John Cooper Clarke on the Arctic Monkeys-inspiring ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ being streamed a billion times
John Cooper Clarke has spoken about his poem, I Wanna Be Yours, becoming a worldwide hit after the Arctic Monkeys‘ song adaptation of it has pushed listening into the billions.The punk poet’s 1982 creation, which featured on his album ‘Zip Style Method’, was covered by the Monkeys for their 2013 album ‘AM‘. It’s since found a new audience on TikTok and will this week pass a billion streams on Spotify.Clarke, who most recently released a covers album, ‘This Time It’s Personal’, with ex-The Stranglers member Hugh Cornwell in 2016 and shared his first new book of poetry in decades with 2018’s The Luckiest Guy Alive, spoke about the landmark achievement in a new interview.He told The Guardian in response to news of its billionth stream: “Is that a lot? An American billion is different to a British billion – and I don’t know what either of them is.