You Better You Bet

"You Better You Bet" is a song by the British rock band The Who, which became a hit and one of their most recognizable songs. It appears as the first track on their 1981 album, Face Dances.

"You Better You Bet" was the last single by the Who that reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 18. The track was at number one on the Billboard Top Tracks chart for five weeks beginning 4 April 1981. It was also their last single to hit the Top Ten in the UK, peaking at number 9. It is sung by front man Roger Daltrey but contains backing vocals from Pete Townshend and bassist John Entwistle. Townshend's guitar part is played on a Rickenbacker 360/12.

Background

"You Better You Bet" was written by Pete Townshend as a love song for his girlfriend at the time: "I developed ['You Better You Bet'] over several weeks of clubbing and partying. I had gone through a lean period in my marriage and was seeing the daughter of a friend of mine. I wanted it to be a good song because the girl I wrote it for is one of the best people on the planet."

You Bet!

You Bet! is a British game show based around the format of the German show Wetten, dass..? developed by Frank Elstner. You Bet! ran on ITV, mostly on Saturday nights but sometimes on Fridays, between 20 February 1988 and 12 April 1997, initially hosted by Bruce Forsyth from 1988 to 1990, then by Matthew Kelly from 1991 to 1995 and finally by Darren Day from 1996 to 1997. It was replaced the following year by Don't Try This At Home!, which emulated the challenges of You Bet!, but were considerably more risky and dangerous.

Format

A panel of celebrities would bet on the ability of members of the public to achieve unlikely challenges and stunts, which they had usually planned and rehearsed many times, within a limited amount of time. The studio audience would also place a bet on the outcomes. The panellists would receive points for each outcome they predicted correctly, based on the percentage of the studio audience that also placed a correct bet. The celebrity sponsoring the challenge (see below) always had to bet that their challenger would be successful. The accumulated total of points achieved by the celebrities would be added to the points totalled by the studio audience, increased several times over, converted into pounds and donated to a charity chosen by the celebrity panellist who had achieved the highest score.