Random Tracks: I enjoyed this! Here’s another one. Once in a while I’ll let my mp3-player select a random file from my collection. Then I’ll try to dig up some information on the track and share it with you here. It’s a self-educational project - I’m getting to know my own mp3 collection. No downloads, sorry.

Andy Gibb - Fool for a Night (from “Shadow Dancing”, 1978, RSO)

Andy Gibb had a few glorious years from 1977 to 1979. In fact, all of the first three singles from his 1978 album “Shadow Dancing” went to number one in the U.S., and he was the first artist ever to achieve it.

He had a breezy, comfortable voice, charisma, and his music was boosted infinitely by the magical stardust and impossibly ethereal and glamourous disco sound of his Bee Gees big brothers at the time.

Sadly, the fairy tale only lasted a couple of years for Andy; by 1980 it was pretty much over. Maybe it had a little to do with changing musical trends - but mostly it had to do with Andy himself. Andy Gibb had, so the story goes, serious problems dealing with his success. He developed a massive cocaine addiction and died of an inflammatory heart disease only 30 years old in 1988.

“Fool for a Night” is my least favorite tune on “Shadow Dancing”. The album is a very light but generally pleasurable affair. It reminds me of happiness, summer, childhood and ice cream. It has a couple of gorgeous Bee Gees leftovers, some decent tunes by Andy himself and a few not so great. “Fool for a Night” was penned by Andy and is a slight piece of pop pap clocking in at 3:20.

Listening to it, I imagine a positively happy-go-lucky blond guy strolling along on his toes to this limp, tip-a-ti-toe rhythm arrangement. Sporting a pink t-shirt, 501 jeans and white sneakers he’s desperately trying to put on a serious face as he’s singing along.

It’s the kind of song it’s absolutely impossible to move around to, let alone dance to - even though it’s a pretty up-tempo affair.

It’s more of a “move your head from a side to a side with a dorky smile and raise your eyebrows” kind of song - especially so if you have a decent mop.

Basically, the song is about a guy warning someone against following their impulses without considering the consequences - “you’d be a fool to fall for a night” - but still offering them a safe haven if they should fail - “time will turn you back to me.” I guess it could be the words of a protective ex-lover or a dad - but I can’t help imagining it’s Andy impersonating the wiser and older Barry (in white spandex pants, no less) giving advice to the young, impressionable Andy.

The chorus introduces some advanced interplay between music and lyrics. Whenever Andy sings “why be a fool for a night” and “you’d be a fool to fall for a night”, the string section promptly emphasize the protagonist’s concern for his subject with downward glissandi - thus suggesting the potential fall (from grace, or whatever.) The sheer whimsicality of the chorus is a bit confusing to me. Maybe it’s referring to the impulsive nature of its subject? Whatever…

Towards the end of the song a couple of clever key changes lift up the bridge, thus adding to the drama of the lyric, along with a little more somber string chords: “…if you run away / you can’t escape from the price you pay…” and so on - this is the moral of the story - finally returning us to the chorus, bringing it up a half tone.

Andy then putters through the chorus a couple of times - aand fadeout. Done!

“Fool for a Night” was never released as a single in the U.S., and it’s easy for me to understand why. It was, however, released as a B-side to the single “Why” in the U.K.

This track was produced by Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson and arranged by Galuten. Musicians: Joey Murcia and Tim Renwick on guitars, George Bitzer on keys, Harold Cowart on bass and finally Ron Ziegler on drums along with Joe Lala on percussion.