Salford poet John Cooper Clarke’s ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ reaches 1 billion streams courtesy of Arctic Monkeys

The Bard of Salford John Cooper Clarke’s collaboration with the Arctic Monkeys, using his poem ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ as lyrics for a song, has reached a billion streams on Spotify.

The love poem written in 1982 has also since found popularity at British weddings. This could have been down to its simplistic and relatable telling of how it feels to be in love. With lines such as, “I wanna be your Ford Cortina/ I will never rust” – a cynical and dry-humoured Britain were all over it.

Another important Brit who heard the poem in a classroom one day was Alex Turner who went on to be lead singer of the Arctic Monkeys, hence the collaboration.

In honour of the landmark audience for his words and to celebrate World Poetry Day, we asked Salfordians: Luis Cittadino, 26, Miguel Mendoza, 24, Josh Norris, 25, Tony and Julie Higgins to recite ‘I Wanna Be Yours’.

Clarke loved the interpretation of his poem. He confessed his share of the royalties had been well received as the track continues to find popularity among youngsters on TikTok.

Clarke, 74, became famous for his punk poetry performances in the 1970s. Clarke, still touring his performance poetry, was part of the band The Invisible Girls which was formed by producer Martin Hannett to put Clarke’s poetry to music. They released several albums such as ‘Snap, Crackle & Bop’ and ‘Me and My Big Mouth.’