The Bee Gees, part 2

We left the Bee Gees in 1974, struggling with fading popularity. Yet, like the Phoenix, in 1975 they rose again, to even more glorious heights than before: To international superstardom.

Main Course, released in 1975 on the RSO label, is the 13th album by the Bee Gees, and their last album to be released by Atlantic Records in the US under its distribution deal with Robert Stigwood. This album marked a change for the Bee Gees as it was their first album to include disco influenced songs, and it created the model for their output through the rest of the 1970s.

Working with Atlantic producer Arif Mardin, who had also produced their previous album, Mr. Natural, and engineer Karl Richardson at Criteria Studios in Miami, their music became much more influenced by dance music, primarily the Caribbean-styled disco being produced in Miami at the time. Main Course also featured the first prominent use of Barry Gibb's falsetto. From Mr. Natural, the brothers retained new drummer Dennis Bryon and longtime lead guitarist Alan Kendall but added a new keyboard player in the form of Bryon's former Amen Corner colleague Blue Weaver (also formerly in the Strawbs) who would become one of only a small handful of non-Gibb musicians to receive composition credits on Bee Gees songs. At the suggestion of Eric Clapton, the Bee Gees moved to Criteria Studios in Miami, to start recording their next album. Barry recalls on Clapton's suggestion when he was trying to make a comeback, "Eric said, 'I've just made an album called 461 Ocean Boulevard in Miami. Why don't you guys go to America and do the same and maybe the change of environment will do something for you?', I think it was really good advice". Main Course was certified gold in the US and double-platinum in Canada.

The lead single from the album was Jive Talkin'. The song's rhythm was modeled after the sound their car made crossing the Julia Tuttle Causeway each day from Biscayne Bay to Criteria Studios in Miami.

According to Maurice, while hearing this rhythmic sound, "Barry didn't notice that he's going 'Ji-Ji Jive Talkin' ', thinking of the dance, 'You dance with your eyes'...that's all he had...exactly 35 mph...that's what we got." He goes on to say, "We played it to [producer] Arif [Mardin], and he went 'Do you know what "Jive Talkin'" means?' And we said 'Well yeah, it's, ya know, you're dancing.' He says 'NO...it's a black expression for bullshitting.' And we went 'Oh, Really?!? Jive talkin', you're telling me lies...' and changed it." Maurice goes on to describe how Arif gave them "the groove, the tempo, everything." Robin Gibb then goes on to mention that, because they were English, they were less self-conscious about going into the "no-go areas", referring to musical styles that were more black in styles, etc. He then said, "We didn't think that there were any 'no go' areas, it's music!" Barry's guitar strumming has a smoother version of Kool and the Gang's signature chicka-chicka and funky Nassau version of KC and the Sunshine Band's Caribbean strumming. The song's rhythm riff perhaps from Shirley & Company's Shame, Shame, Shame, with a prominent use of the Bo Diddley beat.

The song peaked at #1 in the US and Canada, was a top 5 hit in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand, a top 10 hit in Italy and a big hit elsewhere. It is recognized as the group's "comeback" song. After hearing Jive Talkin', Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, and co-producer Richard Dashut built up the song Second Hand News (released on the band's Rumours in 1977) with four audio tracks of electric guitar and the use of chair percussion to evoke Celtic rock. Also, Jive Talkin' is a stuttering song like The Who's My Generation, David Bowie's Changes, Elton John's Bennie and the Jets and Bob Seger's Katmandu. Here it is:

The song was also recorded by Rufus & Chaka Khan:

The followup single was Nights on Broadway, which reached #7 in the US, giving the Bee Gees back-to-back top 10 hits for the first time in seven years since 1968. It was also a #2 hit in Canada and a big hit in most of Europe, but not on the British Isles. This was remedied a couple of years later when Candi Staton's cover version peaked at #6 in the UK and #4 in Ireland.

