"When You Come Back to Me" is a song recorded by Australian artist and actor Jason Donovan. It was released on 27 November 1989 as the first single from his second album Between the Lines.[1] It charted in the UK on 9 December 1989, peaking at number two the following week and returning to the same position in January 1990, becoming one of his biggest selling singles in Britain.[2] Reaching a disappointing number 40 in Australia, the track was Jason's final top 40 chart hit in his home country.[3]
"When You Come Back to Me" | ||||
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Single by Jason Donovan | ||||
from the album Between the Lines | ||||
B-side | "When You Come Back to Me" (instrumental) | |||
Released | 27 November 1989 | |||
Studio | PWL (London) | |||
Genre | Pop, dance-pop | |||
Length | 3:34 | |||
Label | PWL | |||
Songwriter(s) | Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, Pete Waterman | |||
Producer(s) | Stock, Aitken & Waterman | |||
Jason Donovan singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"When You Come Back to Me" on YouTube |
As with all Donovan's early recordings, "When You Come Back to Me" was written and produced by the production team Stock, Aitken & Waterman. In addition, Matt Aitken contributed guitar; Mike Stock provided backing vocals, and both played keyboards on the track.[4]
The track was deliberately composed to evoke the Christmas season in the UK, without making any explicit auditory or lyrical references.[3] Composer Mike Stock did not want to write a song that was "exploitative of the Christmas message" and was conscious an overtly festive song would go quickly out of date after Christmas had finished.[3] However the song's evocation of a London Christmas has been blamed for its chart failure in Australia, where the track received a January 1990 release.[3]
An instrumental version and three remixes augmented the standard edit for the single release.[5]
In 2017, Christian Guiltenane of British magazine Attitude considered the song as "an absolutely delightful sing-song that has choral oohs in the background 'nah nah nahs' in the chorus".[6]
Note: Mixed by Dave Ford, the "instrumental" version is not the instrumental of the single version to which it accompanied, but rather a stripped back guitar orientated version, identified on the 2009 iTunes releases as the "Guitar instrumental".
Weekly charts edit
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Year-end charts edit
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Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United Kingdom (BPI)[22] | Gold | 400,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |