This song was a dissappointment to me, because I was so used to the Bee Gees sounding a certain way. Granted, Main Course was hard enough to swallow, with Bill Shepherd gone... but now Barry is singing in this screeching falsetto ALL the time? And they are dressing alike? WTF? I Think "Love So Right" off the album is a nice song, if Barry were to have sung it in his regular voice. Don't get me wrong, there is GOOD disco, but this isn't it, for me. Production changes are just so jarring for me, here's an example of a song from 76 that I would picture the Bee Gees sound being similar to, had they kept with their orchestral pop sound (even has the trademark harp flourishes)
I'm also from NH and granted I was only 7 in 1980, but I don't recall the Lake Placid Olympics being treated any differently because they were nearby. I do recall the LA Olympics in 1984 being a really big deal because they were the first summer Olympics in the US in quite a while. But what I remember most is the McDonald's promo debacle, with the scratch-tickets where you could get a free burger or some such if the US won the event you got. They ran commercials showing people getting events where the Americans always won, like basketball, but most of the real tickets were in events that were essentially fixed for the Eastern bloc...which boycotted the games, thus giving the US a lot more medals than it usually got, and causing McD's to take a bath! If you do the math about my age, you already know I was exactly the right age to hate disco as a teenager. I've since come to appreciate a lot of it, including a lot of the Bee Gees' songs. But "You Should Be Dancing" isn't one of them. I don't hate it, I just consider it forgettable.
Hey Vinyl Man! I was a teenager too, and I loved the stuff, and this song was one of the the coolest things around at the time. I don't know where you grew up, but other teens where I lived liked disco too.
It should be noted that the long version (4:47) was issued on an early 12" single which, in this case, was put out on 45 RPM. I actually saw such record in my youth.
You Should Be Dancing may be a good disco song, it may be a bad disco song, I'm not one to evaluate these kinds of things. I just can't handle it. I much prefer the old days of the Bee Gees. I'm glad the boys found fame and fortune, they certainly deserved it, but it's jut not my cup of tea.
Robin hated that period. He has said in interviews that he likes measured, respectable success... when things go into that "manic" phase, you don't have control over your career anymore.
"You Should Be Dancing" represents a number of firsts for the Bee Gees. As was noted earlier, it was it the Bee Gees first hit after RSO severed its distribution agreement with Atlantic. It was the was the first Bee Gees hit single that could be considered disco. (I consider the Main Course singles to be r&b). Finally, it was the first Bee Gees hit single where the now infamous falsetto was utilized for the whole song. (It was only used during the choruses on "Fanny" and "Nights on Broadway").
If you heard Elton John's "Island Girl," there were some parts of those lyrics you couldn't understand, so there yuh go . . .
It also served as the birth of the production combo of the 'Gees and Criteria staffers Karl Richardson and Albhy Galuten.
A certain "Sweathog" also loved this number . . . and I.I.N.M., it was he who requested "You Should Be Dancing" be included in a film he was making where the soundtrack sold gazillions.
It was the 1976 Winter Olympics that was supposed to be in Denver. Denver had won the bid but the voters refused to vote for the funding. They ended up in Innsbruck Austria. The first Olympics that I remember was 1968 Mexico City - Bob Beamon & Dick Fosbury!
Pretty much the only disco Bee Gees song that I like. I quickly tired of Barry’s all falsetto, all of the time vocal stylings. But, I like it here - big fan of this tune.
I think it depends on which circles you moved in. The teenagers that smoked cigarettes and liked KISS hated Disco. Just your average kid next door usually liked it. And I did, too. Just not the Bee Gees doing it (with one huge exception which will come up in a couple of years)
Now we're getting into songs that I can actually sort of remember when they were hits. I was 4 but my parents listened to the radio a lot. "(December 1963) Oh What A Night": Kind of a guilty pleasure for me. I like this song better than the guy's '60s stuff. "Let Your Love Flow": My Dad was a big fan of the Bellamy Brothers, so this one got a lot of play on his reel-to-reel machine For some reason I always got them mixed up with another duo who will soon hit #2 with "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight," a similarly mellow song. (I had to look it up...I thought "Tonight" went to #1 rather than "just" #2). "Welcome Back": Brings back bad memories for me, because I was never a Kotter fan. I couldn't change the channel fast enough when those "Welcome to Brooklyn" opening credits began. "Silly Love Songs": One of the greatest bass-lines of all time. "Afternoon Delight": Never had any idea what it was truly about until a few years ago. I was like, "Really? That's so subversive...it sounds so 'white bread'!" "Don't Go Breaking My Heart": Speaking of white bread...The line, "When you were down, I was your clown..." sounds like something a 5-year-old would come up with. "You Should Be Dancing": Kind of average for the Bee Gees at this point. "Jive Talkin'" before, and their Saturday Night Fever stuff a year later, are far better than this tune.
Lake Placid is probably a little closer to where I lived back then, and these days I'm also not far from Vancouver, which is where the 2010 Winter Olympics were. But as far as Summer Olympics, Montreal is the only time I had one within driving distance.
Summer of 1984, I must have earned, no joke, about 45 free Big Macs and large fries. I went into a McDonald's in the Spring and a bored counter guy gave me about 50 game tickets for no real reason. Almost every one of those cards gave you free food if an American won a medal in some East Bloc dominated event like Greco-Roman wrestling or weightlifting, which was almost certainly not going to happen. Then the east bloc withdrew, and Americans won many, MANY medals in those sports. Free food all Summer and Fall!
I don't know what to think about "You Should be Dancing".Being a teen back then it was not on my radar and it seemed to be the start of the BG disco era which I didn't like then nor now.Give me "Jive Talking" anyday.
I was 15-18 through the disco years and I didn’t understand the hate at all. In fact, I didn’t know there was any until around 1979. I did know that it wasn’t “cool’ to like ABBA or the Bee Gees, but I didn’t know why. I didn’t, and still don’t, consider them disco, so I didn’t get it. The Bee Gees had maybe four songs out of scores of hits that were disco. ABBA...also maybe four. Maybe. So, I was happy to enjoy the great melodic hits that were very “up” in mood. I still love them.
Mmmm....I don't have a problem with that one, at least not like YSBD. It would only get worse with some of the SNF songs. I think the falsetto and mixing doesn't help.
Oh and for what it's worth, I love YSBD. I also love old school Bee Gees. They had enough of a lull in their early 70s career to make the new direction with Main Course and beyond sound great to my ears. I appreciate all sides of these guys.
I said where I grew up in the post you replied to. Also, based on the memories you've shared here, I think I'm about ten years younger than you. (I'll be 46 in March.)
I don't really like this song, but I do like the Bee Gees. I just think it would have been grating to have them on the radio so constantly. We're heading into a period where they seriously dominated, like everything.
Well, I was still a kid when this song was new so I was not participating in any disco scene yet. I had an older sister though and she played this stuff with fervor...so I heard it a lot. With that said this song, especially its overall mix of sounds and tempo, was terribly popular. It has become a go to kitsch disco song, that for sure. When disco "died" this song still played on in various other realms like TV shows, commercials, movies and so on. I don't know every literal use of this song, but MAN have I heard it a lot...at least clips and such. Whether you like disco or not, this particular song has probably been heard by more than one would imagine. It certainly set the bar for what disco would sound like after it was released.
My 45 RPM matches the album. The first time I ever heard that unedited 12" version was when I got it on their boxed set.