The song was the first hit that introduced us to Barry's famous falsetto. Barry himself explains, "Arif said to me, 'Can you scream?' I said, 'under certain circumstances'. He said, 'Can you scream in tune?' I said, 'well, I'll try'.'" In response, Barry began singing higher and higher, eventually singing it in a falsetto that was unexpectedly powerful. He had never known he had such an ability and Barry's falsetto became a trademark of the Bee Gees, although Maurice had been harmonizing in falsetto for years.

This is Candi Staton's version:

Fanny (Be Tender with My Love) was their next single, a #2 hit in Canada and #12 in the US. In an interview for Billboard magazine on 14 November 2001, Maurice Gibb claims: "We all love that one, but it's just a bitch to sing". Bruce Eder of Allmusic describes Fanny along with Baby As You Turn Away had the same sense and exquisitely sung of romantic drama as Lonely Days and How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.

Speaking of, Baby As You Turn Away was the album's closing track:

Edge of the Universe showcases the Bee Gees' rock side. It was the B-side to Nights on Broadway and a live version was later released as a single and made the US top 40.

For their 1976 album, Children of the World, Arif Mardin was unavailable to produce, so the Bee Gees enlisted Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, who had worked with Mardin during the Main Course sessions. The resulting album sold over 2.5 million copies (certified platinum in the US and Canada) and this production team would carry the Bee Gees through the rest of the 1970s.

Their lead single from this album, You Should Be Dancing, is one of my favorite Bee Gees' songs - and one that inspired Michael Jackson's Don't Stop Till You Get Enough more than a little. It was a huge hit, a #1 hit in the US and Canada, top 5 in the UK, Italy, and Ireland, and top 20 almost everywhere else. Moreover, it spent 7 weeks at the top of the US Hot Dance Club Play chart, making it a bona fide disco smash. It also peaked at #4 in the US Soul chart. This groovily percussive paean to the joys of disco was the first chart-topper in which Barry Gibb uses his now-trademark falsetto in a lead vocal.

Their next single, Love So Right, was a beautiful ballad, such as the Bee Gees knew to create so well. It peaked at #2 in Canada, #3 in the US, and #8 in Brazil.

In Canada, it was the single's B-side, You Stepped Into My Life, which got most of the airplay:

You Stepped Into My Life was also recorded by Wayne Newton in 1979.

Boogie Child, a song that could belong to Kool & The Gang or Earth, Wind, and Fire, was the third hit single from Children of the World. it peaked at #5 in Italy, #9 in Canada, and #12 in the US:

Love Me was a notable album track:

... Which was a hit for the Hawaiian Mary Magdalene, Yvonne Elliman: (South Africa and New Zealand #3, UK #6, Ireland #9, Canada #11, US #14, Netherlands #16).

Their next album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live, their first live album, was released in May 1977 and sold 4.6 million copies worldwide. Here it is, in its entirety:

6 months later, the big bang happened: while the Bee Gees were recording their new album in the north of France, their record company boss, Robert Stigwood, rang from LA and said, "We're putting together this little film, low budget, called Tribal Rites of a Saturday Night. Would you have any songs on hand?". Their first reaction was, "Look, we can't, we haven't any time to sit down and write for a film."

The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. The first song they recorded was If I Can't Have You:

Their version, however, was not used in the film. Another version, by their old friend, Yvonne Elliman, was - and it went all the way to the top of the charts:

Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos: "They flipped out and said these will be great. We still had no concept of the movie, except some kind of rough script that they'd brought with them..."

One of the demos was More Than A Woman; the finished track was included in the film and its soundtrack:

Another version was also included in the film and its soundtrack; one by R&B group Tavares. By coincidence, the members of Tavares were also brothers. The Tavares version' was a hit in the UK (#7), Canada (#29), the US (#32), and the Netherlands (#34). The Bee Gees' version was a hit in Italy (#4) and Australia (#31).

