Your Disco Needs You

"Your Disco Needs You"
Single by Kylie Minogue
from the album Light Years
B-side "Password"
Released 22 January 2001
Format CD single
Recorded London, England
Genre Disco
Length 3:33
Label
Writer(s)
Producer(s)
  • Guy Chambers
  • Steve Power
Kylie Minogue singles chronology
"Please Stay"
(2000)		 "Your Disco Needs You"
(2001)		 "Can't Get You Out of My Head"
(2001)
Music video
"Your Disco Needs You" on YouTube

"Your Disco Needs You" is a song performed by Australian recording artist and songwriter Kylie Minogue, taken from her seventh studio album Light Years (2000). The song was written by Minogue, Guy Chambers and Robbie Williams and produced by Chambers and Steve Power. Musically, "Your Disco Needs You" is a traditional disco song, while lyrically, it talks about the power of disco music. The song peaked inside the top forty in Australia, Switzerland and Germany. Hugely popular as an album track, it was never released as a single in the United Kingdom, but charted at #152 on the basis of import sales.[1] Minogue has also performed the song on most of her 2000 and onward tours, including On a Night Like This Tour, Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour, KylieX2008, For You, For Me Tour, and most recently on her "Kiss Me Once Tour".

Background

The song was released as the fifth single from Light Years at the beginning of 2001 (see 2001 in music) by EMI Germany. Written by Minogue, Chambers and Williams, the song also received a limited release in Australia with only 10,000 copies pressed. The background vocals were recorded by Tracy Ackerman and Robbie Williams. Musically, "Your Disco Needs You" is a traditional disco song. The album version has less arrangement with mostly drum beats. However, the single version was a more upbeat version, featuring vocoder and more fillers through the song. Lyrically, the song talks about the power of disco music. Heather Phares from Allmusic described the song as a "Four-on-the-floor beat" and said it was a surprisingly good "dance-oriented song".[2] NME had compared the song to Pet Shop Boys song "Go West".

The lack of a UK single release for the track caused controversy among fans there[3] and sparked protests outside her UK record company lobbying for this to happen. When considering the fourth single to be released from Light Years, Minogue's record label chose the Latin sounding "Please Stay" instead of "Your Disco Needs You", due to the song's campness and to avoid Minogue being further stereotyped. Although remixers "Almighty" had remixed the song and this version appeared on the UK CD Single of her single "On a Night Like This".[4]

Various language versions

The original album version contains four lines spoken in French. During the same session, Minogue recorded versions with these lines in other languages including German, Spanish, and Japanese.

French verse: Vous n'êtes jamais seuls / Vous savez ce qu'il faut faire / Ne laissez pas tomber votre nation / Le disco a besoin de vous !

German verse: Du bist niemals allein / Du weißt, was du tun musst / Lass dein Volk nicht im Stich / Deine Disco braucht dich!

Spanish verse: Nunca estás sola / Sabes lo que tienes que hacer / No le falles a tu pueblo / ¡Tu discoteca te necesita!

Japanese verse: Anata wa keshite hitori ja nai / nani wo subeki ka sitte iru hazu / karera wo uragira nai de / Disco wa anata wo matte iru!

English translation: You're never alone / You know what you must do / Don't let your country down / Your disco needs you!

Reception

Critical response

"Your Disco Needs You" received critical acclaim from most music critics. Heather Phares from Allmusic gave the song a separate review, while giving it three out of five stars. She said ""Your Disco Needs You"'s glittery charm as well as a fun hidden song that's arguably more enjoyable than the title track."[5] This was only one of Minogue's song to be reviewed as a separate review. For the album review off Light Years (2000), Chris True had highlighted the song as an album standout. He said ""Your Disco Needs You" is probably one of the best dance songs of the '90s. Arguably one of the best disco records since the '70s [...]."[6][7] Nick Levine from Digital Spy said "[and if] 'Your Disco Needs You' doesn't put a smile on your face you need a new shrink [...]"[8] A compilation review entitled Rainbow Love Boat which was reviewed by Allmusic had said that "Your Disco Needs You" was "genuinely fun, exciting songs that may not be lyrical triumphs, but that fact is of little importance in the genre."[9]

In March 2008, SameSame.com.au listed the song at number five in "The 50 Gayest Songs Of All Time".[10]

Chart performance

"Your Disco Needs You" only had limited success, due to an only-release in Germany and limited release in Australia, however for just a one country release, the single was successful in Europe. The song debuted at number twenty on the Australian Singles Chart, becoming the second highest single debut. But descended to number forty-five the next week. The song debuted at number fifty-four on the Swiss Singles Chart, but became successful there, peaking at number twenty-seven, and stayed in the charts for seventeen weeks in total. The song had spent a sole week at number seventy on the Austrian Singles Chart. The song had peaked at number thirty-one on the German Singles Chart, but stayed there for twelve weeks in total.

