Take That have been a pioneering boyband in many ways, over the course of their eight number one singles. Multi-generational appeal with ‘Relight My Fire’, Ivor Novello-winning song writing in ‘Back for Good’, rock star level production on ‘Never Forget’…
How Deep Is Your Love, by Take That (their 8th of twelve #1s)
3 weeks, from 3rd – 24th March 1996
And now they push the idea of the ‘goodbye’ single. Ever since, every boyband worthy of the name has released a ballad after the inevitable split has been announced, and solo careers begin to loom large on the horizon. Not just boybands, even, as The Spice Girls will soon attest. Sadly, though, for a band capable of very good pop songs, this is a fairly flat goodbye: a serviceably average Bee Gees cover.
It’s a faithful take on ‘How Deep Is Your Love’, which had made #3 in 1978 when the Bee Gees were at the height of their disco powers. Rather than disco, though, Take That go for a soft-rock, acoustic guitars with some hand-held drums, sound. It reminds me of ‘More Than Words’ by Extreme… Make of that what you will.
One thing the stripped back production does is push the boys’ – a four-piece now after Robbie’s departure – voices to the fore. Their harmonies are nice, almost a cappella at times, but they can’t lift this record to anything other than middling heights. It is not a patch on the original, which I would rate as one of the Brothers Gibb’s crowning glories.
Take That had announced their split a few weeks before this final single was released, ahead of a Greatest Hits album, and so it was inevitable that it would make top spot. (Helplines had to be set up to counsel distraught fans following the news…) Since ‘Pray’ in 1993, only one of their singles had failed to make #1. And then that was it, or so everyone assumed. Gary Barlow was about to embark on a solo career – we’ll meet him again very soon – as were Mark and Robbie, all to varying degrees of success. I doubt any one predicted that a decade later Take That would launch one of the most successful musical comebacks the country had ever seen… But all that can wait for another day! In our more immediate future, with this drab one out the way, we are about to embark on a run of classic chart toppers, starting with an ode to pyromania…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
When you said pyromania, I briefly thought Def Leppard had a UK No. 1 and was getting excited. The Prodigy is cool I guess.
The original by The Bee Gees is one of my favourite songs of all time. Never heard Take That’s version before now. And after listening to it two times, I can honestly say that I don’t hate it. It’s quite faithful to the original, although the production is much sparser and not as lush as the original. Also, what a…interesting music video.
Does Robbie have a solo No. 1 in the 90s? I know he has a bunch in the 2000s. I actually like Robbie Williams a decent amount. Side note: I was looking at the UK charts in 1996 and I had no idea Jagged Little Pill was the best-selling album of 1996 in the UK. I thought it’d be Oasis or The Spice Girls. Wow, as someone who was born at the tail end of the decade, it was truly the Tapestry of the 90s, that album was.
Yeah it’s hard to hate because it doesn’t stray that far from the classic original…
Robbie has a couple of number ones towards the end of the 90s, and a few more in the early 2000s. Only six or so, though, so not as many as you might think.
Re. ‘Jagged Little Pill’… all I can suggest is that it was a slow-burn, steady seller. Looking at the other highest-selling albums of the time, it wasn’t always the biggest singles artists that had them. The Corrs in 1998, and Shania Twain in 1999… basically if your album sounded good in the background of a dinner party then you were raking it in!
I’ve always liked the original by the Bee Gees. I don’t think I had ever heard that cover by Take That. Pretty good. The video is slightly creepy.
It is! I think it’s to do with it being their last single… and so being pushed off the edge of a cliff??
My reaction to this was “plodding”. Bee Gees originals every time thanks, they are finally getting a critical re-evaluation of late courtesy a Bob Stanley book (he of Saint Etienne), they remained musical chameleons right up to their final album and the SNF backlash just underlined that being in fashion and cutting edge is not necessarily the be-all and end-all in talent.
Hated the video, I live near the Jurassic Coast in Dorset and I can’t support littering on iconic spots like that! 🙂 Robbie will blow the memory of Take That away within 3 years (with Guy), and show Gazza he needed to up his game. Re: Jagged Little Pill, that would be a very odd dinner party to have as a soundtrack, hah! I bought the album, just brilliantly vitriolic and varied. The Corrs: I didn’t buy the album, Jim Corr gave my Tourism colleague a signed copy backstage at the Radio One Roadshow in Bournemouth (It’s not what you know it’s who you know…etc) who later gave me his own (unsigned) copy after we spent a while chatting with Jim (and Shelley Nelson’s mum, Shelley of guest vocalist Tin Tin Out success was also performing).
It’s pretty obvious I love an anecdote, but it’ll be too late for Talk On Corners by the time they get a UK number one single 🙂
Keep the anecdotes coming! Jim Corr is an…interesting?… chap these days.
Re. Jagged Little Pill – I think turned down to an ambient volume it could be a dinner party soundtrack… And I didn’t mean it as a slight… mainly because I love ‘Come on Over’, as overplayed as much of it was.
I googled him after your comment. Hmmm, yes indeed well into the realm of unsubstantiated online beliefs, what is wrong with people and conspiracy theories!? No need answer, the internet has freed up gullible folk to be brainwashed into believing virtually anything anyone says is true, regardless of verifiable facts and science..tch!
I didn’t take your comment as a slight, I just can’t see You Oughta Know as brightening up any cocktail party even on low volume, the spite just bubbles over, hah! 🙂
Preferred the Bee Gees version, which has an amazing back story, as Stigwood had requested songs for Saturday Night Fever, the Gibbs had already written Jive Takin’ and You Should Be Dancing. Ensconced in the Chateau d’Herouville Studios they sat round the kitchen table with an acoustic guitar and wrote How Deep Is Your Love, Stayin’ Alive, More Than a Woman, Night Fever, and If I Can’t Have You. Yvonne Elliman had a hit with the last one, and there were several other songs left over not deemed worthy of inclusion in the film’s score – Emotion (a hit for Samantha Sang), Warm Ride (a hit for Graham Bonnett), and(Our Love) Don’t Throw It All Away for Andy Gibb, enjoying your UK #1 retrospective.
Yes, they certainly were in a rich vein of songwriting form at that time. How Deep Is Your Love is probably my favourite of all their disco-era hits
Yea I would go to the Bee Gees…but this is not bad by any means…but no it doesn’t hold up against the original. You are right though about the Extreme song.
Love the video lol… that IS a goodbye.