Since we have spoken of Bee Gees' songs made famous by others, let's take a small detour before presenting their actual hits from this famous soundtrack. The Bee Gees were not only top performers but also top songwriters; they provided big hits for many artists, previously unknown as well as established stars. Samantha Sang was an Australian that worked with the Bee Gees in the mid-1970s. They offered their song, Emotion, to her; they also produced and sang background vocals. The result was a #1 hit in Canada and New Zealand, #2 in Australia, #3 in the US, #9 in Ireland, #11 in the UK, and #18 in Sweden:

The Bee Gees recorded their own version of the song in 1994 as part of an album called Love Songs which was never released but it was eventually included on their 2001 collection titled Their Greatest Hits: The Record. Here it is:

Also in 2001, Destiny's Child (you know, the girl group that featured a certain Beyoncé Knowles on lead vocals) covered the song. It was an international hit, peaking at #3 in the UK and #10 in the US:

The most successful act to come out of the Bee Gees' hit-making factory was a member of the family; young brother Andy (see photo) was born on 5 March 1958. He was a toddler when his brothers first sang on Australian TV and he was 9 when they had their first international hit. Producer and film director Tom Kennedy described Andy's personality on his childhood: "Andy was always around - he was this cheeky little lad, Hugh and Barbara doted on him, so he would have a limo to go around London with his pals and twenty quid to go to the cinema. It was unheard of in those days! But he was just a cheeky little lad with a heart of gold. He used to try to get me to buy him beer when he was underage - he would only have been about 11 or 12."

He quit school at the age of 13, and with an acoustic guitar given to him by his older brother Barry, he began playing at tourist clubs around Ibiza, Spain (when his parents moved there), and later in the Isle of Man, his brothers' birthplace, where his parents were living at the time.

At the urging of his brother Barry, Gibb returned to Australia in 1974. Barry believed that as Australia had been a good training ground for the Bee Gees it would also help his youngest brother. Older sister Lesley Gibb had remained in Australia, where she raised a family with her husband.

After unsuccessfully working with various bands, he released Words and Music as a solo artist, only in Australia and New Zealand. It would eventually reach the Australian top 20. Around the same time, he married his girlfriend, Kim Reeder.

Robert Stigwood signed Andy to his label, RSO Records, in early 1976, after he had heard some of Andy's demo tapes. Andy soon moved to Miami Beach, Florida, to begin working on songs with his brother Barry and co-producers Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. In late 1976 in Miami, Andy, with older brother Barry producing and recording in the famed Criteria Studios, set about making his first album, Flowing Rivers. The first release from Andy's album and his first single released outside Australia was I Just Want to Be Your Everything which was written by Barry, who also provided backup vocals. It reached #1 in the United States and Australia and was the most played record of the year.

In September 1977 Flowing Rivers, with another number one single (Love Is) Thicker Than Water (also co-written by Gibb and his brother Barry) to support it, quickly became a million-selling album. That single broke in early 1978 during the time that the Bee Gees' contributions to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack were dominating the world charts. In the United States, it replaced Stayin' Alive at the top of the Hot 100 on the day before Andy's 20th birthday, only to be surpassed by Night Fever at number one there two weeks later.

On 25 January 1978, he had a daughter, Peta Jaye, but the couple had already separated before Reeder discovered she was pregnant. They divorced later that year. Andy then began work with the Gibb-Galuten-Richardson production team on his second album, Shadow Dancing, which was released in April 1978. The title track, written by all four Gibb brothers, was released as a single in the United States in April 1978. In mid-June it began a seven-week run at number one, achieving platinum status and the honor of being Billboard's number one song of 1978. In the United States, Andy became the first male solo artist to have three consecutive number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, with all of the weeks at #1 from those singles just barely inside a year, from 30 July 1977 through 29 July 1978. This is Shadow Dancing:

An Everlasting Love (also written by Barry) was Andy's next single, peaking at #3 in Canada, #4 in Ireland, #5 in the US, and #10 in the UK:

(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away (written by Barry and Blue Weaver) was a top 10 hit in the US, Brazil, and Canada:

Andy's final full studio album, After Dark, was released in early 1980. In March 1980 the last of Andy's Top Ten singles charted just ahead of the album's release. Desire (written by all four Gibb brothers) was recorded for the Bee Gees' 1979 album Spirits Having Flown and featured their original track, complete with Andy's original "guest vocal" track.