Music video

The accompanying original music video was filmed in 2000 in Los Angeles America and does not feature on any of Minogue's video graphical DVDs. A bone-fide gay anthem the video pays homage to the discothèques of the 1970s, featuring an array of Kylie clones inviting the viewer to dance whilst doing the goosestep. Throughout the video Minogue wears a variety of different wigs/outfits such as an Uncle Sam stars and stripes American inspired outfit matched with a black leather cane/whip. She also wears a black and white striped dress with a black leather bondage cap.

An alternative video was also filmed released to the Germany market using the Casino Radio & Club Remix. The alternative video features newly recorded clips of Minogue against a back drop of balloons, gold streamers and a podium whilst sporting a black and gold Your Disco Needs You t-shirt which she also wore on the CD single's front cover. The alternative version was filmed due to Minogues dissatisfaction with elements of the original video. Although this alternate version is widely regarded as considerably worse than the original version and has since been pulled from air in Germany.

Cover versions

In 2007, the song was covered by Tru Calling which lead singer Chris Tolley took most of the vocals throughout, and was set for release in 2008, though the track failed to materialise. This was later said to be due to legal reasons when a former management of Kylie's contacted Tru Calling advising them that covering this song could get them into legal dispute. Russian-Bulgarian singer Philipp Kirkorov used the music for his song "Моя песня" ("Moya Pesnya"), but with different lyrics.

In 2008 Almighty, who had originally remixed the track as part of the Light Years album promotion, released We Love Kylie, an album of Kylie's own hits remade in the Dance/Pop genre. One of the tracks was the same "Your Disco Needs You" with different vocals.

In 2008 the Randy Jones cover was released on his album Ticket to the World.[11] Randy Jones was one of the original members of the Village People and releases "camp" versions of songs.

Live performances

Since its release, "Your Disco Needs You" has been performed at four of Minogue's tours. Its first performance was at the On a Night Like This Tour in 2001. It was performed after the premiere performance of "Can't Get You Out of My Head" as the last song of the second act. In this performance, Minogue wore a black tank top with red flares. The song was then performed on Minogue's Showgirl Tour in 2005. It was featured in the sixth act entitled Kylesque. Minogue wore a sparkly gold dress with a matching hat. It was the last song in the act. Minogue was unable to complete the tour as she was diagnosed with breast cancer. However, when Minogue continued the tour in 2006, under the name Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour, "Your Disco Needs You" was not part of the setlist. In 2008, Minogue performed the song on her KylieX2008 world tour. It was featured in the act entitled Black Versus White, where Minogue was dressed as a coachman. However, the song was not added to the setlist until 10 May. It was featured as the second song in the act after that. The song wasn't part of the setlist on the For You, for Me world tour which toured in North America in 2009, but requested on all nine shows. The song's most recent performance has been on Minogue's Kiss Me Once Tour in 2014.

The song was also performed on Wetten, dass..? in 2001.

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Your Disco Needs You".

  • German CD single one
  1. "Your Disco Needs You" (3:33)
  2. "Your Disco Needs You" (Almighty Mix Edit) (3:29)
  3. "Your Disco Needs You" (Almighty Mix) (8:22)
  4. "Your Disco Needs You" (German Version) (3:33)
  5. "Password" (3:49)
  • German CD single two
  1. "Your Disco Needs You" (Casino Mix) (3:38)
  2. "Your Disco Needs You" (3:33)
  3. "Your Disco Needs You" (Almighty Mix) (8:22)
  4. "Please Stay" (7th District Club Flava Mix) (6:33)
  • Australian CD single
  1. "Your Disco Needs You" (3:33)
  2. "Your Disco Needs You" (Almighty Mix Edit) (3:29)
  3. "Your Disco Needs You" (Almighty Mix) (8:22)
  4. "Your Disco Needs You" (Casino Mix) (3:38)
  5. "Your Disco Needs You" (German Version) (3:33)
  6. "Password" (3:49)

Official versions and remixes

  1. Album version (French version) (3:33)
  2. German version (3:33)
  3. Spanish version (3:33)
  4. Japanese version (3:33)
  5. Almighty Mix Edit/German Almighty Edit (3:29)
  6. Almighty Mix (8:22)
  7. Almighty Definitive Mix
  8. Almighty 2008 Mix (6:50)
  9. Almighty 2008 Radio Edit
  10. Casino Club and Radio Mix (3:38) [This version was performed on Kylie's concert tour KylieX2008]
  11. Casino Club Mix (6:15)(Unreleased)
  12. Official Instrumental Mix

Charts

Chart (2001) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[12] 20
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[13] 70
Germany (Media Control Charts)[14] 31
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[15] 27
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[16] 152

References

External links