Glen Campbellwas an early advocate, recording it for his Wichita Lineman album, and soon it was part of the live set by the newly-liberated Elvis Presley. “Words” was their next hit, Top 10 in the UK and many other countries, and plenty of artists would hear its potential. Some band disharmony and a brief split were to come, but renewed success was around the next corner.īy 1968, everyone was listening to the Bee Gees’ songs. In that spirit, the dead-man-walking narrative of “I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You” caught the imagination of singles buyers worldwide, notably in the UK, where the single became the Bee Gees’ second No.1 in September 1968. The dramatic story song in which the narrator was facing death was a popular device of the 1960s and early 1970s (“Green, Green Grass of Home,” “Indiana Wants Me,” “I Did What I Did For Maria”). In those heady first few months, the song topped the UK chart for a month in October and early November 1967. They proved as much with “Massachusetts,” a single whose glamorous-sounding location appealed to European fans, most of whom still only knew American states from their namechecks in popular culture. If the Bee Gees were supposedly a new Beatles, they also had harmonies that would have done the Beach Boys or the Mamas and the Papas proud. “So there is a touch of The Beatles in the early vocal harmonies,” wrote Peter Jones, reviewing the newly-heralded group’s new single for Record Mirror, “but the song is dramatic, poignant, well-written - and features an easily picked-up melody theme. The courageously stark narrative, inspired by the real-life Aberfan mining disaster in Wales only a few months earlier, gave Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb a first Top 20 hit in both the UK and US in early summer that year. “New York Mining Disaster 1941,” released in April 1967, remains one of the most arresting debut hits to start any international career. The brothers auditioned for impresario Robert Stigwood, who in no time was talking about them as the new Beatles, and were in a recording studio by early March. But then things moved incredibly quickly. They literally performed for their passage back to England, paying for their fares by singing on the deck of the Sitmar Line’s Fairsky steamship and arriving in February 1967. There was an incubation period of four years from the first single released in Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb’s adopted home in Australia (1963’s “The Battle of the Blue and the Grey”) to their international arrival. International Year Zero, 1967 New York Mining Disaster 1941 But this primer, overflowing with classics, sets out just some of the unforgettable music they made during a near-35-year chart heyday. Decades on from their first international success, this look at the best Bee Gees songs is a jumping-off point to a songbook that could easily stand a second list of 20, and a third, and so on. Another singing brother, Andy - who was a solo hitmaker and not a member of the group - died of heart issues at age 30 in 1988.Quite simply, the brothers Gibb are up there with the greatest groups, and songwriting partnerships, of all time. Barry - known for his soaring falsetto voice - was knighted at Buckingham Palace in 2018 and is the only surviving brother of the Australian group Robin died in 2012 and Maurice died in 2003. The Bee Gees won five Grammy Awards during their decades-long career and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. The joint venture makes sense, as Paramount scored a hit last spring with the Elton John biopic “Rocketman” ( starring Taron Egerton) and King’s 2018 film “Bohemian Rhapsody” landed four Oscars, including a Best Actor win for Rami Malek as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. Paramount owns the rights to their songs, with some of their most notable hits - such as “Stayin’ Alive,” “How Deep Is Your Love” and “More Than a Woman” - giving voice to the soundtrack of the 1977 film “Saturday Night Fever,” which starred John Travolta. 1 to national pariahsīee Gees fans should be dancing to this news: There’s a biopic on the way about the legendary disco trio.ĭeadline reports that Paramount Pictures, “Bohemian Rhapsody” producer Graham King and upstart Sister production/development company will bring the musical story of brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb to the big screen. 'Saturday Night Fever' is Hollywood's greatest insult to Italian-Americans Oyster Bay mansion of Bee Gees star Robin Gibb asks $12.9Mīeyond the Bee Gees: How the Gibb brothers built a musical dynasty