A second single, I Can't Help It, a duet with family friend and fellow British and Australian expat Olivia Newton-John, reached the top 20 in the US.

Later in the year, Andy Gibb's Greatest Hits was released as a finale to his contract with RSO Records, with two new songs: Time Is Time (#15 in January 1981) and Me (Without You) (Gibb's last US top 40 chart entry) shipped as singles, before RSO founder Robert Stigwood had to let him go due to his cocaine addiction and behavioural problems. They were Barry & Andy compositions. This is Time Is Time:

This is Me (Without You):

The 1980s was a time of lots of drugs, which caused loss of work and of relationships. In early 1987, Andy went through another drug rehabilitation program and thought he had finally beaten his habits. In early March 1988, Barry had arranged for Island in England to sign Andy, but when he went to England at the start of 1988, he panicked. Andy missed meetings with the record company and blamed himself for his trouble writing songs. The deal was never signed.

In an early February 1988 interview, Robin Gibb said Andy was healthy and ready to begin recording again. A few days later, Robin said "he just went downhill so fast", saying "he was in a terrible state of depression." He got over the drugs but the depression remained. On 5 March 1988, Andy Gibb celebrated his 30th birthday in London while working on the new album. Soon after, he entered John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford complaining of chest pains. 5 days later, Andy slumped into unconsciousness and died as a result of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by a recent viral infection which was exacerbated by his years of cocaine abuse. Robin Gibb said "he was also not eating properly and the lack of nutrition also damaged his heart," adding that the paranoia associated with cocaine abuse "shattered his confidence and he became scared of people." The youngest of the Gibb brothers was the first to go...

We will return to the Bee Gees' compositions sang by others soon. Now it's time for Saturday Night Fever. To understand the cultural impact of this film and its soundtrack, let me give you a few examples: First, let me quote a FB friend, Irene S (greetings, Ειρήνη!), who recently told me that as a girl, her mother got her the double vinyl album as a birthday present. Since her birthday hadn't arrived yet, her mother hid it away, but my friend found it - and she would sneak in and gaze at it longingly every day until her birthday came. The second is a personal example; I had already watched the film twice, once in England and once in Greece - then I was in France with my brother and a friend and since they hadn't seen it before, I watched it for a third time with them. Coming out of the movie hall, we tried to walk the way Travolta did in the beginning of the movie, to the tune of Stayin' Alive. The only walk I can think of that had a similar impact to me would be the one in the Verve's Bittersweet Symphony video. Since we're talking about them, here are the two videos:

Now, the hard facts: Saturday Night Fever stayed atop the US album charts for 24 straight weeks from January to July 1978. In the UK, the album spent 18 consecutive weeks at No. 1. It has been added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress for being culturally significant. With over 40 million copies sold worldwide, it's in the top 10 best-selling albums of all-time - and for a few years, it was the best-selling soundtrack of all time.

The soundtrack also won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It is the only disco album to do so, and one of only 3 soundtrack albums so honored (the others being The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album and the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack). In 2012, the album was ranked #132 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2003 the TV network VH1 named it the 57th greatest album of all time, and it was ranked 80th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time.

The chart domination of the Bee Gees was so complete during this period, that at March 18, 1978, the US top 5 looked like this:

1. Night Fever, by the Bee Gees (its first of 8 weeks at #1)

2. Stayin' Alive, by the Bee Gees (having spent 4 weeks at #1, it would go on to spend 8 non-consecutive weeks at #2).

3. Emotions, by Samantha Sang (a Bee Gees' composition & production)

5. (Love Is) Thicker Than Water, by Andy Gibb (co-written by Andy and his brother Barry, had just spent 2 weeks at #1)

The only non-Gibb track was at #4, Lay Down Sally, by Eric Clapton. Although it too was an RSO record. Stigwood had 5/5!

Meanwhile, lower down the chart, Yvonne Elliman was poised to enter the top 10 with the Bee Gees' composition If I Can't Have You, on her way to #1, the Bee Gees' former #1 How Deep Is Your Love was spending its penultimate week in the top 40, ending an impressive 24-week stay, and finally about to enter the top 40 in 4 weeks time was Tavares' version of the Bee Gees' More Than A Woman.

