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If I Can't Have You (Bee Gees song)

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"If I Can't Have You"
Song by Bee Gees
A-side"Stayin' Alive"
Released
  • 13 December 1977 (US)
  • 6 January 1978 (UK)
Recorded
  • January and February 1977
  • September 1977
Studio
GenreDisco
Length3:25
LabelRSO
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
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]

Yvonne Elliman version

[edit]
"If I Can't Have You"
Side A of US 7" single
Single by Yvonne Elliman
from the album Saturday Night Fever and Night Flight
B-side"Good Sign"
ReleasedJanuary 23, 1978
Recorded1977
GenreDisco
Length
  • 2:57
  • 4:00 (extended version)
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Freddie Perren
Yvonne Elliman singles chronology
"I Can't Get You Outa My Mind"
(1977) 		"If I Can't Have You"
(1978) 		"Moment by Moment"
(1978)
Audio
"If I Can't Have You" on YouTube
Yvonne Elliman, 1975

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.

Personnel

[edit]
  • Yvonne Elliman – lead vocals
  • Bob Bowles – guitar
  • Sonny Burke – keyboards
  • Paulinho da Costa – percussion
  • Scott Edwards – bass
  • James Gadson – drums
  • Freddie Perren – synthesizer, percussion
  • Julia Tillman Waters, Marti McCall, Maxine Willard Waters - backing vocals
  • Bob Zimmitti – percussion

Charts

[edit]

This Way Up version

[edit]

"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]

Kim Wilde version

[edit]
"If I Can't Have You"
Single by Kim Wilde
from the album The Singles Collection 1981–1993
B-side"Never Felt So Alive"
Released28 June 1993 (1993-06-28)[24]
Length3:27
LabelMCA
Songwriter(s)
  • Barry
  • Robin
  • Maurice Gibb
Producer(s)Ricki Wilde
Kim Wilde singles chronology
"Million Miles Away"
(1992) 		"If I Can't Have You"
(1993) 		"In My Life"
(1993)
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]

Critical reception

[edit]

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]

Charts

[edit]

Certifications

[edit]
Certifications for "If I Can't Have You" by Kim Wilde
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[49] Platinum 70,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

If I Can't Have You (The Disco Boys remix)

[edit]
"If I Can't Have You (The Disco Boys remix)"
Single by Bee Gees
from the album Bee Gees Greatest
Released2 November 2007 (2007-11-02)
Genre
Length3:36 (radio edit)
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Bee Gees
  • The Disco Boys
  • Finger & Kadel
Bee Gees singles chronology
"Ups & Downs"
(2005) 		"If I Can't Have You (The Disco Boys remix)"
(2007) 		"Stayin' Alive (Serban mix)"
(2017)

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]

Track listing

[edit]
  • Digital download — US version[50]
  1. "If I Can't Have You" (The Disco Boys remix) – 6:55
  • CD single
  1. "If I Can't Have You" (The Disco Boys radio edit) – 3:36
  2. "If I Can't Have You" (The Disco Boys remix) – 6:35
  3. "If I Can't Have You" – 3:22
  4. "If I Can't Have You" (The Disco Boys dub mix) – 6:55

Charts

[edit]
Chart (2007) Peak
position
Germany (GfK)[51] 71

Jess Glynne version

[edit]
"If I Can't Have You"
Promotional single by Jess Glynne
Released22 May 2016
Recorded2016
Genre
Length3:18
LabelWarner
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]

Track listing

[edit]
Digital download[52]
No.TitleLength
1."If I Can't Have You"3:18

Charts

[edit]
Chart (2016) Peak
position
France (SNEP)[53] 104

Release history

[edit]
Region Date Label Format
Belgium 22 May 2016 Warner Digital download
France

