You Can Get It If You Really Want

"You Can Get It If You Really Want" is a famous late rocksteady song written and performed by the Jamaican reggae singer songwriter Jimmy Cliff. It was famously used in the 1972 film The Harder They Come in two versions by Cliff himself and a second version by Jamaican singer Desmond Dekker with the latter's rendition becoming the opening track on the film's official soundtrack album, whereas Cliff's rendition was the 11th track of the 12-track soundtrack album.

Dekker's version became a hit in its own right as a single released in a number of markets, reaching number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. It was classified as number 27 on the 1970 Year-end Chart in the UK.

Covers

The UK's Jamaican origin reggae band The Cimarons released it as a single in 1974.

The song has been covered by a great number of artists including by Italian pop singer Sabrina (Sabrina Salerno) in her 1991 album Over the Pop and by Stiff Little Fingers on their 1999 album Hope Street where the song is retitled "You Can Get It (If Yu Really Want It)".

In popular culture

In 1990, the song was used in the cd "Sebastian from The Little Mermaid" as most of the songs were performed by Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian the crab. Wright also performed this version in Sebastian's Caribbean Jambore.

The Jimmy Cliff version was used in the soundtrack of the 1997 film Speed 2: Cruise Control.

Cliff version was used as a musical number in the inaugural episode of the British television musical comedy drama serial Blackpool whereas the Desmond Dekker version was also used in the soundtrack of the 2010 British film Made in Dagenham

Appearances

Jimmy Cliff included his own version of the song on his 2004 compilation album Reggae Night. The Dekker version on the other hand was included in the triple-disc compilation album released Now That's What I Call Reggae in June 2012.