Official Chart Pop Gem #20: Kylie – Your Disco Needs You

Kylie’s greatest single-that-never-was is your runaway favourite for Pop Gem status.

Each week, we ask you and our followers on Facebook and Twitter for your nominations for the Pop Gem, that hit single of yesteryear that was once 'headline news' but has since fallen out of favour, ending up as 'very small article in local paper underneath that classifieds ad about a drain-cleaning service'.

But this time we were looking for something a little different.

We wanted to hear about the Shoulda Beens – songs that should've been a single (do you see where this is going?) but remained only album tracks. Or perhaps singles released internationally that never saw the light of day in the UK. Which track was long overdue its very own Cinderella moment?

The response was huge, and the result pretty conclusive. There was no debate at Official Charts HQ; the public had spoken. The overhelming favourite was a cut from Kylie Minogue’s 2000 album Light Years. It is, of course, Your Disco Needs You.

OfficialCharts.com caught up with Popjustice overlord and music journo Peter Robinson, who had this to say about Kylie’s greatest-hit-that-wasn’t:

“Two centuries from now when we are all dead and even Kylie is starting to look as if she might be in her late-20s, pop historians will look back on Parlophone's failure to release Your Disco Needs You as a single and they will be disgusted.

“When they listen to the Robbie Williams-penned banger with its thunderous stampede of a thousand disco unicorns they will be confused. And though they know they are not responsible for the actions of their ancestors, they will feel ashamed.

“It is sometimes easy to forget that the decisions we make in the here and now will have ramifications that spiral endlessly outward as the future itself unfolds, but it's important that we do not seek revenge on those who made that terrible decision back in the not-so-distant past and instead I ask everyone reading this to consider Your Disco Needs You and its status as a great lost Kylie single and to then reassess the decisions they make today, tomorrow and for the rest of their lives.

“And when, during the course of our lives, we come to a crossroads and we each face our own 'should Your Disco Needs You be a single?'-type dilemmas, I hope we will remember Kylie shouting in French and find the strength within us to make the right decision.

“We cannot undo what has already been done, but if we can use the disastrous non-single choice as the catalyst for positive change, then the events of those dark days in the early 2000s may, eventually, inspire positive change. From this misery and despair let us find some hope.

“Let's dance through all of this.”

Well, you can’t really argue with that, can you?

PWL's Tom Parker, who is pretty much the boffin when it comes to all things Kylie, told us: "Light Years [the album] as a whole was intended to sound like a 'Greatest Hits' where every track was a potential single, and as a result lots of strong tracks did miss out... Light Years, Butterfly, I'm So High and So Now Goodbye were all worthy contenders in my book.

"I always thought Disco Down was genius and a huge missed opportunity."

We are lucky at least that unlike many other album tracks (unless you're Beyoncé) Your Disco Needs You did actually get a video. It was released to little fanfare in Germany and, later, Australia, apparently.

Prepare for the campest four minutes of your life and check out our playlists of other popular Shoulda Been suggestions from our Facebook and Twitter fans that didn’t quite have the Kylie factor.

And remember: “vous êtes jamais seul”. (We didn't even have to look that up! Honestly!)

Kylie Minogue - Your Disco Needs You (German Almighty Radio Edit) on MUZU.TV.