Foo Fighters have filled their sets with a variety of fun covers over the years, but their latest cover may take some rock fans by surprise. Dave Grohl and the gang have performed the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever favorite “You Should Be Dancing” for BBC Radio 2’s Sofa Session.
The Foos have shown their versatility over the years and in this performance Dave Grohl fires up his falsetto to do his best Barry Gibb. The cover should perhaps not be too much of a surprise, given the band has discussed Medicine at Midnight being their dance record, in a David Bowie Let’s Dance sense.
Speaking with host Jo Wiley, Dave Grohl explained how the cover came to be. “We’ve been going down to our studio every day and filming things and recording things, and this one day we had our list of things we were supposed to do and it said, ‘Record a cover song for Jo.’ And while we were having this conversation somebody said, ‘Hey, have you seen that Bee Gees documentary?’ And I was like the last person on earth – the only person that hadn’t seen it! So I was like, ‘Why don’t we just do a Bee Gees song?’ And someone was just like, ‘Okay… how do you wanna do it?!’ And I said: ‘Well, let’s do it like the Bee Gees.’”
The singer continued, “We started recording the instrumental track, and then I thought, ‘Okay, well I’m gonna go out and sing it…’ and let me tell you: I have never, ever in my life sung like that, but it was the easiest song I have ever sung in my entire life! I sang the song, and it was like six minutes and I was done. I should have been singing like this for the last 25 years!”
The original Bee Gees song first appeared on their 1976 album Children of the World, but got a huge boost when it was also featured in the John Travolta-starring film Saturday Night Fever. The track topped the Billboard Hot 100 and spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart.
You can check out a preview of the track in the Foo Fighters (or should we call them the Dee Gees) tweet below, and hear the whole version of the song kicking off BBC Radio 2’s Sofa Session alongside performances of “Waiting on a War” and “All My Life” at this location.
In case you missed it, Foos caught up with @jowhiley on @BBCRadio2 and premiered the 'Dee Gees.' 🕺 Check out the cover now on @BBCSounds: https://t.co/RuhWFbKtKh pic.twitter.com/6QZ994Af2o
— Foo Fighters (@foofighters) February 18, 2021