Released: 25th November 2002
Writers: Jeff Lynne
Peak position: #2
Chart run: 2-7-12-17-15-13-22-30-39-45-53-70
By 2002, Atomic Kitten’s penchant for mid-tempo balladry was firmly established. So, Be With You came as a welcome reminder that they hadn’t completely abandoned the dancefloor.
Early into the development of Atomic Kitten’s second album – Feels So Good – a dispute emerged between the group’s primary songwriters (and founders), Andy McCluskey and Stuart Kershaw and Innocent Records over the direction of the material. It became a point of contention that the label sought to stifle creativity by essentially demanding more songs like Whole Again with little intention of deviating from the formula of Atomic Kitten’s biggest hit. That resolve eventually drove Andy McCluskey and Stuart Kershaw to cut ties with the group.
Yet, contrary to expectations, Feels So Good contains a fair number of uptempos. However, there’s no doubt that where the singles were concerned, a familiarity emerged after Whole Again, with Eternal Flame, You Are (which was cancelled in the UK), It’s OK! and The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling) offering variations on the same beat. That pattern seemed set to continue when The Last Goodbye was announced as the third song to be lifted from Feels So Good…but it would be a double A-side with a brand-new track.
Be With You was a welcome – and somewhat unexpected – addition to the single precisely because of Innocent Records’ approach to this point. The album campaign could scarcely have been going better after Feels So Good debuted at #1 alongside The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling) to complete a chart double for Atomic Kitten. If there’d been impetus to record new material at all, the label would’ve been perfectly justified in ordering more of the same. Commercially, it certainly made sense on the cusp of the busy festive period to release a double A-side and give fans who already owned The Last Goodbye on the album a reason to buy the single. However, the fact that it resulted in a track like Be With You – which doesn’t remotely conform to the group’s newstatus quo – pushed back against the perception that their only ambition was to recycle Whole Again.
Be With You interpolates Last Train To London by Electric Light Orchestra, which reached #8 in 1979. Most notably, the chorus is lifted from part of the original (“Last train to London, just headin’ out, last train to London, just leavin’ town, but I really want tonight to last forever, I really wanna be with you, let the music play on down the line tonight”), while instrumental samples are woven into the production to create a slick, disco-infused pop song. However, Atomic Kitten’s was not the first iteration of Be With You. It’s adapted from B With U by Bionic, a house track that received a limited promotional release through Innocent Records earlier in 2002. The label subsequently used that as the basis from which to develop a version for Atomic Kitten. Thus, Be With You ended up with a patchwork of credits that reflect how the track came to exist in its eventual form: Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra for the Last Train To London elements, Tracey Carmen, Martin Foster and Greg Wilson (Bionic) for the adaptation, and Ash Howes and Martin Harrington who mixed and produced the edit recorded by Atomic Kitten.
The protracted journey Be With You underwent is telling in the quality of the finished product. Each step of the track’s development – from Bionic’s adaptation of Last Train To London and then the siphoning of the best bits of B With U into a three-and-a-half-minute pop song – results in one of Atomic Kitten’s most sophisticated singles. Emerging from frantic disco strings, filtered synths, and a thumping beat is a tale of dancefloor flirtation (“You and I, two of a kind, a meeting of minds, the time of our lives…”)performed with warm sensuality. The vocal arrangement plays to each member’s strengths; Liz McClarnon takes the lead on the first verse with Natasha Hamilton on the second, while Jenny Frost ad-libs alongside them on each: “Night and day (night and day), come what may, there’s always change, nothing stays the same (nothing stays the same), who can say (who can say), what will come our way (come our way), leave it all to fate, let tomorrow wait”, which effectively showcases the group’s dynamic.
For the transition into the middle eight breakdown (“You know I really wanna be with you…you know I really wanna be with you”), Be With You uses an additional line of the original chorus from Last Train To London: “Let the music play on down the line tonight…” which is a neat touch. It’s here that the instrumental truly gets a chance to shine; the production recedes to a throbbing bassline as distorted vocals reverberate around the track before euphorically swelling back to full volume for a third verse: “The perfect night (the perfect night), out of sight, as I look in your eyes (look in your eyes), never felt so right, ooh yeah”. Be With You is a joyous track but does so without veering into bombastic pastiche; instead, it maintains a credible, dance-orientated demeanour – as established by Bionic – throughout.
For its chorus, Be With You repeats two lines from Last Train To London: “I really want tonight to last forever, I really wanna be with you; I really want tonight to last forever, I really wanna be with you”. Even if a ‘00s pop audience – many of whom may be unfamiliar with the original – wouldn’t necessarily know any different, it doesn’t sound abridged and works so well because of the melodic shift in Last Train To London. That part of the chorus has always stood out, and Be With You takes nothing away by extricating it to shine in its own right; ad-libs and harmonies towards the end of the track further celebrate the hook and seamlessly blend into a reprise of the refrain: “You know I really wanna be with you” as an outro. Everything about Be With You is masterfully – and respectfully – executed, returning Atomic Kitten to the dancefloor in a way that signifies an act very much at their peak.
The music video for Be With You is set in a contemporary nightclub but pays homage to the track’s disco origins with chic fashion, shots of disco balls…and Liz McClarnon sporting an impressive perm. There’s no narrative steering the visuals, but the presentation is excellent. The club scenes are populated with enough extras to appear authentic; they’re bathed in blue tones contrasted against flashing green strobe lights, while lens flare is added to give Be With You a cool and credibly stylish appearance. Showing Atomic Kitten in this kind of environment, there’s a renewed energy around them, which extended to the live performances. It’s not that recent videos had been short of personality. Still, the group fully embrace being outside of what had become their (or the record label’s) comfort zone, which is enjoyably infectious to watch.
Be With You/The Last Goodbye continued Atomic Kitten’s run of hits, selling 45,500 copies to enter the chart at #2 behind Daniel Bedingfield’s If You’re Not The One. It became the group’s fifth consecutive top-three single (their eighth to reach the top ten) and the 88th highest-seller of 2002, despite being released close to the end of the year. The double A-side is Atomic Kitten’s fifth-biggest single overall behind their three chart-toppers, and It’s OK! Consolidating the single’s success, Feels So Good enjoyed a boost in sales and re-entered the top ten over the festive period. While Be With You was added to some international editions of the album, it didn’t get reissued in the UK. Instead, the campaign continued with a fourth release from Feels So Good (Love Doesn’t Have To Hurt) and the song appeared on the group’s third studio album, Ladies Night, the following year.
Because Whole Again represents such a clear distinction in Atomic Kitten’s sound and image, Be With You does, in some respects, evoke comparison to their earliest uptempo singles. Particularly I Want Your Love, which was also based around a prominent sample. Yet, the track doesn’t undermine the group’s evolution; if anything, it only demonstrates how far they’d come. Songs like Right Now and See Ya exuded precocious chaos because that’s the persona Atomic Kitten launched with (and they did it well). Be With You is fun and allows them to cut loose, but it still fits cohesively within this era of their career. It shows how the group could – and, some might argue, should – have broadened their sound without compromising their identity.
Yet, while Be With You was well-received, it didn’t exert that much influence over Atomic Kitten’s career moving forward. The group’s cover of Ladies Night certainly continued their disco dalliance, but that was instigated by Kool & The Gang for their The Hits: Reloaded tribute album. If anything, Atomic Kitten retreated even further into mid-tempo balladry hereafter.
To that end, Be With You stands out prominently in the group’s back catalogue as a (welcome) change of pace and one of their most creatively well-crafted tracks.
