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I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

The debut single, which went straight to number one in October 2005.
Arctic Monkeys, from Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2005)

Written by
Alex Turner
Released
2005
Album
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Turner wrote the song, and it was released as the band's first single on 17 October 2005, entering the UK chart at number one on 23 October and knocking the Sugababes off the top. It opens with a shout of "Don't believe the hype!". The line about a name that isn't Rio refers to Duran Duran, and the lyrics also nod to Romeo and Juliet. A Guardian feature ten years on described it as one boy's ardent gaze at a girl who probably cannot dance but hypnotises him anyway.

The band recorded it three times. The first version was with Alan Smyth, the second with James Ford and Rich Costey, and the released one with Jim Abbiss. Smyth remembered the Sheffield session at 2fly Studios, where he used a click track for the opening so the band could speed up after the second chorus. Turner told NME that the Ford and Costey session recorded about ten songs in a week, on tape, at 300 miles an hour. The video is a live performance in a studio, filmed on 1980s Ikegami cameras and inspired by The Old Grey Whistle Test.

It won Best Track at the 2006 NME Awards and was played, with a cover of the Beatles' Come Together, at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics. The Sugababes covered it as the B-side of Red Dress, Tom Jones sang it at the Concert for Diana in 2007, and Baby Charles released a version as a single in 2009.

Covers and versions

More songs by Arctic Monkeys

When the Sun Goes Down, A Certain Romance, Mardy Bum, Fluorescent Adolescent, Do I Wanna Know?

Sources

  1. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, Wikipedia
  2. How Arctic Monkeys' debut single changed the music industry and 'killed the NME', The Guardian (2015-10-22)
  3. Why we love I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, NME
  4. The question: Have the Arctic Monkeys changed the music business?, The Guardian (2005-10-25)