How Deep Is Your Love was the album's first #1 and one of the Bee Gees' defining ballads in a series of defining ballads:

In 1996, British boy-band Take That released their own cover version, which went to #1 in the UK:

We've already seen Travolta walk to Stayin' Alive, but it's my favorite song from the film, so let's watch the official video. The essence of disco emerges in a lyric of gritty reality and a groove of pure, defiant escapism. "The cardiac people said Stayin' Alive was exactly 103 beats per minute," according to Barry. "The exact bpm you use to revive somebody in a heart attack." It's easy to miss the nihilistic lyrics, but with the sinister guitar and the "I'm going nowhere" chant, this could be a Joy Division song.

The string intro of Night Fever was inspired by Theme from A Summer Place by Percy Faith, according to keyboardist Blue Weaver when he was performing it one morning at the sessions and Barry Gibb walked in and heard the new idea for this song. The song was rewarded almost as many weeks at #1 as the 1959 easy listening classic:

In 1978, Robert Stigwood was sitting on the top of the world, with both Saturday Night Fever and Grease being smash hits, both as records as well as films. He then had the "brilliant" idea to make Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band into a film, starring Peter Frampton, the Bee Gees and other well-known recording artists such as Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, and Earth, Wind & Fire, as well as actors such as Steve Martin and George Burns.

Upon release, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band received scathingly negative reviews, with critics taking issue with its thin plot and incomprehensibility. The soundtrack suffered a similar fate; it made history as being the first record to "return platinum", with over four million copies of it taken off store shelves and shipped back to distributors. Hundreds of thousands of copies of the album ended up being destroyed by RSO. The company itself experienced a considerable financial loss and the Bee Gees as a group had their musical reputation tarnished.

Oh Darling was a solo hit in the US for Robin, peaking at #15:

And this is A Day In The Life, with Barry on lead vocals:

Spirits Having Flown was the Bee Gees' follow-up album to Saturday Night Fever, released in February 1979. Unsurprisingly, the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band fiasco notwithstanding, it was #1 almost everywhere - and where it wasn't, it was either #2 or #3. The album sold 16-20 million copies worldwide and was voted Best Pop/Rock Album of 1979 at the 1980 American Music Awards ceremony. The album's first three tracks were released as singles and all reached #1 in the US, giving the Bee Gees an unbroken run of six US chart-toppers and tying a record set by The Beatles.

The first one of those, Too Much Heaven, was a ballad, the band's contribution to the "Music for UNICEF" fund:

Tragedy epitomized the height of the band’s rhythm-and-blues period:

These are the Steps with their cover version - it went to #1 in the UK:

Love You Inside Out, a slow funk groove number was the band's final #1 in the US:

Spirits Having Flown, the Caribbean flavored title track, was only released as a single in the British Isles; it peaked at #14 in Ireland and at #16 in the UK:

By the end of the 1970s, a backlash was setting in on all things disco, particularly in the United States. July 12, 1979, became known as "the day disco died" because of Disco Demolition Night, an anti-disco demonstration in a baseball doubleheader at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Rock-station DJs Steve Dahl and Garry Meier, along with Michael Veeck, son of Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck, staged the promotional event for disgruntled rock fans between the games of a White Sox doubleheader. The event, which involved exploding disco records, ended with a riot, during which the raucous crowd tore out seats and pieces of turf, and caused other damage.

It made sense for the Bee Gees to turn away from the genre for the next studio album, Living Eyes (1981). However, the album was not a commercial success, perhaps due to them being so strongly associated with disco. It sold 750,000 copies worldwide, compared to 16 million copies of their previous studio album.

Another noteworthy fact: Living Eyes was chosen to be the first ever album to be manufactured on CD for demonstration purposes, as seen on the BBC TV program Tomorrow's World in 1981, and was featured in the inaugural issue of the Compact Disc trade magazine.

