"If I Can't Have You" | |
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Song by Bee Gees | |
A-side | "Stayin' Alive" |
Released |
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Recorded |
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Studio |
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Genre | Disco |
Length | 3:25 |
Label | RSO |
Songwriter(s) | |
Producer(s) |
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Audio | |
"If I Can't Have You" on YouTube |
"If I Can't Have You" is a disco song written by the Bee Gees in 1977. The song initially appeared on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in a version by Yvonne Elliman, released in November 1977. The Bee Gees' own version appeared a month later as the B-side of "Stayin' Alive".
The song later appeared on the Bee Gees' compilation Their Greatest Hits: The Record . The remixed version was released and remastered in the compilation Bee Gees Greatest in 2007 and marked the return of the Bee Gees to the US Hot Dance Tracks charts after 28 years. According to Maurice, this track was the first song they did while they were recording the other songs for the film. The recording was started at Château d'Hérouville as a basic track only and completed later at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles. [1]
"If I Can't Have You" | ||||
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Single by Yvonne Elliman | ||||
from the album Saturday Night Fever and Night Flight | ||||
B-side | "Good Sign" | |||
Released | January 23, 1978 | |||
Recorded | 1977 | |||
Genre | Disco | |||
Length |
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Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Freddie Perren | |||
Yvonne Elliman singles chronology | ||||
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Audio | ||||
"If I Can't Have You" on YouTube |
The song was recorded by American singer, songwriter, and actress Yvonne Elliman for the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
Although Yvonne Elliman had cut her 1976 album, Love Me, with producer Freddie Perren, who was a major force in the disco movement (Perren had produced the Sylvers' 1976 number 1 "Boogie Fever" and would soon collaborate with Gloria Gaynor on the disco anthem "I Will Survive"), Love Me had showcased Elliman not as a disco artist but rather as a pop ballad singer, notably on the title cut, a Barry and Robin Gibb composition that Elliman turned into an international hit. It was originally intended that Elliman's contribution to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack would be another ballad written by the Gibb brothers, "How Deep Is Your Love".
Meanwhile, the Bee Gees recorded their own version of "If I Can't Have You" for the film. However, RSO Records chairman and Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood, who was executive-producing the Saturday Night Fever album, dictated that the Bee Gees record "How Deep Is Your Love" and Elliman be given the disco-style "If I Can't Have You".
Stigwood's decisions proved a success as the soundtrack's first single, the Bee Gees' version of the ballad "How Deep Is Your Love", shot to number one, followed to the top spot by the soundtrack's second and third singles, also by the Gibb brothers, "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever". Elliman's "If I Can't Have You", produced by Perren, was released as the fourth single off the Saturday Night Fever album in February 1978. Billboard Magazine praised Elliman's "powerful" vocal performance. [2] Cash Box said that it was "pop music with a very danceable beat" and that Elliman's vocal was unique enough that it would not create confusion with any Bee Gees recording. [3] As the first single off the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack not performed by the Bee Gees, "If I Can't Have You" would become the fourth number 1 hit from the album, reaching the number one spot on the US Hot 100 in Billboard dated 13 May 1978, ending an eight-week number 1 tenure by "Night Fever". "If I Can't Have You" was the fourth consecutive US number 1 to be co-written by Barry Gibb, and the RSO record label's sixth consecutive number one on the US Hot 100. The B-side of the Elliman single was a song from the Love Me album, "Good Sign", a composition by Melissa Manchester and Carole Bayer Sager which had also served as the B-side of Elliman's hit "Hello Stranger".
Far from the success going to Elliman's head or giving her ideas of following up the sudden disco success with a deeper foray into the genre, a contemporary interview by journalist Peter J. Boyer found Elliman dismissive of her number 1 hit, referring to it in conversation only casually as "that current thing from Saturday Night Fever". In spite of the coattail success she's had with "If I Can't Have You", it's a disco song and Elliman decided her broad, husky vocals are best suited elsewhere. "If I Can't Have You" was featured on Elliman's February 1978 album release Night Flight, which, apart from that song, was produced by Robert Appère and was not disco-oriented. No song from Night Flight was issued as a follow-up single to "If I Can't Have You", Elliman's next single being a rock ballad entitled "Savannah" which failed to consolidate Elliman's potential mainstream stardom. Elliman did return to disco music in 1979 with "Love Pains" which returned her to the US Top 40 one more time before she dropped out of the music scene in the 1980s.
Elliman's "If I Can't Have You" was also featured in the 1999 film Big Daddy as well as on its soundtrack album.
