CoronaVinyl Day 345 (G): Shadow Dancing by Andy Gibb

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

I had to skip posting yesterday, as I went to see Genesis last night at the United Center.  It would have been kismet, as the next letter in the CoronaVinyl chain is "G," but alas, I already featured my only Genesis vinyl album way back in May 2020.  So we're going with our third consecutive album from 1978, Andy Gibb's second studio album, Shadow Dancing.

Of course, Andy Gibb was the younger brother of Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb, better known as The Bee Gees.  Thanks to his brothers' talents and his own '70s-pop-ready voice, Andy was signed to a record deal in early 1976, when he was about 18, and he released his first album, Flowing Rivers, in 1977.

Building off of the success of Flowing Rivers and Andy's burgeoning pop idol status, Shadow Dancing became his most successful album, reaching #7 on the Billboard album chart, #1 on the Canadian album chart, and #15 in the UK.  It eventually went platinum in the U.S.

The album featured three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.  The title track became Gibb's third consecutive #1 hit, "An Everlasting Love" went to #5, and "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away" went to #9.

Shadow Dancing is pure late '70s disco and pop.  It was produced by the Gibb-Galuten-Richardson production team, which included Andy's brother Barry, who also sang backing vocals on, co-wrote, and/or arranged about half the songs on the album.  Other notable guest musicians include Eagles guitarist Don Felder playing guitar on "I Go For You," Firefall founder Jock Bartley and veteran session guitarist/future Firefall member John Sambarto playing guitars on "Why," session guitarist Tim Renwick on most of the album, and Blues Image co-founder and veteran session drummer Joe Lala, among others.

After Shadow Dancing, Gibb would only release one other studio album, 1980's After Dark.  In the early '80s, he co-hosted Solid Gold for a couple years and dabbled in musical theater/Broadway, but sadly, his crippling cocaine habit meant that he didn't stick with anything too long.  He eventually went to rehab and tried to get another recording contract in the late '80s, but years of cocaine addiction caught up with him, causing heart problems that resulted in his death in March 1988, just after his 30th birthday.

All in all, in his short musical career between 1977 and 1981, he was pretty damn successful, as every one of his ten singles released in the U.S. charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with nine of them reaching the Top 40, six reaching the Top 10, and three topping the charts.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "Why"
A disco pop song that wasn't released as a single, "Why" features Sambarto on slide guitar and Bartley on non-slide guitar.  It's catchy.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "I Go For You"
The second side is a little slower than the first side, but this one borders on disco funk.