He's A Liar (with lead guitar by the Eagles' Don Felder) was a mid-table hit:

The same applied to the album's title track:

Paradise was a single in the Netherlands and Japan only:

The Woman in You is one of five songs the Bee Gees contributed to the film Staying Alive, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. Director Sylvester Stallone used the Bee Gees songs in the movie more as background music rather than the prominent way Saturday Night Fever had featured them. The single received more airplay than the Bee Gees previous two singles, though not enough to reach a top 10 position. In interviews following the release of the film, the brothers expressed their displeasure at the way their songs were edited and revealed that their hearts were not in the music. By 1983, the Bee Gees were focusing their talents on solo projects and production of other artists, so it is not surprising that they were not all enthusiastic about the Staying Alive movie. The Woman in You would be their last US top 40 hit in six years.

Someone Belonging to Someone, the second single from Staying Alive, was a gentle ballad. The Bee Gees later described the song as a "fair ballad from a silly film". It was a lesser hit for them.

The Bee Gees spent the first half of the 1980s on collaborations with other artists and solo projects. We'll get to hear the other artists later, now here are a few of their solo singles; not one of them was a big international hit, I'm afraid...

The closer to a hitmaker was Robin; Juliet (1983) was a #1 hit in Germany:

Later that year, Another Lonely Night in New York was a lesser hit for Robin:

1984 was a year that all three brothers released solo projects; Robin's Boys Do Fall in Love peaked at #37 in the US:

Barry's Shine, Shine did slightly better, peaking at #34 in the US. A neglected gem in Barry's songbook, this has new wave synth-pop bounce, a hopped-up reggae beat and tortured lyrics about watching the woman you love marry some other guy. 

... While Maurice's Hold Her in Your Hand failed to chart:

The Bee Gees released the album E.S.P. in 1987, which sold over 3 million copies. It was their first album in six years, and their first for Warner Bros. Records. The single You Win Again went to #1 in numerous countries, including the UK, and made the Bee Gees the first group to score a UK #1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The single was a disappointment in the US, charting at #75, and the Bee Gees voiced their frustration over American radio stations' not playing their new European hit single, an omission which the group felt led to poor sales of their current album in the US. The song won the Bee Gees the 1987 British Academy's Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and in February 1988 the band received a Brit Award nomination for Best British Group. This is You Win Again, where a crunchy, thumping Eighties drum beat underpins this perversely defiant anthem, plucking victory from the jaws of emotional defeat:

The album's title song was also a minor hit and had an impressive video:

The Longest Night is a ballad with Robin on lead vocals:

Angela is performed by Barry Gibb. This song was a big ballad, with a brief catchy chorus and a long winding melody much in Barry's style. On its demo, it features Barry's touchingly heartfelt vocal, its emotional peaks matched by his own guitar playing, supported by instrumental and vocal work by Maurice and Robin. In the finished version, Barry re-recorded another vocal, the gimmicky percussion sound effects and added synthesizer are distracting, and Barry's guitar accompaniment is lost in the mix; so I chose to feature the demo:

On 10 March 1988, younger brother Andy died, aged 30. Just before Andy's death, the brothers had decided that Andy would join them, which would have made them a four-member group. It wasn't to be... The Bee Gees' following album, One (1989), featured a song dedicated to Andy, Wish You Were Here:

Ordinary Lives was the album's first single. A philosophical comment on life and death, it was a top 10 hit in Germany and Switzerland:

The album's title song was their next single. One returned the Bee Gees to the US top 10 for the last time, peaking at #7:

Their next album, High Civilization (1991), was the last one recorded for Warner Bros. Records. Secret Love, the lead single, was a big hit in Europe, (#2 in Germany and #5 in the UK):

The Only Love was a mid-table hit in Germany and Austria:

Next came Size Isn't Everything (1993). Paying the Price of Love, the album's lead single was a top 5 hit in Belgium and a mid-table hit in most of Europe (UK #23):

Their next hit, For Whom the Bell Tolls, did much better; it made #4 in the UK and was certified silver:

Released in 1997, Still Waters was their most successful album in almost twenty years; it was released at a time when the Bee Gees were being awarded for lifetime achievements, had recently been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and were regaining high exposure on television. The album sold over 5 million copies worldwide. The big sales were no doubt helped by the quality of the album's lead single, Alone being a Beatlesque ballad of midlife melancholy, chronicling grown-up loneliness - complete with bagpipes. It was a #5 hit in the UK and reached the #28 spot in the US becoming the band’s last top 40 hit in America.

