The song's lyrics portray the narrator as a man in love with a woman who only views him as a casual friend. However, the narrator hopes that the woman will eventually come to appreciate his affections: If you can want, you can need,if you can need, you can care,if you can care, you can love;so if you want me, I'll be there.
A variation of the last line was used in the chorus portion of the Spinners song "I'll Be Around" (1972).
Cash Box called it a "sure-fire hit in this throbbing track loaded with the familiar team sound," saying it had "mid-speed tempo with a hard-hitting ork push and vocals at once fragile and emotionally taut."[2]Record World called it an "infectious ditty."[3]
"If You Can Want" was the group's only major hit in 1968, and was performed by the Miracles on their 1st appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Two other releases that year, "Yester Love" and "Special Occasion", missed the Billboard Hot 100's Top 20, beginning a lull in the Miracles' chart performance until the Top 10 success of "Baby, Baby Don't Cry" in spring 1969.
The B-side, "When The Words From Your Heart Get Caught Up In Your Throat", was never released on a Miracles album and was only issued on CD in 1994, on The 35th Anniversary Collection.
