Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for 'Jive Talkin''

Alan Kendall – electric guitars, steel guitar.

Maurice Gibb – rhythm and electric guitars, bass, vocals.

The CD version restores the use of the studio version.Ĭredits adapted from the album Main Course. Live, due to contractual distribution changes. Later pressings of the album used the live version of 'Jive Talkin'' from the Bee Gees 1977 album, Here at Last. The original studio version was included on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, as it was used in a scene that was cut from the final film. Record World said that this 'delightful departure from time-tested sweet sound is no jive at all.' It was the second time in the band's career that this strategy had been employed to get airplay for their music, after a similar tactic had popularised their debut US single ' New York Mining Disaster 1941' in 1967. The DJs would only find out what the song was and who played it when it was placed on the turntable RSO did provide the song with a label on the record itself. Upon its release to radio stations, the single was delivered in a plain white cover, with no immediate indication of what the song's name was or who sang it. Īfter hearing 'Jive Talkin '', Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, and co-producer Richard Dashut built up the song ' Second Hand News' (released on the band's Rumours in 1977) with four audio tracks of electric guitar and the use of chair percussion to evoke Celtic rock. The song's rhythm riff perhaps resembles the riff from ' Shirley & Company's ' Shame, Shame, Shame', with a prominent use of the Bo Diddley beat. He then said, 'We didn't think that there was any 'no go' areas, it's music!' Barry's guitar strumming has a smoother version of Kool and the Gang's signature chicka-chicka and funky Nassau version of KC and the Sunshine Band's Caribbean strumming. Īccording to Maurice, while hearing this rhythmic sound, 'Barry didn't notice that he's going 'Ji-Ji Jive Talkin' ', thinking of the dance, 'You dance with your eyes'.that's all he had.exactly 35 mph.that's what we got.' He goes on to say, 'We played it to Arif, and he went 'Do you know what 'Jive Talkin '' means?' And we said 'Well yeah, it's, ya know, you're dancing.' And he says 'No, it's a black expression for bullshitting.' And we went 'Oh, really?!? Jive talkin', you're telling me lies.' and changed it.' Maurice goes on to describe how Arif gave them 'the groove, the tempo, everything.' Robin Gibb then goes on to mention that, because they were English, they were less self-conscious about going into the 'no-go areas', referring to musical styles that were more black in styles, etc. 'Jive Talkin '' was also influenced by 'You're the One' (written by Sly Stone) by Little Sister.

'I overdubbed certain sections to add bass extra emphasis'. 'I really liked the synth bass lines', Maurice said.

And when Maurice came back, we let him hear it and suggested he re-record the bass line on his bass guitar'. Weaver stated, 'Usually Maurice would play bass guitar, but he was away from the studio that night.

It was overdubbed by keyboardist Blue Weaver using a then state-of-the-art ARP 2600, which producer Arif Mardin had brought in for the recording of the Main Course album. The pulsing synthesiser bass line, which featured in the final recording, was (along with the pioneering work of Stevie Wonder) one of the earliest uses of 'synth bass' on a pop recording. The scratchy guitar intro was done by Barry and the funky bass line by Maurice. Recording for 'Jive Talkin '' took place on 30 January and 2 February 1975. The song's rhythm was modelled after the sound their car made crossing the Julia Tuttle Causeway each day from Biscayne Bay to Criteria Studios in Miami. The song was originally called 'Drive Talking' in its early stage. 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).īarry Gibb re-recorded the song as a duet with country music star Miranda Lambert for his 2021 album Greenfields. This was the lead single from the album Main Course (as well as a song on the 1977 Saturday Night Fever soundtrack) 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. ' Jive Talkin ' ' is a song by the Bee Gees, released as a single in May 1975 by RSO Records. For the language, see African American Vernacular English.

Bee gees jive talkin