But it arguably paved the way for their short-lived but big comeback in the US a couple of years from now, just by virtue of showing they could still make the charts at all in an era when it was still cool to hate everything about their heyday.
We're not due yet. I usually did 2-3 Top 40 rundowns a calendar year. Although you're moving at a faster clip, the charts are not in 1987. It's a slew of 1 & 2 week hits, with the occasional 3 week hit. The biggest hit of 1987 was "Walk Like An Egyptian", which came into the year a #1 holdover from 1986. We forget just how big The Bangles were, at least briefly.
I actually really liked this one. It had a great mid-'80s, '60s-retro New Wave sound. Past meets future.
Can't stand "You Win Again". A clattery, shrill mess. I'm not sad at all that US radio ignored it. (They've got an upcoming minor chart comeback though that I love.)
I just don't want to clutter up the thread with too many of them. It's the #1s thread, not the Top 40 thread. I think it's good to review the whole countdown occasionally to put the rest of the countdown into context. I do feel like, as the '80s drag on and the innovation slows, there's less and less point to doing the Top 40 reviews more than once or twice a calendar year. Back around '82 - '85 you could see trends shift over the course of a season and whole new subgenres emerge down under #1. Now? Not so much.
"I Need Love" by LL Cool J It was very popular, and moving up on the chart. It was popular because it showed rap music as being more than macho bragging and boasting. The females, especially, loved it.
‘You Win Again’ only reached 75 in the US?! Wow. That shocks me. As you mention, it was a number 1 in the UK and it also went top 10 here. I adore this one, in fact it remains one of my favourite Bee Gee singles of all time.
Yep, I love this one. It was only a mid level hit here but I rushed out and bought the 7inch single the minute I heard it on the radio. It’s got such a great, fresh, pop sound to it- a perfect introduction to their new direction.
I remember this song and thinking it was all right (not being a fan of the Bee Gees then -- as I am now) but that it was pathetic because there was no way the Bee Gees, who were unspeakably uncool, were ever going to come back. Boy, was I wrong.
I just think in the US, that overexposure kills off artists. In 1987, the vision of the Bee Gees as bearded, gold medallion wearing, hairy-chested cheeseballs in white suits and platform shoes singing like girls was still prevalent. Most of the biggest stars tend to have a this window of five years before they stop making hits -- if they are lucky they keep selling albums, which is the main thing that matters but the teens only like them for a small moment. They just weren't hip, in fact they were still the butt of many jokes by then.
Glad I got to jump in to share my memories of this song. One morning in 1987 I stopped by girlfriend's house to pick her up for work. She was a fairly chill person, laid back, not overly excitable. So it surprised me when she ran out to my car, got in, and said, "I just heard absolutely the most incredible song!!" She was practically breathless. She'd had VH-1 on while she was getting ready for work. She told me a video came on for the new song by the Bee Gees, and it went against any expectation she had for a Bee Gees song, in fact any expectation she had for any pop song. She told me she'd never heard anything like it before in her life, and that the music was magnificent and the words from what she could gather on first listen had a different, unique spin on a love relationship. The song was called "You Win Again". Well, I heard it that evening and I have to say she was right. It knocked me out. It definitely seemed to be its own thing, not particularly beholden to any particular style or genre. I later realized the song doesn't have a verse – it's just different sections that move from one to another with no particular regard for structure, except that several of these parts manage to find their way to the chorus, the only part that repeats. And a magnificent chorus it is. Shortly after that on a Saturday afternoon I was watching a music show and it had an appearance by Bee Gees, which happened to be from a TV performance from England. As soon as they were announced the people in the studio, especially the girls, rushed toward the stage and started screaming. And when the first big drumbeats of "You Win Again" started up, the whole place went absolutely mad! I swear I hadn't seen anything like it since Beatlemania! This was very heartening to me, because the song wasn't doing a damn thing here in America. It wasn't even getting played on the radio. At least somebody has good taste, I thought. So it virtually bombed here. #75. Never did hear it on the radio. But I enjoyed it on VH-1 and of course bought the album. Vinyl. It was 1987 and I hadn't yet embraced the Compact Disc. Fast forward two years to 1989. The Bee Gees returned to the US Top 10 for the first time since the dance music (not really disco by my definition) of the late '70s and early '80s with a soulful midtempo thing called "One". TBH, I didn't like it much, but I was glad to see my guys back on top again. Around that time, I saw the brothers interviewed on one of those entertainment shows, and Barry started talking about "You Win Again", and how it had failed here but had been number one all over the world. And he said that since they were back in the spotlight, "we're going to put out 'You Win Again' ...again." He seemed a little nervous and was kinda tapping his knee. Obviously, "You Win Again" not succeeding here had been a colossal oversight which they were going to correct. I kept my fingers crossed. Sure enough, the next Bee Gees single of 1989 issued by Warner Bros. US was "You Win Again". And it flopped again. It didn't even chart the second time. Oh well. It didn't click here, but my opinion was shared by much of the rest of the world, including China, where it set records for the longest time at #1 of any song in the country's history. That's my take on "You Win Again". I got to see Bee Gees live for the first and only time in 1989 on their "One For All" tour, and had the almost ecstatic experience of seeing them perform "You Win Again" live. A great moment I will never forget.
Maybe Australia and the U.K. didn't have a disco backlash like we had in the U.S., which is why. The Brothers Gibb wouldn't regain their popularity in the U.S. until the 90s with a future single.
Well, since the Bee Bees were the poster children for disco, they suffered the brunt of the backlash. Meanwhile, people like Donna Summer quickly pivoted to new wave in 1980, then kind of disappeared for a couple of years. Chic tried to hold on, had some success with Diana Ross, but faded away, then also pivoted to rock. The rest just got pushed back to the R&B ghetto, with only temporary breakthroughs on the pop chart. As much as some people try to deny it, there was a racial component to the disco backlash, and that new music was the stuff MTV was built on.
I Just Can't Stop Loving You : I had loved the Thriller singles when they were current but by 1987, I had moved onto heavier sounds. Michael Jackson was one of those one time favorites whom I now considered uncool. With it's cheesy opening voiceover, this song didn't do much to change that view. You Win Again : This should have been a big hit but even as late as 1987, The Bee Gees were viewed as figureheads of the disco movement and the baggage associated with it.
The UK had first punk and then new wave reigning above all - punk did not get lifted from the disco backlash in America (no Top Ten hits from The Ramones, for example), but some "new wave" slipped in every now and then. As for disco a.k.a. "dance," there was the case of Scottish singer Kelly Marie who had a #1 hit only on the "Official" UK chart in 1980 with something called "Feels Like I'm In Love" (written by Ray Dorset of Mungo Jerry "In The Summertime" fame) - while NME and Melody Maker declared a ballad entitled "One Day I'll Fly Away" by Randy Crawford (the lead singer on the Crusaders' 1979 record "Street Life") to be the top song in that same time period. Other than that I spotted something of a "disco backlash" in the UK, but not to the extent of the U.S. And in that period the UK had the same contraction of the industry (albeit with different players) as in the U.S.
I Just Can't Stop Loving You I like the version on the promo 45, that eliminates the spoken intro. Overall the song is not bad (my wife quite likes it!) Never Say Goodbye LOVE IT! Should have been fourth single from Slippery When Wet. I always pictured this as being the last song played for the night at a dance or bar. I believe this had a catalog no. for single release at one point but was held back. It made the top 40 airplay charts in Billboard I Need Love One the songs that helped me thru the lonely summer of 1987 after my breakup
On the other hand, there is a forum member who would argue that disco carried on as techno or club music like Chaz Jankel, Yaz, or even Gwen McCrae.
