Thursday 14 April 2011

I believe in you. You know the door to my very soul You're the light in my deepest, darkest hour

Hip to be Square

“How Deep is Your Love”, The Bee Gees, 1977

I remember in high school our crusty, but lovable math teacher gave us a problem once with a hypothetical group called the “Heebie Jeebies”, everyone knew he was referring to the Bee Gees. I thought it was great that a 60-some year old was trying to connect with us in his way.

You know those songs that you can’t turn on the radio without hearing – well this was one of them.  After that you could not turn on the radio for about a year or two without hearing the Bee Gees or brother Andy Gibb.

Going to #1 in December of 1977, and set the stage for five more number one hits in the U.S.” How Deep” is a straight-forward love ballad with a great hook. 

Meant  for Yvonne Elliman (Who did “If I Can’t Have You,” and I will talk about soon in my blog), it was part of the monster “Saturday Night Fever” Soundtrack, still something like the 9th best selling album of all time.


For many, this was the first time they were introduced to the Bee Gees, who were pulled into the greatest fame of their lives with SNF. They had another huge run of success however in the early seventies as well. 

Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb were born on the Isle of Man, but moved to Brisbane, Australia in their childhood. There, they developed this remarkable harmonious musical form and after some success in Australia, moved to England in 1967 to record with Robert Stigwood, who was clearly their “star-maker machinery behind the popular song”1.  They have sold over 220 million records making them one of the best selling artists of all time. 

In January of 2003 Maurice passed away and with that the group disbanded.  One of the best runs on record, literally...

There are many great Bee Gees songs and albums worth listening to, some I like are:

Albums:
Odessa, 1969
Trafalgar, 1971
Main Course, 1975
Spirits Having Flown, 1979
Songs:
Massachusetts
Nights on Broadway
Fanny (Be tender with my love)
New York Mining Disaster 1941
I Started a Joke
At the Edge of the Universe
Holiday

1.        Quoting Joni Mitchell,  from her song “A Free Man in Paris”, album ‘Court and Spark’, 1974

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