Weekly charts
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"If I Can't Have You" was covered in 1997 by future Nightcrawlers singer John Robinson Reid and Culture Club guitarist Roy Hay under the name This Way Up. [21] [22] The single was produced by Hay, and was the duo's second single. It reached number 76 on the UK Singles chart in October 1987. [23]
"If I Can't Have You" | ||||
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Single by Kim Wilde | ||||
from the album The Singles Collection 1981–1993 | ||||
B-side | "Never Felt So Alive" | |||
Released | 28 June 1993 [24] | |||
Length | 3:27 | |||
Label | MCA | |||
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) | Ricki Wilde | |||
Kim Wilde singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"If I Can't Have You" on YouTube |
"If I Can't Have You" was covered in 1993 by British singer Kim Wilde and recorded as one of two new tracks on her second compilation album, The Singles Collection 1981–1993 (1993). Produced by Ricki Wilde and released in June 1993 by MCA Records, the single reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart and number six on the UK Dance Singles Chart. It became Wilde's biggest hit of the 1990s and one of her biggest hits in Australia, where it reached number three. In Europe the song also peaked within the top 10 in Belgium and Ireland, and within the top 20 in Iceland, the Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland. It was released in several extended remixes on the 12" and CD-single formats. The B-side was an exclusive non-album track called "Never Felt So Alive". The accompanying music video for "If I Can't Have You" was directed by Irish director Michael Geoghegan. [25]
Larry Flick from Billboard called it a "NRGetic rendition", adding it as "a delicious guilty pleasure, oozing with over-the-top strings and angelic backing vocals. Kim works her program for all it's worth—and we're buying it bigtime." [26] Pan-European magazine Music & Media commented, "The brothers Gibb—a.k.a. the Bee Gees—wrote this song for Yvonne Elliman in the heyday of disco in the end of the '70s and Wilde recycles the song in the dance era. The kids will absolutely go wild(e) on this one." [27] Alan Jones from Music Week gave the song three out of five, writing that "this lacklustre cover lacks the finesse of the original and it won't be one of Wilde's biggest hits." [28]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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Australia (ARIA) [49] | Platinum | 70,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
"If I Can't Have You (The Disco Boys remix)" | ||||
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Single by Bee Gees | ||||
from the album Bee Gees Greatest | ||||
Released | 2 November 2007 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:36(radio edit) | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) |
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Bee Gees singles chronology | ||||
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On 2 November 2007, Rhino Records and Reprise Records released a remix version of "If I Can't Have You" by German house music production duo The Disco Boys. The song was released as a single from the remastered version of Bee Gees Greatest (2007), originally released in 1979, and reached the US Hot Dance Club Play chart, peaking at #47 in January 2008.[ citation needed ]
Chart (2007) | Peak position |
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Germany (Official German Charts) [51] | 71 |
"If I Can't Have You" | |
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Promotional single by Jess Glynne | |
Released | 22 May 2016 |
Recorded | 2016 |
Genre | |
Length | 3:18 |
Label | Warner |
Songwriter(s) |
In 2016, English singer and songwriter Jess Glynne re-recorded "If I Can't Have You" in support of the French musical Saturday Night Fever , which was to premiere in 2017. Warner Music France released as a promotional single on 22 May 2016. [52]
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "If I Can't Have You" | 3:18 |
Chart (2016) | Peak position |
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France (SNEP) [53] | 104 |
Region | Date | Label | Format |
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Belgium | 22 May 2016 | Warner | Digital download |
France |
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a local discothèque while dealing with social tensions and disillusionment in his working class ethnic neighborhood in Brooklyn. The story is based on "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night", a mostly fictional 1976 article by music writer Nik Cohn.
The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era in the mid-to-late 1970s.
Saturday Night Fever is the soundtrack album from the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever starring John Travolta. The soundtrack was released on November 15, 1977 by RSO Records. Prior to the release of Thriller by Michael Jackson, Saturday Night Fever was the best-selling album in music history, and still ranks among the best-selling soundtrack albums worldwide, with sales figures of over 40 million copies.
Yvonne Marianne Elliman is an American singer, songwriter, and actress who performed for four years in the first cast of the stage musical Jesus Christ Superstar. She scored a number of hits in the 1970s and achieved a US #1 hit with "If I Can't Have You". The song also reached #9 on the Adult Contemporary chart and number 4 in the UK Chart. Her cover of Barbara Lewis's "Hello Stranger" went to #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and "Love Me" was #5; at the time she had 3 top 10 singles. After a long hiatus in the 1980s and 1990s, during which time she left music to be with her family, she made a comeback album as a singer-songwriter in 2004.
Frederick James Perren was an American songwriter, record producer, arranger, and orchestra conductor. He co-wrote and co-produced songs including "Boogie Fever" by the Sylvers, "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, and "Shake Your Groove Thing" by Peaches & Herb.
"Night Fever" is a song written and performed by the Bee Gees. It first appeared on the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever on RSO Records. Producer Robert Stigwood wanted to call the film Saturday Night, but singer Robin Gibb expressed hesitation at the title. Stigwood liked the title Night Fever but was wary of marketing a movie with that name. The song bounded up the Billboard charts while the Bee Gees’ two previous hits from Saturday Night Fever soundtrack were still in the top ten. The record debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart at #76, then leaped up 44 positions to #32. It then moved: 32–17–8–5–2–1. It remained at #1 for eight weeks, and ultimately spent 13 weeks in the top 10. For the first five weeks that "Night Fever" was at #1, "Stayin' Alive" was at #2. Also, for one week in March, Bee Gees related songs held five of the top positions on the Hot 100 chart, and four of the top five positions, with "Night Fever" at the top of the list. The B-side of "Night Fever" was a live version of "Down the Road" taken from the Bee Gees 1977 album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live.
