Peak
75
Weeks
6
Score
301
Chart Year
1987
This post-disco track was the biggest hit across Europe in 1987, going to #1 in the UK and several other territories, but it stalled at #75 in America, which wasn't ready to welcome them back after they saturated the airwaves in the '70s. The song has a love is a battlefield theme, with the Gibb brothers conceding defeat to woman while also asking for her surrender. Hank Williams released a very different song called "You Win Again" in 1952. His song is a country lament where he can't bear to leave his cheating woman. According to Robin Gibb, who wrote the song with his brother-bandmates Barry and Maurice, they were sure this song was going to be a huge hit and they spent a month recording it and trying to get the perfect mix. When "You Win Again" hit #1 in the UK on October 17, 1987, it made the Bee Gees the first group to score a UK #1 hit in each of three decades: the '60s, '70s, and '80s. >> Much of the Bee Gees material is a collaboration by the three Gibb brothers. Maurice Gibb explained in a May 2001 interview with Mojo magazine how the writing of this song is an example of their partnership. "When we get together and write it's not like three individuals, it's like one person in the room," said Maurice. "Usually we have a book of titles and we just pick one. I loved 'You Win Again' as a title, but we had no idea how it might turn out as a song. It ended up as a big demo in my garage, and I recorded stomps and things. There was just one drum on there. The rest was just sounds. Then everybody tried to talk us out of the stomps at the start. They didn't want it. 'Take it off. Too loud! Can we have them not on the intro, just when the music starts?' All this stuff. But as soon as you hear that 'jabba-doomba, jabba-doomba' on the radio, you know it's us. It's a signal. So that's one little secret, give people an automatic identification of who it is."
I couldn't figure why you couldn't give me what everybody needs I shouldn't let you kick me when I'm down, my baby Find out everybody knows that you've been using me I'm surprised you let me stay around you One day I'm gonna lift the cover and look inside your heart We gotta level before we go and tear this love apart There's no fight you can't fight This battle of love with me, you win again So little time, we do nothing but compete There's no life on earth No other could see me through, you win again Some never try, but if anybody can, we can And I'll be (I'll be), I'll be (I'll be) following you Oh, girl, oh, girl Oh baby, I shake you from now on I'm gonna break down your defenses, one by one I'm gonna hit you from all sides, lay your fortress open wide Nobody stops this body from taking you You better beware, I swear I'm gonna be there one day when you fall I could never let you cast aside the greatest love of all There's no fight you can't fight This battle of love with me, you win again So little time, we do nothing but compete There's no life on earth No other could see me through, you win again Some never try, but if anybody can, we can And I'll be (I'll be), I'll be (I'll be) following you Oh, girl You win again So little time, we do nothing but compete There's no life on earth No other could see me through, you win again Some never try, but if anybody can, we can And I'll be (I'll be), I'll be (I'll be) following you Oh, oh, girl You win again So little time, we do nothing but compete There's no life on earth No other could see me through, you win again Some never try, but if anybody can, we can There's no fight you can't fight This battle of love with me, you win again So little time, we do nothing but compete There's no life on earth No other could see me through, you win again Some never try, but if anybody can, we can There's no fight you can't fight This battle of love with me, you win again
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sep 19, 1987 | 82 | 44 |
| 2 | Sep 26, 1987 | 78 | 48 |
| 3 | Oct 3, 1987 | 75 | 51 |
| 4 | Oct 10, 1987 | 76 | 50 |
| 5 | Oct 17, 1987 | 78 | 48 |
| 6 | Oct 24, 1987 | 92 | 34 |