"Kiss You" is a song recorded by English-Irish boy band One Direction for their second studio album, Take Me Home (2012). It was released as the record's second single in Germany and the third and final single on 7 January 2013. The song was composed by Kristoffer Fogelmark, Kristian Lundin, Albin Nedler, Savan Kotecha, Shellback and its producers, Carl Falk and Rami Yacoub. "Kiss You" is an upbeat power pop song with electronic effects; the lyrics detail the narrator's infatuation with a significant other. Critics praised the song for its production, calling it a stand-out track on Take Me Home.
The track became the group's sixth top-ten hit in Ireland and the United Kingdom while attaining top-forty positions in both Belgian territories (Flanders and Wallonia), as well as in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. The single peaked at number 46 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 500,000 copies. One Direction performed "Kiss You" on both the UK and US versions of The X Factor and 3 major concert tours: Take Me Home Tour (2013), Where We Are Tour (2014) and On the Road Again Tour (2015).
An accompanying music video, designed to display the group's comedic timing, was directed by Vaughan Arnell, who had previously worked with the group on two other music videos. The clip depicts the band shooting various scenes via a green screen, which include sequences reminiscent of iconic music videos of songs such as the Beach Boys' "Surfer Girl", Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" and Rammstein's "Mein Land". The music video received 10.4 million views in a 24-hour period and positive commentary from reviewers, who appreciated its carefree, jubilant nature.
The song was included in the dancing game Just Dance 2014, and is also one of the select songs available on the demo version. Additionally, it is the final main track on the US edition of Now That's What I Call Music! 46.
Background and release
"Kiss You" was written by Kristoffer Fogelmark, Kristian Lundin, Albin Nedler, Savan Kotecha, Shellback, and its producers, Carl Falk and Rami Yacoub. Falk, Kotecha, and Yacoub had collaboratively composed One Direction's previous hit singles, "What Makes You Beautiful", "One Thing", and "Live While We're Young". In April 2012, The Independent reported that Simon Cowell, the group's manager, had challenged prominent songwriters to compete for space on One Direction's second album. Falk said, "It's important to get their personalities on the music." In addition, the article reported that Syco Records was working on candidates that included Max Martin and Lundin.
"Kiss You" was chosen as the second US single and third international from their second studio album, Take Me Home. Liam Payne, a group member, in a November 2012 interview with MTV News, explained why they chose "Kiss You" as the album's second single in the US. Payne was quoted as saying: "With the album, that's the first one that we listened to and we were like, 'Yeah, we love this song'". According to an MTV News article, the number was released digitally in the United States on 17 November 2012. By 18 January 2013, the song had not been officially promoted to US radio stations. The track, however, was released by Sony Music Entertainment on 8 February 2013, as the record's second single in Germany.
Composition and reception
"Kiss You" is an uptempo, upbeat power pop song which runs for a duration of 3:04 (3 minutes, four seconds). The track features electronic effects, colossal hooks, a "na na na" breakdown, and a Motown-tinged melody. One Direction's vocal range in the song span from the note of E4 to C6. Instrumentation includes guitar strings, piano lines and vocals. Written in the key of E major, the beat is set in common time and moves at a quick 90 beats per minute, according to the digital sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Likewise, Matt Collar from Allmusic noted that the track is "frenetically hyper". The lyrical content regards the protagonist's infatuation with a significant other, and incorporates euphemisms for sexual intercourse in the lines "If you don’t wanna take it slow/And you just wanna take me home/Baby say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."