"Stayin' Alive" is a song written and performed by the Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack. The song was released in December 1977 by RSO Records as the second single from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The band wrote the song and co-produced it with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. It is one of the Bee Gees' signature songs. In 2004, "Stayin' Alive" was placed at No. 189 by Rolling Stone on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The 2021 updated Rolling Stone list of 500 Greatest Songs placed "Stayin' Alive" at No. 99. In 2004, it ranked No. 9 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In a UK television poll on ITV in December 2011 it was voted fifth in The Nation's Favourite Bee Gees Song.
"Jive Talkin'" is a song by the Bee Gees, released as a single in May 1975 by RSO Records. This was the lead single from the album Main Course and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100; it also reached the top-five on the UK Singles Chart in the middle of 1975. Largely recognised as the group's comeback song, it was their first US top-10 hit since "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" (1971).
Spirits Having Flown is the fifteenth album by the Bee Gees, released in 1979 by RSO Records. It was the group's first album after their collaboration on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The album's first three tracks were released as singles and all reached No. 1 in the US, giving the Bee Gees an unbroken run of six US chart-toppers in a one-year period and equaling a feat shared by Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles. It was the first Bee Gees album to make the UK top 40 in ten years, as well as being their first and only UK No. 1 album. Spirits Having Flown also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and the US. The album has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
"Tragedy" is a song released by the Bee Gees, written by Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb, included on their 1979 album Spirits Having Flown. The single reached number one in the UK in February 1979 and repeated the feat the following month on the US Billboard Hot 100. In 1998, it was covered by British pop group Steps, whose version also reached number one in the UK. In 2024, it was used in the film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, as well as its trailer.
"Love You Inside Out" is a 1979 single by the Bee Gees from their album, Spirits Having Flown. It was their last chart-topping single on the Billboard Hot 100, interrupting Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff", becoming the third single from the album to do so. In the UK, the single peaked at No. 13 for two weeks. It was the ninth and final number-one hit for the Bee Gees in the US, and the twelfth and final number-one hit in Canada as well. The trio would not return to the top 10 for ten years, with the song, "One".
"You Should Be Dancing" is a song by the Bee Gees, from the album Children of the World, released in 1976. It hit No. 1 for one week on the American Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 for seven weeks on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart, and in September the same year, reached No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart. The song also peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Soul chart. It was this song that first launched the Bee Gees into disco. It was also the only track from the group to top the dance chart.
The Singles Collection 1981–1993 is a greatest hits album by English singer Kim Wilde, released on 6 September 1993 by MCA Records.
"How Deep Is Your Love" is a pop ballad written and recorded by the Bee Gees in 1977 and released as a single in September of that year. It was ultimately used as part of the soundtrack to the film Saturday Night Fever. It was a number-three hit in the United Kingdom and Australia. In the United States, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 on 25 December 1977 and stayed in the Top 10 for 17 weeks. It spent six weeks atop the US adult contemporary chart. It is listed at No. 27 on Billboard's All Time Top 100. Alongside "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever", it is one of the group's three tracks on the list. The song was covered by Take That for their 1996 Greatest Hits album, reaching No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks.
"(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" is a song performed by Andy Gibb, released in September 1977 as the second and final single by RSO Records from his debut album, Flowing Rivers (1977). The song was his second single that topped the US Billboard Hot 100. It was mainly written by Barry Gibb, with help from Andy Gibb and produced by Gibb-Galuten-Richardson. The B-side of this song was "Words and Music" in the US, but "Flowing Rivers" in the UK. It became a gold record.
Greatest is a greatest hits album by the Bee Gees. Released by RSO Records in October 1979, the album is a retrospective of the group's material from 1975 to 1979. A remastered and expanded version of the album was released by Reprise Records in 2007.
"The Woman in You" is one of five songs the Bee Gees contributed to the film, Staying Alive, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. It was their most recent song on that time to reach the Top 40 on Billboard Hot 100 chart until 1989's "One".
"Love Pains" is a dance song written by Michael Price, Dan Walsh and Steve Barri. It was originally recorded by Yvonne Elliman in 1979. Both Hazell Dean and Liza Minnelli covered it and had hits in 1989 and 1990 respectively with their versions. There have also been many other cover versions of this song.
"More Than a Woman" is a song by musical group the Bee Gees, written by Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb for the soundtrack to the film Saturday Night Fever. It became a regular feature of the group's live sets from 1977 until Maurice Gibb's death in 2003 and was often coupled with "Night Fever".
"Love Me" is a song recorded by the Bee Gees, released on the 1976 album Children of the World. It was also included on the compilation albums Bee Gees Greatest and Love from the Bee Gees, which was released only in the UK.