever’.
In 1977 Heatwave followed up the success of their first album with their second, Central Heating, Barry Blue again producing, and Temperton behind the majority of the songs. It included ‘The groove line’, another international hit single. In 1978 Temperton decided to concentrate on writing and left Heatwave, though he continued to write for the band.
Temperton’s work attracted the attention of Quincy Jones, and he asked his engineer Bruce Swedien to check out the Heatwave album. In 1979, Temperton was recruited by Jones to write for what became Michael Jackson’s first solo album in four years, and his first full-fledged solo release for Epic Records, entitled ‘Off the wall’. Temperton wrote three songs for the album, including ‘Rock with you’, which became the second US No. 1 single from the album.
In the early 1980s Temperton left Germany and moved to Beverly Hills, California. In 1982 Temperton wrote three songs, including the title track, for Jackson’s next LP, ‘Thriller’, which became the biggest-selling album of all time. Temperton also wrote the spoken word section of the song for the actor Vincent Price.
Temperton wrote successfully for other musicians, his hits including ‘Stomp!’ for The Brothers Johnson, George Benson’s ‘Give ne the night’, ‘Baby, come to me’ for Patti Austin and James Ingram and ‘Yah Mo B There’ for Ingram and Michael McDonald.
Later in 1986 the buddy-cop action-comedy Running Scared was released, featuring five new songs written by Temperton, including Kim Wilde’s Say You Really Want Me, which he produced together with Bruce Swedien and Dick Rudolph. Temperton also composed the film’s score.
On 5 October 2016, Temperton’s death was announced after what was described by his music publisher as ‘a brief aggressive battle with cancer’. Temperton had died at the age of 66 in London the previous week and his funeral had already taken place. The exact date of his death was not announced. Temperton is survived by his wife Kathy. They had homes in Los Angeles, the south of France, Fiji, Switzerland and Kent in south east England.
Say You Really Want Me
Song written by Danny Sembello, Dick Rudolph and D. Spencer jr. A track included on the album Another Step. This track was released on single, first in America in 1986 and then in remixed form in England in 1987. The track was also included in the soundtrack of the movie Running Scared.
Versions
There are twelve different versions of ‘Say You Really Want Me’, some of them hard to distinguish except for track times and the last minute of the track. A full listing follows here:
UK LP first pressing – 4’13 minutes
US LP version and UK LP second (and later) pressing – 3’44 minutes
CHR version on US 7” and Another Step Japanese CD and LP – 3’29 minutes
Urban version – US purple sleeve promo 7” – 3’59 minutes
Canadian promo 7” version – 4’00 minutes [incorrectly labelled as ‘Urban version’ on the 2009 Cherry Pop cd release of ‘Another Step’]
Instrumental version – Canadian promo 7” B-side – 4’22 minutes
Running Scared Soundtrack version – 4’33 minutes
‘Radio edit’ – US green sleeve promo 7” – 5’09 minutes
David Todd remix – US 12” single – 5’48 minutes
Video remix – 9’47 minutes
UK 7” version, remixed by Ricky Wilde – 4’02 minutes
In the US, this single was released on several different 7″ singles and a 12″ single. See also this page in the discography. In the UK, this single was released on 7″ single, a limited edition 7″ single in a gatefold sleeve, a cassette single and two different 12″ singles. See also this page in the discography.
Music video
A music video was filmed to promote the single. It was released in two versions: the regular version (based on the UK 7″ version) and an extended version (based on the Video remix). Both versions were directed by Greg Masuak. Go to this page for more information.
Live performances
‘Say You Really Want Me’ was performed live during the Another Step Tour in 1986 only.
