To celebrate 20 years since Arctic Monkeys dropped their debut album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’, revisit Alex Turner telling us about the creation of hit single ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’. Check it out below.
The breakthrough record was released on this day (January 23) back in 2006, and helped launch the Sheffield indie giants to global fame with tracks including ‘When the Sun Goes Down’ and ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’.
In a past NME interview, the frontman looks back at the latter single and revealing how it came to be made. Shared on YouTube back in 2011, the singer recalled how he got thinking about the song after he “found the lyrics for it scribbled on a piece of paper” and went on to explain how there were different versions of it that the band worked on before landing on the final recording.
“There was all sorts of stuff about cigarettes and stuff… There were some stinkers in there,” Turner said about some of the early lyrics he wrote. “Arguably, there still is.”
He also went on to explain how they first recorded the song in Sheffield, before joining up with producer James Ford in Liverpool to record all the songs they wanted on their debut album.
“We recorded 10 songs in a week, and we were like ‘This is it, we’ve done the album. Put it out tomorrow please, or yesterday if you can’,” the frontman explained, adding that they later released they were playing “everything at 300mph” and had to go back to another studio in Lincoln to re-record it.
“[We were] trying to pick the best bits. Everyone was into the demos, so we were trying to get a bit of that, but also a better recording of it,” he added. “It was weird because when we were recording that tune, the video was already on telly for it.”
That, he shared, was because the band recorded the song and shared it as a single and found that it was getting rapid momentum before they had a chance to re-record it for the full debut album. “It was weird, we were trying to cut this single in one room, but it was on telly in the other room,” Turner said, before revealing that the song started from a drum riff made by Matt Helders.
The singer would then go on to explain how he found a new sense of appreciation for the single after a period of disliking it, and went on to share why it remained in their setlist for years, long after other tracks from the album got left behind.
“Its more fun than ever to play it now. I fell out with it for a moment, somewhere along the way,” he said. “I fall out with all of them at some point… but that’s one I can’t imagine not playing. When it comes around in the set, it’s just fun. We all really enjoy playing it.”
“Some of the other songs we’ve written since then are more complex, and you have to concentrate a bit more. You have to think about singing in tune and playing the right note, but that one was more like ‘Let’s have a laugh for a few minutes’. I still manage to murder it, though sometimes,” he added.
“We don’t play a lot of those older tunes because it feels like you can’t anymore. Whatever it took to write and play those songs at the time isn’t there anymore. For some reason, some have a longer shelf life than other ones, and it sometimes feels like we’re doing covers of them. We can’t do a cover of ‘Fake Tales Of San Francisco’, but I think we do a pretty good cover of ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’…”
The ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ album went on to shift 360,000 units in its first week, surpassing Oasis’ ‘Definitely Maybe’ in becoming the fastest-selling debut album in British music history.
Since then, it has been certified eight-times platinum in the UK, and in the US it became the second-fastest selling debut album on an independent record label. It also saw the band win the 2007 Mercury Prize, take home the BRIT Award for Best British Album, and get nominated for the Grammy’s Best Alternative Music Album award.
It was followed by 2007’s ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’, 2009’s ‘Humbug’, 2011’s ‘Suck It And See’, 2013’s ‘AM’, 2018’s ‘Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino’, and finally 2022’s ‘The Car’. Throughout that time, the band have won seven BRITs, taken home 20 NME Awards, and been nominated for nine Grammys.
Arctic Monkeys wrapped up their latest tour in 2023, closing the run of shows in Berlin with James Ford and Miles Kane appearing as special guests. Earlier that year, they locked in a headline slot at Glastonbury 2023 and were praised by NME as delivering a slot that “cements their legacy as their generation’s finest band”.
The band surprised fans yesterday by releasing a brand new song called ‘Opening Night’. This was recorded as a one-off release, and the first taste of a new all-star charity album ‘Help(2)’, made in conjunction with War Child.
Other huge names to feature will include Damon Albarn, Pulp, Johnny Marr, Fontaines D.C., Olivia Rodrigo and Depeche Mode, and many others.
NME gave ‘Opening Night’ a four-star review, noting that the song’s release had been “enveloped in hearsay – that it’s their final release, that it’s an outtake from ‘AM’ sessions”.
“If you’re looking for answers as to what the future holds, you’re not going to get them here,” it read. “But if this is the last piece of music we’re going to get from Arctic Monkeys, it’s a solid way to bow out – interesting, enjoyable and for a mighty good cause. More tunes aside, it’s all we could ask for.”
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