You Should Be Dancing

This song was a #1 US hit in September 1976, becoming one of the biggest disco hits of the era. When the movie Saturday Night Fever hit theaters in December 1977, the song was used in a famous scene from the movie where John Travolta takes over the dance floor - an appropriate choice since the song is specifically about dancing. "You Should Be Dancing" was included on the soundtrack along with five other songs performed by the Bee Gees (plus another they wrote: "If I Can't Have You" by Yvonne Elliman). The album sold over 15 million copies in the US, marking the Bee Gees as a disco act when their earlier output was more charitably classified as blue-eyed soul. Decades later, a new generation discovered the group's earlier work and the disco taint began to fade, but for Barry Gibb, the memories of the backlash didn't. "It still haunts me like hell," he told Mojo in 2001 about this time. "Every time anyone asks me about it my mouth goes dry."

"You Should Be Dancing" had a huge impact on the dance club scene. According to Nicky Siano, a DJ at various clubs in New York City (as told in the documentary The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart), it was played at the hottest clubs about three times a night during its heyday, and helped bring disco culture - previously the province of the gay community - into the mainstream.

Along with "Jive Talkin'," this is one of two Bee Gees songs on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack that had already been released. It first appeared on their 1976 Children Of The World album.