I Could Not Love You More was a #14 UK hit:

Still Waters (Run Deep) was a #18 UK hit. It was the first time in 18 years that the Bee Gees had 3 top 20 UK hits from the same album:

The following year, their collaboration with Celine Dion, a spiritual and moving song called Immortality, was certified platinum in Germany and entered the top 5 in the UK:

The best version is the live rendition on the One Night Only Bee Gees' album recorded at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 1997 with Miss Dion making a special guest appearance:

The Bee Gees' final studio album was released in 2001 and was called This Is Where I Came In. The title song was their last hit single, peaking at #18 in the UK. Which means that the Bee Gees are one of the select few that entered the UK top 20 with new songs for five decades in a row. Here's This Is Where I Came In:

Two years later, in 2003, Maurice would unexpectedly die from a cardiac arrest during surgery to repair a twisted intestine. In November 2011, Robin was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, which had metastasized to his liver several months earlier. In April 2012, he contracted pneumonia and fell into a coma. Although he came out of his coma later in April, his colorectal cancer had advanced and he died in London on 20 May 2012 at the age of 62 from liver and kidney failure. Barry, the older brother, is still alive and well and touring - occasionally joined on stage by his son Steve and Maurice's daughter Samantha.

A big chapter of the Bee Gees' legacy is their compositions that were recorded by other artists. We have already listened to Lulu, Janis Joplin, the Flying Burrito Brothers, José Feliciano, Paul Jones, Rita Coolidge, Boyzone, Patty Pravo, Take That, Celine Dion, Yvonne Elliman, Tavares, and others, including, of course, their brother Andy. Let’s listen to some more. First, come the hits: the title song from Grease was written by Barry, was recorded by the Four Seasons' frontman Frankie Valli, and was a #1 hit in the US and Canada - and a top 10 hit everywhere else. Shockingly, it wasn't nominated for a Best Song Oscar, just like the Saturday Night Fever songs the year before. One of Oscar's biggest faux pas.

In 1980 Barry made the album Guilty with the great Barbra Streisand. He co-produced, co-wrote all of the songs and duetted with Barbra in two songs. The album's first single, Woman in Love, was a #1 hit everywhere. One of the great female anthems written by men, it reminds us of the underlying sensitivity and emotional quality inherent in the Bee Gees work.

The two duets were also great hits; the title track, the perfect battle of two high-strung diva voices in full-blown disco attack mode, made the US top 3:

The other duet, What Kind of Fool, was the third consecutive top ten single from the album in the United States.

Also in 1980, Robin Gibb and Blue Weaver co-produced the album Sunrise, by American soul singer Jimmy Ruffin. They also co-wrote the album's songs. (The other brothers helped with three songs.) The lead single Hold On (To My Love) reached top ten in UK and US.

Forever Forever was written by all three brothers:

In 1982 Barry made the album Heartbreaker with the great Dionne Warwick. He co-produced and co-wrote all but one of the songs with his brothers and co-producer Albhy Galuten. The title track was a top 10 hit all over the world:

All the Love in the World was a top 10 hit in Ireland and the UK:

The same production team produced Kenny Rogers' 1983 album, Eyes That See in the Dark. Once again, all the songs were written by the brothers Gibb. The first single from this album, Islands In The Stream, a duet with Dolly Parton, was a huge #1 hit. The Bee Gees originally wrote it for Marvin Gaye. The classic duet celebrates silver-fox romance with intense sexual imagery.

It's renowned as a classic country duet, but you can still hear the Bee Gees trademark soulfulness and harmonic construction underneath. Great songs know no genre bounds. Ol' Dirty Bastard, Pras, and Mya turned it into the 1998 hip-hop classic Ghetto Superstar.

