Any Way You Want It

"Any Way You Want It" is a popular song performed by Journey released on the album Departure as the opening track, and as a single in 1980. The song is sung by Steve Perry and Neal Schon is the guitarist. It peaked at #23 at Billboard 100. With its catchy lyrics and rhythm (including Schon's guitar solo for the bridge), the song proved to be an instant classic and the band would indeed often play it to close their concerts. It appears on all three live albums released by Journey up to now (Captured, Greatest Hits Live, Live in Houston 1981: The Escape Tour).

[edit] Genesis

According to cowriter Steve Perry, the song was heavily influenced by Irish rock band Thin Lizzy and more particularly by bassist leader Phil Lynott. In July 1979, Journey was touring with Thin Lizzy across the United States when Lynott, Perry and Schon decided to share rhyme scheme exercises during a hanging out in Miami. The "basic" work on "the guitar-vocal-guitar-vocal interchange thing that happened between Phil and his lyrics and the guitarist and his arrangements, inspired the Any Way You Want It sorta give and take thing. It’s guitar-voice, guitar-voice, more guitar-guitar-guitar-voice. It be voice-voice and back and forth and that’s something that Neal and I think just instinctually picked up by hanging out with him"^[1] commented Perry. Schon and Perry would then rework on the song in the band bus, with Schon on acoustic guitar and Perry for vocals^[2]. Lynott's contribution was eventually quite decisive for Journey since it also influenced other songs built on the same scheme such as 'Stone In Love'.

For the studio version, keyboardist Gregg Rolie originally used a mellotron but since it was defective, co-producer Geoff Workman decided to fix the sound by doubling it with Rolie's regular organ in the final mixing, creating then the unique sounding background support for the song.^[3]

[edit] In popular culture

It was in an advertisement for Heinz Beans in the 1990's

In his book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers mentions the song in his list of symbolism, saying "Anyway You Want It is not a symbol, simply a great song."

In the 1980 movie Caddyshack, Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield) plays "Any Way You Want It" on the stereo on his golf bag while he waits for Judge Smails (Ted Knight) to play ahead of him on the gold course.

This reference was used again in the Simpsons episode "Burns, Baby Burns", where 'Any Way You Want It' is played in the final scene as Dangerfield's character, Larry Burns, proclaims "Let's party," and can be heard again briefly in the later episode "Viva Ned Flanders."

In the 2003 movie Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, the song is playing during the ending credits while a switch between Drew, Cameron, and Lucy are washing a car and blooper reels are showing.

McDonalds used the song in their commercials for a period of time.

Ford used the song in a string of commercials that were ran in Fall 2003.

In the skateboarding video Almost Round 3, "Any Way You Want It" was used as the music for the intro credits.

The song was featured in a Toyota and the Northland Ford commercial in the summer of 2003.

Rise Against, a Chicago hardcore punk band, opted to cover the song on their 2003 album Revolutions Per Minute as a hidden track on the final song of the CD called "Data".

The song has strong social standing among teenagers, many regarding it as a classic song to dance to.

The band The Hammerheads remixed the song for the movie Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter. The lyrics were changed to "Its Okay, Its Alright, Everybody gets laid tonight!"

Chuck, the nerd hero of the eponymous show which premiered on NBC in September 2007, uses the song as a ringtone for his mobile phone in the pilot episode.

The song is a downloadable track for the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

The song is featured as the background music for the popular internet shock video "Salsa Snack".

A popular YTMND site features an entire page filled with animaged GIFs of scenes from the children's series LazyTown, with an emphasis on those featuring the show's main character, dancer Stephanie; starting with the first verse, the song is played as background music.