The Bee Gees (music)
The Bee Gees were a musical group comprised of brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, who rose to international fame in the 1960s with their melodious ballads, including notable tracks like "To Love Somebody." Initially experiencing a decline in hits during the early 1970s, the group revitalized their career by collaborating with producer Arif Mardin, blending dance rhythms with their signature falsetto harmonies. This evolution culminated in their 1975 album *Main Course*, which featured hits such as "Jive Talkin'" and marked their transition towards a more upbeat disco sound.
The Bee Gees became emblematic of the disco era, particularly following the success of the *Saturday Night Fever* soundtrack in 1977, which included iconic songs like "Stayin' Alive" and "How Deep Is Your Love." Their influence extended beyond their own recordings, as they penned hits for other artists and contributed to the careers of family members, such as younger brother Andy Gibb. Despite facing backlash during the disco backlash of the late 1970s, the Bee Gees maintained their popularity, with their 1979 album *Spirits Having Flown* reaching number one. Overall, the Bee Gees played a crucial role in bringing disco to mainstream culture while showcasing their enduring songwriting and musical versatility.
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The Bee Gees (music)
Identification Australian pop trio
Date Formed in 1960
The veteran singing group the Bee Gees—comprising brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb from Brisbane, Australia—reinvented themselves in the middle of the 1970’s by branching out into disco music. Their contributions to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack were among the most successful disco songs released.
Key Figures
Barry Gibb (1946- ), pop singerRobin Gibb (1949- ), pop singerMaurice Gibb (1949-2003), pop singer
During the 1960’s, the Bee Gees found international success with lush, Beatlesque ballads such as “To Love Somebody” and “I’ve Got to Get a Message to You.” By the early 1970’s, however, their hits were becoming more and more infrequent. In 1974, their manager, Robert Stigwood, set them up with Arif Mardin, a veteran rhythm-and-blues and jazz producer. Mardin and the brothers began recording in Miami, experimenting with a new sound by mixing dance rhythms with the Gibbs’s trademark breathy falsetto harmonies. Mardin’s 1975 production for the Bee Gees, the album Main Course, became the group’s first platinum seller and yielded two hits, the number-one “Jive Talkin’” and “Nights on Broadway.”
Despite splitting with Mardin, the Bee Gees continued on this more upbeat path, releasing two more danceable hit singles in 1976, “You Should Be Dancing” and “Love So Right.” Then, Stigwood asked them to contribute songs to a low-budget film that he was producing about a working-class Brooklyn, New York, youth with a passion for disco dancing. The Gibbs gave him five new songs.
The film was Saturday Night Fever, starring John Travolta. Released in 1977, Saturday Night Fever became an enormous success, and the soundtrack eventually sold more than thirty million copies. The Bee Gees reestablished themselves as superstars, and they became synonymous with disco in pop culture, despite the fact that they were hardly founders of the genre. Their biggest, most recognizable hit from the film, “Stayin’ Alive,” became their signature tune.
The Saturday NightFever soundtrack yielded the Bee Gees a string of hits under its own name, including the chart-topping singles “Stayin’ Alive,” “How Deep Is Your Love” and “Night Fever.” It also gained success for a number of lesser-known artists who recorded the Bee Gees’ songs for the soundtrack, including Yvonne Elliman with “If I Can’t Have You.”
The Bee Gees soon began to branch out even further. Barry Gibb wrote Frankie Valli’s hit title song to the 1978 film Grease, also starring Travolta. The trio even wrote some songs for younger brother Andy Gibb that brought him stardom, such as “I Just Want to Be Your Everything” and “Shadow Dancing.”
However, a backlash was under way. The band starred in another Stigwood-produced film, the Beatles-inspired Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The 1978 celebrity-laden venture was a commercial flop and critically reviled. The Bee Gees also became prime targets of the “Disco Sucks” campaign by radio stations and rock fans, perhaps due to the group’s utter ubiquity. Nevertheless, their 1979 album Spirits Having Flown went to number one.
Impact
The Bee Gees brought disco to mainstream American culture, especially through the work on Saturday Night Fever. They also proved the durability of their songwriting and record-making skills by adeptly adapting to the new disco genre and by writing hit songs for other artists.
Bibliography
Lawrence, Tim. Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2003.
Williams, Paul, The Bee Gees, Tales of the Brothers Gibb. 2d ed. London: Omnibus Press, 2004.