Time to offer a few thoughts about the next couple of songs from my latest mix, "I Wish It Was Christmas Today," both of which celebrate the supergroup known as the Bee Gees.
Track 17Holiday Greeting, Bee Gees
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| The Bee Gees |
The history of popular music can fairly be presented as a series of waves carrying select styles and performers to peak levels of fascination only to be carried away by the next latest thing. There was Frank Sinatra, who gave way to Elvis, who was replaced by The Beatles, who were eventually supplanted by a wave of California singer/songwriters, and so on, and so on. For several years in the late 1970s, the sounds of disco music captured the public's attention and four brothers from Australia ruled the pop music charts the youngest brother, Andy, a solo artist; and older brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice, who formed a group known as the Bee Gees.
The Bee Gees first started singing together in the late 1950s, got their first record deal in 1963 and had their first hit in 1967 with "New York Mining Disaster 1941." The song did well on both sides of the Atlantic, perhaps, as some critics noted, because it had a definite Beatles feel to it. This was followed by a string of Top 20 hits over the next four years — "To Love Somebody," "Holiday," "Massachusetts," "Words," "I've Gotta Get a Message to You," "I Started a Joke," "Lonely Days," and the biggest of all, "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971. It was quite a run, but then it ended. By 1974, the Bee Gees seemed to have passed their prime. Few would have predicted that their impressive string of hit records was merely a preview of a far bigger run to come.
Throughout their career, the Bee Gees had been guided by famed label executive Robert Stigwood. On the advice of Ahmet Ertegun, legendary head of Atlantic Records, Stigwood arranged for the group to record with Arif Mardin, who had produced hit soul records for such artists as Aretha Franklin. Their 1975 album "Main Course" had a totally different sound than their earlier efforts, marked by a danceable beat and brother Barry's high falsetto. Its first single "Jive Talkin'" topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1975, and for the next six years the Bee Gees were the undisputed champions of popular music. All three of their singles from 1977's Saturday Night Fever soundtrack reached #1 ("How Deep Is Your Love," "Stayin' Alive," and "Night Fever"), along with four of their other singles — "You Should Be Dancing," "Too Much Heaven," "Tragedy," and "Love You Inside and Out," and their golden touch helped several other artists they assisted during the period.
By mid-1979, the popularity of disco was starting to slip, particularly among young white males, many of whom identified disco with blacks, Latinos and gays. On July 12, 1979, thousands of anti-disco partisans turned a Chicago White Sox publicity event called "Disco Demolition Night" into a full-scale riot, and suddenly the Bee Gees and disco music generally were all but banished from the pop music charts.
The Bee Gees never really recovered as a going entity. Maurice died unexpectedly in 2003, followed by Robin's death from liver cancer in 2012. Barry, now age 78, is still active and in reasonably good heath. The recent HBO documentary "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" touched off a rise in interest about the group, as did Bruce Springsteen's surprise performance of "Stayin' Alive" on a recent Australian tour and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon's occasional performance of his "Barry Gibb Talk Show" sketch, both of which have earned rave reviews from Gibb himself.
But for most of us, the Bee Gees are destined to remain a distant memory — hopefully a pleasant one. I was happy to include a little something from them this year in remembrance of their vast contributions to our common culture.
Christmas with the Bee Gees, Hyperbubble (2008)
Hyperbubble is a visual performing art/pop music duo consisting of Jeff DeCuir and Jess Barnett DeCuir, a married couple based in San Antonio, Texas. Their music has been described as "early Eurythmics meets Josie and the Pussycats," and while the vocals on "Christmas with the Bee Gees" are limited to an occasional falsetto chorus of "ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' alive," this melding of the Bee Gees classic with waves of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" has some definite Eurythmics vibes:
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