Suddenly I got a phonecall of top producer Rod Temperton, you know him from the Commodores. He needed a singer for a disco song on the movie and the boss of my American record company suggested me. So I flew to L.A. to sing a great song from the composer of the Pointer Sisters’ “Automatic”. I was surprised to get the opportunity because the song is so good, that the biggest American singer would also have recorded it. But they chose me and that’s not just a big honour. I think I can break through in the US with it. Everyone there is very enthusiastic all of a sudden. (1)
I never thought it was a particularly sexy song to start off with, in fact it didn’t sound very much like a single to me, but I think the video makes it stronger. (2)
‘Running scared’ is this awful film that came out last year and my new single ‘Say you really want me’ is actually on the soundtrack. You don’t actually hear it that much in the film. I think it comes on the radio at one point and you hear a tiny snatch of it. My record company in America asked me to do it, saying it would be a good profile to be in this film. I watched the film subsequently and it’s just really boring – trying to be funny when it wasn’t. The plot was dull and predictable, the script was awful and I was raher sad that my record was associated with it. (3)
At that time my career in America went well and we saw it as a bit of promotion. Also there’s a lot of demand for artist who want to contribute to soundtracks at the moment. It’s a good development. After I saw it, I felt ‘Running scared’ was a monstrous movie. Fortunately the song I recorded could only be heard for a few seconds. Next time I’ll be more careful before I say ‘yes’. (4)
Those were the two most delicious days of my life. But you know, we had a lot of fun and it was all clean stuff even though it looked quite rude. D’you know what? I mean the rudest shot wasn’t even very rude and I didn’t know I was gonna do it until the director said: ‘Hey, I’ve got this great idea for a shot. I want you writhing in the bed, four guys, boxer shorts, lots of water’ and I said, ‘Sounds great, let’s do it!’. (5)
I had no idea about pearl necklaces. I think, you know, girls don’t know about that. It wasn’t until afterwards that someone told me, ‘you know what that’s all about, don’t you?’. So I was pretty naive still in those days. (laughs) (6)
Credits
Keyboards: Danny Sembello Produced by Rod Temperton, Dick Rudolph and Bruce Swedien
Highest chart positions
Canada: 48 Ireland: 18 (2 weeks) United Kingdom: 29 (5 weeks) United States: 44 (8 weeks)
Why you always got to be so cool
And why I always got to play your fool
You don’t really know what life’s about
Baby come and let your feelings out
Say you really want me
Don’t keep it to yourself
Say you really need me
Just me and no one else
Say you really love me
Ooh let me know it’s true
Say you really want me
The way that I want you tonight
You don’t know a thing about romance
Deep inside you’re scared to take the chance
‘Cos love like this may never come again
Make your move or I’ll be in the wind
I need somebody through the thick and the thin
‘Cos I know the problems of today
The time is over now for playing those games
Lets take it all the way
The Roxy
Date
8 August 1987 Channel
ITV (UK)
Kim appeared in the very first edition of The Roxy, to lipsynch ‘Say you really want me’ dressed in a stunning red dress.
Good morning Britain
Date
6 August 1987 Channel
ITV (UK)
Interview with Kim Wilde on the occasion of the release of her new single and video ‘Say you really want me’.
We got you in because your new record is out, isn’t it, and the video is a bit naughty?
Well, er, apparently, some people think it’s a bit saucy. I suppose it depends what’s going on in your mind when you look at it. (Laughs) What was going on in your mind when you looked at it, that what I’d like to know.
And it’s to accompany your song ‘Say you really want me’. Tell us a bit about that.
Well, it’s my new single, it’s currently out in America as well, and it’s number 40 or something over there right now, it went up last night quite nicely, so hopefully it will do that well over here.
You’ve just come up from the States, didn’t you?
Um, not just. But I have been there a lot, ‘Hangin’ on’ did incredibly well, so we’re hoping ‘Say you really want me’ is gonna consolidate that success. It’s the first time I’ve had real success in America in the six years that I’ve been making records. Very exciting.
Do you travel all over the States, or particular areas?
Well, I was all over the place, every state doing radio promotion. I worked really hard with ‘Hangin’ on’, it didn’t just happen. And I just spent a lot of time over there, but recently I’ve been spending a lot of time here doing various TV’s for this single and also the Elvis Presley tribute show which is on next week, which is great fun.
Yeah, you got involved with that, haven’t you? Three songs?
Yeah, that was fabulous, working with loads of different people, singing Elvis songs in a tribute to Elvis Presley.
Good that you got involved with that, because a lot of people now, young people particularly, won’t be certain as to how big Elvis was. I’m sure you grew up with your dad telling you how great he was, what a great singer he was.
Oh yeah, a great singer, with great songs, and a great time in rock history. You know, the beginning of it, virtually.
Do you still listen to Elvis Presley songs?
Oh yeah, I still listen to Elvis Presley songs and not only is he brilliant, but the people he surrounded himself with, Scotty Moore and Bill Black, his musicians, so he was a real innovator of his time, you know. And some of his records were the first records where he used things like echo and all kinds of effects on guitars that have mashed people’s ears at the time, it’s stuff that we take for granted now, because it’s pretty run of the mill, but at the time it was quite phenomenal.
Sounds as though it influenced you quite a lot.
Well yeah, he’s much loved in our family. We all love him.
