Title
song from the
1972 album by
Bread, which rose to number three on American charts.
To me, this song will always be the Platonic ideal of dumb-ass 1970s soft rock love ballads (though it has some stiff competition in "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me" by Mac Davis). Love ballads express our deepest feelings, giving voice to those passions which we cannot adequately describe. And what Bread offers us to win our true love's heart is the smooooth line "Baby, I'm-a want you.".
Sure, okay, maybe they needed an extra syllable to make it fit right; I can dig that. But wouldn't something like "Girl, you know I want you" have done as well? Was the "baby" part so integral to the songwriter's vision that it had to be retained at all costs, thus making necessary the "I'm-a" part?
Singing this song to women as if you mean it tends to make them either laugh uncontrollably or flee from you as if you'd sprouted buboes, and thus it's very useful as a way of finding out if they're the kind of person you want to spend more time with.