Also from Eyes That See in the Dark, This Woman peaked at #23 in the US:

Chain Reaction is a melodic R&B song, sung by Diana Ross, and written by the Bee Gees, who also provided the backing vocals for the single. According to the Gibbs biography, the brothers had initial reservations about offering the song to Ross in case it was too Motown-like for her.

Not to worry; the single became Diana's second #1 hit in the UK Singles Chart. The song also hit #1 in Australia and was the top-selling single of the year (1986) in that country, also reaching the top of the charts in Ireland and Zimbabwe. In New Zealand, it peaked at #3 and also made the top 5 in South Africa. In 1993, the song broke the UK top 20 again (also breaking the top 40 in Ireland and France) when it was re-released to commemorate her 30th anniversary in show business. It stalled in the US, peaking at #66, Diana Ross's final appearance on this chart.

Eaten Alive, also by Diana, was written by Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb and Michael Jackson - the latter also co-producing with Barry and his team. Jackson and Barry Gibb can be heard singing in the background of the song with Jackson at times co-singing lead with Ross.

Speaking of MJ, All in Your Name is a song written and performed by Barry Gibb and Michael Jackson. It was recorded in 2002 and released on 25 June 2011, the second anniversary of Jackson's death in 2009. Gibb explains:

"Michael Jackson and I were the dearest of friends, that's simply what it was. We gravitated towards the same kind of music and we loved collaborating and he was the easiest person to write with. The more we got to know each other the more those ideas entwined and it all came to this song All In Your Name. All in Your Name is, in fact, the message that Michael wanted to send out to all of his fans all over the world that he did it all for them and for the pure love of music. I hope and pray that we all get to hear it in its entirety. This experience I will treasure forever."

Come On Over is a ballad written by Barry and Robin Gibb. It was a hit single (#23, US - #22, Canada) for their friend, Olivia Newton-John:

Up The Revolution was written by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb in 1986. It was performed by Elton John (with a little help from the Bee Gees) a few years later and released in 1992:

Also in 1986, Maurice Gibb produced the album Runaway, from Swedish singer Carola Häggkvist. Maurice, Barry, and Robin also wrote the songs. The album was a big hit in both Sweden and Norway. One of the more interesting tracks is The Runaway:

Two years later, Irish Eurovision group Luv Bug released the Bee Gees' Brand New Heart as a single:

Percy Sledge recorded Your Love Will Save The World in 1994:

Tina Turner's last studio album, before her retirement from recording, Twenty Four Seven (1999), included the Bee Gees' song I Will Be There:

Going back to 1969, the incomparable Nina Simone recorded the Bee Gees' classic I Can't See Nobody:

Also in 1969, Sandie Shaw recorded Sun In My Eyes:

Also in 1969, P.P. Arnold recorded Give A Hand, Take A Hand:

The same song was recorded in 1971 by The Staple Singers:

English rock duo The Marbles had two big hits with Bee Gees' penned songs. Only One Woman was #1 in South Africa and New Zealand, #5 in the UK and a big hit all over Europe:

The Walls Fell Down made #3 in the Netherlands, #10 in New Zealand, and #28 in the UK:

The Family Dogg's first single, in 1967, was the Bee Gees' penned, The Storm:

Did you know that the Status Quo recorded Spicks and Specks in 1968?

Possibly one of the earliest Bee Gees' covers by an established act was Cowman, Milk Your Cow, released as a single by Adam Faith (unsuccessfully, I'm afraid) in 1967:

In 1970, Tom Jones' rival, Engelbert Humperdinck, recorded the Gibb brothers' Sweetheart:

Also in 1970, The New Seekers recorded Follow The Wind:

In 1978, Teri DeSario recorded the Bee Gees' Ain't Nothin' Gonna Keep Me From You:

Another one of their songs, Secrets (The Wishes We Share) was recorded by Elaine Paige in 1981:

Leo Sayer recorded Heart (Stop Beating In Time) in 1982:

There were many others, but this story cannot go on forever. So I will leave you now. You are in good company.