You’re making a few friends now yourself, aren’t you? You mentioned America, they love you over there, don’t they?
I hope so… I haven’t been back there since I got to number one… So I’m quite looking forward to doing that. That’ll be fun.
You’re not like Samantha Fox, who came to our programme last week and said she’s huge down under and big in Japan.
Yes… It’s a very good quote, Sam, isn’t it? No, she’s very successful everywhere, in fact we’re both big everywhere. (Laughs)
(…)
Kim’s video performance has been banned by one TV programme fpr being too raunchy for kids. And it’s even too wild for TVAM, Kim Wilde.
Oh you’re kidding. You mean you drive me all the way down here and you’re not gonna put a bit on the telly? (Laughs)
We’ve all been watching it subliminary.
…It’ll wake everybody up!
What’s it all about? Is it all a lot of fuss about nowt, or do you think it’s a bit naughty?
We didn’t make it on purpose to get it banned or anything, it hasn’t really been banned except for one kids programme, I think it will be played, it will be on the box in a few weeks’ time. It’s not like the same controversy that surrounded the George Michael thing, it’s not meant to either. I feel I have got some good press out of it, and it is quite steamy.
It’s a bit raunchy, isn’t it?
Yeah… But it would be quite boring if pop music started becoming incredibly safe and santized.
How do you answer your critics then, who say you deliberately go out to make a raunchy video, to get it banned, so that everybody wants to see it and it goes to number one?
Well, er, I don’t know if that’s a criticism really or a compliment. If you achieve it and do it well, then I’d say, yes!
Obviously, we’re all being deadly serious right now, aren’t we, crikey, but…
It’s a bit of fun, really, it wasn’t meant to be taken so seriously.
But I guess it’s the climate now, isn’t it Kim? The climate nowadays is that people are just watching it a bit, being a bit careful because of the feeling they’ve got enormous responsibilities with the people that watch them and buy their songs?
I think everybody has an enormous responsibility to their kids, you know. And when the kids TV show says that they didn’t want the video in the program, I thought, okay, fine. If it’s too naughty for the nine-year-olds, I’m with that. If that’s what they feel. Except personally I don’t agree with that. I think there’s far more disturbing things that are televised than me having a good time on a video. And it isn’t an obscene video at all, it’s about having fun and enjoying pop music and enjoying a video as well.
You’ve got two younger sisters as well, haven’t you? I presume you wouldn’t…
Roxanne is eight and my brother’s seven and they’ve watched it and the way they see it is that Kim is on there and I look nice and I look like I’m having fun and… It’s not in their minds that it’s bad. It’s probably in your mind.
Tell us about the song.
Well, ‘Say you really want me’ I recorded about a year ago for the soundtrack of ‘Running Scared’, which is kindof a sleeping track on the album. And I’ve just decided to release it. It’s doing well in America, and what with the video and everything it’s all going nicely!
I’ve got an idea. Shall we listen?
And the video!
Well, er… We’ve actually edited your video so carefully you won’t sense it happening. You might see a lot of pictures of young children instead. But it’s our interpretation of your video (laughs). What a stupid lie! (Laughs) (‘Say you really want me’ played over pictures of children who are celebrating their birthday on the day.)
Say you really want me (extended music video)
Date
20 July 1987 Channel
Directed by Greg Masuak.
Extended version of the Say you really want me music video, featuring more outtakes from the sessions recorded with Kim and the models.
This video was recorded in Battersea and Clapham Common. It basically consists of footage of half naked men stroking themselves and Kim, who dances with a string of (fake) pearls around her neck. Through the use of a videowall Kim sometimes dances in front of the men, and the men dance in front of Kim, who’s singing the song.
Say you really want me (music video)
Date
20 July 1987 Channel
Directed by Greg Masuak.
This video was recorded in Battersea and Clapham Common. It basically consists of footage of half naked men stroking themselves and Kim, who dances with a string of (fake) pearls around her neck. Through the use of a videowall Kim sometimes dances in front of the men, and the men dance in front of Kim, who’s singing the song.
Kenny Everett Show
Date
12 July 1987 Channel
UK
Kim appears in the show of this well-known comedian, first in a sketch where she talks a lot, while Kenny grows spiderwebs on his body waiting for her to finish, and then lipsynching ‘Say you really want me’.
Montreux Rock Festival 1987
Date
25 May 1987 Channel
BBC (UK)
Footage from Montreux, where Kim Wilde sang ‘You keep me hangin’ on’ and ‘Say you really want me’ live to a pre-recorded backing track.
