Shadow Dancing (album)

Shadow Dancing
Studio album by Andy Gibb
Released April 1978 (US)
September 1978 (UK)
Recorded December 1977 — February 1978
Wally Heider Studios, Los Angeles, California
Genre Disco, pop rock, soft rock, country
Length 41:13
Label RSO
Producer Gibb-Galuten-Richardson
Andy Gibb studio albums chronology
Flowing Rivers
(1977)
Shadow Dancing
(1978)
After Dark
(1980)
Singles from Shadow Dancing
  1. "Shadow Dancing"
    Released: April 1978
  2. "An Everlasting Love"
    Released: June 1978
  3. "(Our Love) Don't Throw it All Away"
    Released: September 1978
  4. "Why"
    Released: September 1978

Shadow Dancing is the second album by English singer-songwriter and teen idol Andy Gibb, released in April 1978 in the United States and September 1978 in the United Kingdom. It was Gibb's highest charting album in some countries including America and in Canada. This LP was his only album to chart in the UK. The album had released four singles including the three US Top 10 and one single that was not charted elsewhere.

Continuing the momentum of his first successes, notably "I Just Want to Be Your Everything", he began work with the Gibb-Galuten-Richardson production team on his second album. Although the album is not currently in print, it was released to iTunes along with the other two Andy Gibb albums in 2011.

Recording

Gibb's second album was made under the direction of Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, mostly while Barry, Robin and Maurice were off filming Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band up to January. Shadow Dancing was recorded from December 1977 to February 1978. Barry again was executive producer and was present during recording of a few of the songs. John Sambataro, who sang backing and harmony vocals on the non-Barry songs, plays slide guitar. Sambataro later worked with Dave Mason and McGuinn, Clark and Hillman and he later joined Firefall.[1] "Why" has feature a slide guitar by John Sambataro, as well as the guitar work of Jock Bartley of Firefall, "I Go for You" features guitar work by Don Felder of Eagles.[1]

Gibb also relied on Galuten's musical expertise to help translate his musical ideas into reality by co-writer or co-composer of some of his songs, as Gibb says "He'll sit down at the keyboards and find chords that we're hearing. He's magic. He hears exactly what you're hearing. 'One More Look at the Night' - that came across in 10 or 15 minutes".[2]

In February 1978, Gibb participated on Stephen Stills' songs "You Can't Dance Alone" and "What's the Game" singing backing vocals along with Dave Mason, from the album Thoroughfare Gap and Gibb's band including Joey Murcia, George Perry, John Sambataro and Joe Lala also plays on both songs. (Back in 1976, Stills visited the Bee Gees recording Children of the World and played percussion on "You Should Be Dancing".)[1]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[3]

Shadow Dancing contains four singles including the title track, written by Gibb and all three of his brothers, was released as a single in the US in April 1978 (alongside the album), and in mid-June began a seven-week run at #1, achieving platinum status. Two further top ten singles, "An Everlasting Love" (#5) and "(Our Love) Don't Throw it All Away" (#9), a song also released by his brothers in 1979, were extracted from the album, which became a million seller. Amy Hanson at Allmusic described "Fool for a Night" as a 'bittersweet, up tempo piece of pop', "Melody" as a 'wistful love song', and "I Go for You" as 'smarmy as it may be in hindsight, was still better than many of its contemporaries'.[3]

Gibb, talking about his recently finished album, "I am so much more confident now after doing this second album, dealing with the pressures of proving to myself that the first one wasn't a fluke and that I could write a second album. So now I am a lot more confident". Following the release of Shadow Dancing, RSO arranged a mini-tour of Europe to promote the new album, with planned concerts in the UK as well as other European countries.[2] The album was reissued by Spectrum Records in 1992 and Polydor Records in 1998. Rights to the album are now owned by the Bee Gees, and Reprise Records has made the album available through online music stores such as iTunes.

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Shadow Dancing" (Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Andy Gibb)4:34
2."Why" (Andy Gibb, Barry Gibb)4:31
3."Fool For a Night"  3:20
4."An Everlasting Love" (Barry Gibb)4:06
5."(Our Love) Don't Throw it All Away" (Barry Gibb, Blue Weaver)4:07
Side two
No.TitleLength
1."One More Look at the Night"  3:45
2."Melody"  4:00
3."I Go For You"  4:19
4."Good Feeling"  3:46
5."Waiting For You"  4:13

Personnel

Production

Charts

Peak positions

Chart (1978—1979) Position
Australian Kent Music Report[4] 28
Canadian RPM Albums Chart[5] 1
Swedish Albums Chart[6] 42
New Zealand RIANZ Albums Chart[7] 15
Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart[8] 8
UK Albums Chart[9] 15
US Billboard 200[10] 7
US Billboard R&B Albums[10] 18

Year-end charts

Chart (1978—1979) Position
New Zealand Albums Chart[7] 34
Norwegian Albums Chart[8] 14
Swedish Albums Chart[6] 42

References

  1. 1 2 3 Joseph Brennan. "Gibb Songs - 1978". Retrieved 10 February 2013.
  2. 1 2 Hughes, Andrew. The Bee Gees - Tales of the Brothers Gibb. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  3. 1 2 Hanson, Amy. "Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
  4. David Kent (1993). Australian Charts Book 1970—1992. Australian Chart Book Pty Ltd, Turramurra, N.S.W. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  5. "CAN Charts > Andy Gibb". RPM. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  6. 1 2 "Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing". charts.org.nz. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  9. "UK Charts > Andy Gibb". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  10. 1 2 "US Charts > Andy Gibb". Billboard. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
Preceded by
City to City by Gerry Rafferty
Canadian RPM Chart number-one album
29 July — 4 August 1978
Succeeded by
Some Girls by The Rolling Stones
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