From a career start of writing songs for Roger Daltrey in the early seventies (not forgetting that episode in the Pierot outfit), Leo Sayer's credibility gradually got out of Dodge as he fell into the comfy chair persona of the non thinking man's Elton John. Written by the usually dependable Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer Sager, 'When I Need You' tries its best to announce itself as a sincere statement of the strength of long distance love, but the lurching mutant waltz time structure makes every line of verse end on a downer of finality that puts the brakes on whatever emotion the song may have had. Which wasn't much to begin with, and certainly nothing that will compensate for Sayer's whiny, white bread vocals. It seems lazy to just dismiss something as 'boring', but 'When I Need You' in Sayer's hands is boring. Thin, reedy, irritating and boring.
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