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Gibb Songs : 1977". Columbia.edu. 20 December 1976. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  2. ^ "Top Single Picks" (PDF). Billboard. 10 December 1977. p. 84. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  3. ^ "CashBox Singles Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. 10 December 1977. p. 23. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
  4. ^ "Forum - 1970 (ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts)". Australian-charts.com. Archived from the original on 2 June 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  5. ^ "Yvonne Elliman – If I Can't Have You" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  6. ^ "If I can't have you in Canadian Top Singles Chart". Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on 24 February 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  7. ^ "If I can't have you in Canadian Adult Contemporary Chart". Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  8. ^ Steve Hawtin; et al. "Tsort – Chart positions around the world". Tsort.info.
  9. ^ "If I can't have you in Irish Chart". IRMA. Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 8 July 2013. Only results when searching "If I can't have you"
  10. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Yvonne Elliman" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40.
  11. ^ "Yvonne Elliman – If I Can't Have You" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  12. ^ a b "Songs from the Year 1978". Tsort.info. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  13. ^ "Yvonne Elliman – If I Can't Have You". Top 40 Singles.
  14. ^ "1978 Top 40 Official UK Singles Archive – 27th May 1978". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  15. ^ a b "Yvonne Elliman awards on Allmusic". Allmusic. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  16. ^ Whitburn, Joel (1993). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993. Record Research. p. 80.
  17. ^ "Kent Music Report No 236 – 1 January 1979 > National Top 100 Singles for 1978". Kent Music Report. Retrieved 8 January 2022 – via Imgur.com.
  18. ^ "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  19. ^ "Top 100 1978 - UK Music Charts". Uk-charts.top-source.info. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  20. ^ "Top 100 Hits of 1978/Top 100 Songs of 1978". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  21. ^ 1987 Virgin Records cat. no: VS 1002
  22. ^ "This Way up". Official Charts.
  23. ^ "If I Can't Have You". Official Charts.
  24. ^ "New Releases: Singles". Music Week. 26 June 1993. p. 27.
  25. ^ "Kim WIlde: If I Can't Have You". IMDb. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  26. ^ Flick, Larry (11 September 1993). "Dance Trax: Lonnie Gordon Opens Her Creative Floodgates" (PDF). Billboard. p. 26. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  27. ^ "New Releases: Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 10, no. 31. 31 July 1993. p. 11. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  28. ^ Jones, Alan (3 July 1993). "Market Preview: Mainstream - Singles" (PDF). Music Week. p. 22. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  29. ^ "Kim Wilde – If I Can't Have You". ARIA Top 50 Singles.
  30. ^ "Kim Wilde – If I Can't Have You" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40.
  31. ^ "Kim Wilde – If I Can't Have You" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  32. ^ "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 10, no. 31. 31 July 1993. p. 19. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  33. ^ "EHR Top 40" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 10, no. 35. 28 August 1993. p. 26. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  34. ^ "Kim Wilde – If I Can't Have You" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts.
  35. ^ "Íslenski Listinn Topp 40 (08.07.1993 – 14.07.1993)". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 15 July 1993. p. 20. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  36. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – If I Can't Have You". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  37. ^ "Kim Wilde – If I Can't Have You". Top Digital Download.
  38. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Kim Wilde" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40.
  39. ^ "Kim Wilde – If I Can't Have You" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  40. ^ "Kim Wilde – If I Can't Have You". Singles Top 100.
  41. ^ "Kim Wilde – If I Can't Have You". Swiss Singles Chart.
  42. ^ "Kim Wilde: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  43. ^ "Top 50 Airplay Chart" (PDF). Music Week. 31 July 1993. p. 16. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  44. ^ "Top 60 Dance Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 10 July 1993. p. 22. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  45. ^ "Dance Club Songs". Billboard. 27 November 1993. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  46. ^ "ARIA Top 50 Singles for 1993". ARIA. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  47. ^ "Jaaroverzichten 1993" (in Dutch). Ultratop. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  48. ^ "Jaarlijsten 1993" (in Dutch). Stichting Nederlandse Top 40. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  49. ^ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 302.
  50. ^ "If I Can't Have You [The Disco Boys Remix] (U.S. Version) - Bee Gees". Qobuz.
  51. ^ "Bee Gees – If I Can't Have You" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  52. ^ a b "If I Can't Have You – Single". iTunes (Belgium). 2 May 2016. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  53. ^ "Jess Glynne – If I Can't Have You" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
[edit]
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