“You Win Again” (1987) by Bee Gees should have been a #1 Smash in the USA

You Win Again is so good the harmonies are top tier

The video is very influenced by Man Ray photographs

The masterpiece of their 80s era

I agree completely.

Loved it then.

Not sure why it didn't hit. The video got quite a bit of play.

I bought the 12" version of 'You Win Again' along with the album when it came out in 1987. Loved the album and the single - unfortunately, it didn't last long on radio playlists. By the mid-80s, the Bee gees were done. Barry Gibb's singles and album ("Now Voyager"), Robin Gibb's solo efforts (his single 'Juliette' is a masterpiece), and of course Diana Ross' album and singles - all flopped. None of them deserved the dismissals they received.

Can you stop associating Diana Ross with them? They didn’t write her entire album nor produce it all and they were writing for many artists in the 80s. If you’re gonna bring her up you need to bring up the other artists they were writing for.

If I remember correctly, "Chain Reaction" was a pretty big hit in the UK.

[quote]They didn’t write her entire album nor produce it all...

R6 where are you getting your false info from ?

Barry Gibb was a co-writer on every one of the songs of Ross' "Eaten Alive" album. Maurice Gibb was a co-writer on eight of the ten songs. Robin Gibb co-wrote seven of ten songs. Two of the songs were co-written by brother Andy Gibb in the early 80s for a project he was working on.

Producers were Albhy Galuten, Barry Gibb and Karl Richardson - same team behind Streisand's 'Guilty' album in 1980 and Dionne Warwick's 'Heartbreaker' album in 1982.

The album was released in the US on September 24, 1985 and peaked at #45 on the Hot 200 Album Charts: Streisand peaked at #1 and Warwick's album peaked at #25. At last count from RCA (before she left the label a few years later), the album's final sales tally was 300,000 copies sold. The album and the singles sold much better outside the USA.

The three singles which were released off the album were complete flops in the US. 'Chain Reaction' was released twice (the second release was a remix for a more 'pop' sound) and flopped a second time.

Meh. It was really overproduced.

Was it because they were so associated with the disco era? The backlash against disco was so intense.

I think The Bee Gees were better than The Beatles.

R11 I enjoy their music more but they really are very different

It’s probably my favourite Bee Gees song.

The masters at their very peak

Had Chain Reaction been the lead single, the Eaten Alive album might have fared a lot better. Instead they chose the title track, where you could hardly understand a word Diana was saying.

But the album in general lacks something. Diana is basically copying Barry Gibbs demos note for note. As opposed to Dionne, Kenny and Barbra who brought their own style to their Bee Gee produced projects.

"Chain Reaction" was supposed to be the lead single by RCA, but Ross - with her contract for 'total control' - decided it was best to releases 'Eaten' Alive' and publicize that the song was connected to MJ, and he was singing backup on the track (and it was rumored that this was originally written by Jackson for his own album 'Bad' at the time, and he didn't like it - so gave it to Ross).

Don't forget - Gibb was asked by RCA to come in and work with Ross in 1983. That's when he wrote 'Islands in the Stream' for her with a more R&B tune (he imagined it as a duet with Marvin Gaye), 'Eyes That See In The Dark' and a few other songs which ended up on Kenny Rogers' album. Ross (with her total control) rejected the album and working with Gibb . RCA had already paid Gibb for the work he did, so asked him to work with Kenny Rogers instead - and that lead to Rogers having a #6 Album on Billboard's Hot 200 Albums, and the #1 hit "Islands in the Stream" with Dolly Parton - one of the biggest hits in 1983.

Ross went with the misguided 'Ross' instead, which was a flop, and the awful 'Pieces of Ice' for a single.

Diana’s ego should have its own zip code.

Very few of their 80s music, whether their own or for others, did well. A few did great but many flopped. The music scene changed a lot by 1981/1982 and their reputation went bad because of the public turning on disco b

R7 Diana’ music mostly did better in the UK than the states overall. She had her big hits here for a while and is a legend but there she was far more revered overall.

For some reason I listen to a Bee Gees playlist on Spotify a lot lately. I found You Win Again to be one of their weaker songs. It has those bombastic arrangements that were quite popular in those years. But they didn't work that well for the song, imho. It's not a bad song but it could have been better.

Having said that, I have nothing but admiration for the Bee Gees. Being on top and reinvent successfully pretty much every decade for three, four decades is an extraordinary accomplishment. Ask Madonna how difficult it is.

I think it sounds amazing

waiting to hear back from r6.

Anything else to say dear?