The Bee Gees were one of the most extraordinarily successful musical acts of all time. But while
their music has become much-loved all around the world, there's a lot that people don't
understand about this hit-making group. Here are some false things people believe about
the Bee Gees.
The Bee Gees are one of the bigger acts to ever emerge from Australia. Immensely popular
around the world during the mid-20th century, they easily measure up against the other hit
Australian acts of the era, such as Olivia Newton-John and Rick Springfield. But they
were also huge overseas, having scored nine number one hits in the United States, for
example, and another five chart-toppers in the United Kingdom — not far from the band's
own hometown.
But how can the Bee Gees be from Australia and the British Isles? Well, it's because
the band known as the Bee Gees only formed in Australia after the Gibb brothers moved
there as children. Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb - and yes, that third brother, the one
who’s name looks like Maurice - it’s actually pronounced “Morris” - anyway, they were
all born in the late 1940s in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man, a small island
off of Great Britain. While not part of the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man's residents
are nonetheless British citizens. In 1958, the Gibbs all moved to Sydney, Australia.
When it comes to naming your band, it's always better to keep things simple. Just ask the
Bee Gees. More than 50 years ago, Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb decided on what turned out
to be the perfect name for their little band — an easy to remember, easy to pronounce,
phonetically spelled out iteration of the letters "B" and "G." It's so immediately recognizable
that it even surpasses language barriers, grabbing potential fans who don't speak the
Bee Gees' native English. You might also think that it's a natural fit for the group, considering
the letters "B" and "G" clearly stand for the words "Brothers Gibb."
But that's not why they named themselves the Bee Gees if anything, it's more of a happy
and uncanny coincidence. In fact, the moniker was derived from the names of two other musicians
who the Gibbs had known during their early days as a group.
After moving to Australia in the late '50s, the Gibbs brothers got a gig playing at the
Redcliffe Speedway for the track's promoter, Bill Goode. Goode then introduced the boys
to Bill Gates, a local radio presenter, who was keen to have them play on his station.
Later, during a meeting with the family, they decided to call themselves the BGs, as three
of the people present had those initials: Bill Goode, Bill Gates, and Barry Gibb. The
name stuck, and the Bee Gees were born.
The terms Bee Gees and "Gibb brothers" are used almost interchangeably nowadays. And
yes, from the band's disco era and into the next few decades, the Bee Gees did primarily
produce, write, and record as a trio. But they didn't go it alone. In fact, the band
used a number of collaborators and studio musicians to nail down their sound both on
stage and in the recording booth.
The Bee Gees got even bigger when you go back to the group's days as a British Invasion-era
pop-rock band. Back then, they were a five-piece: the trio of Gibbs, assisted by two bandmates
to whom they weren't related. On the Bee Gees' 1967 debut album 1st, the credited musicians
are Barry Gibb on rhythm guitar, Robin Gibb on organs, Maurice Gibb on various instruments,
plus Vince Melouney on lead guitar and Colin Petersen on drums. It was only later that
the core Bee Gees became strictly a family act.
The Bee Gees enjoyed tremendous global success as a disco act in the late 1970s, and became
closely associated with the sounds, look, and sensibility of the era. And, of course,
they produced the soundtrack for one of the best-known disco movies, Saturday Night Fever,
which sold a staggering 25 million copies between 1977 and 1980.
But disco was only one of the many strings on the Bee Gees's bow, and in the waning part
of the 1970s, it was merely their latest endeavor. The group had already enjoyed a long and healthy
career as hitmakers by the time disco hit. In the mid-'60s, the Gibbs moved to London,
hoping to cash in on the British rock craze of the era. Sounding less like the Beatles
and more like a more vocally accomplished, slightly psychedelic Herman's Hermits, the
Bee Gees scored a number of smash hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
In a word, the Bee Gees were weird, but it worked and the band found considerable pre-disco
success in America, with the quiet and contemplative song "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" even
going to number one.
While they were known for plenty of other styles of music, the Bee Gees are rightfully
remembered as the most disco of all disco acts thanks to genre-iconic songs like "Stayin'
Alive," "You Should Be Dancing," and "Night Fever." In those tunes and others, the band
found a formula that truly worked: a relentless bass groove, plenty of brass and strings,
and the ultra-high-pitched and powerful vocal stylings of Barry Gibb. Gibb utilized a vocal
technique called falsetto, generally used by male singers to reach the upper register
of the musical scale; which they wouldn't otherwise be able to hit naturally.
"If I want my falsetto to happen, I have to start screaming in the shower. 'What are you
doing in there?!'"
Gibb used falsetto so much that he's basically become forever linked with the technique.
But he certainly didn't create it, as some people think. While Gibb popularized falsetto
for crossover pop and rock audiences, he and his fellow Bee Gees took inspiration from
previous pop artists, who had also used falsetto in their music. In an interview with Rolling
Stone, Barry Gibb singled out a few of these acts, saying:
"We liked The Stylistics and the Delfonics and people who sang in falsetto."
As such, the Bee Gees were far from the inventors of falsetto-heavy pop music they just helped
make it bigger.
Disco revitalized the fame and fortune of the Bee Gees, bringing the long-established
group more success than they had ever seen before. And it's hard to separate the Bee
Gees' disco era with the release of Saturday Night Fever, the companion album to the blockbuster,
John Travolta movie, to which the Bee Gees contributed eight songs.
"People aren't interested in the music of yesterday, not the young people of today,
and this is the first time they've seen a film about today, and they can see themselves
in the film."
But this new era for the Gibb brothers didn't actually begin with the soundtrack to Saturday
Night Fever.
After all, it's not like Hollywood just gave the Bee Gees, a pop-rock group best known
for their '60s and early '70s folk hits, free reign to make a smoldering disco soundtrack
album for a tentpole movie. Saturday Night Fever wasn't released until late 1977 and
by this point, the Bee Gees had already started to surf the disco wave, having scored top
10 hits with their disco tunes "Nights on Broadway" and "Jive Talkin.'"
As it happened, it was the group's manager, Robert Stigwood, who had agreed to finance
and produce Saturday Night Fever. The Gibbs subsequently signed on to produce a number
of songs for the movie and its soundtrack. In the end, their involvement was more of
a favor to an old friend and associate than anything else.
The Bee Gees may have caught disco fever, but they were always willing to embrace other
genres of music, too, which is why - contrary to popular belief - the Bee Gees remained
relevant past the 70's and into the 80's.
Likely knowing that the disco cash cow wouldn't last forever, the Gibbs adapted with the times.
For example, Soft rock would prove very popular in the early 1980s, and the Bee Gees embraced
it wholeheartedly. After hitting number one in 1979 with the ballad "Too Much Heaven,"
the group enjoyed some success in the immediate post-disco period, racking up minor and moderate
hits like "He's a Liar," "Living Eyes," "The Woman in You," and "Someone Belonging to Someone."
In 1980, Barry Gibb co-wrote and produced the whole of Barbra Streisand's contemporary
pop breakthrough album, Guilty, and his work on the album was so significant that he's
even featured on the cover. The single "Woman in Love," an adult contemporary gem of a duet
between Streisand and Gibb, later went to number one. Also topping the charts, in 1983:
"Islands in the Stream," the country classic by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton… which
was written by none other than the Brothers Gibb.
Sadly, the Bee Gees ended up as has-beens, reduced to the dustbin of history after the
end of disco sent them scampering out of the music industry forever. Right? Well, no, that's
not actually what happened. Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering the Bee Gees were prolific musicians
long before the dawn of disco, the group remained active in the entertainment industry until
well past the death of disco, too.
The Bee Gees recorded music throughout the 1980s and, at the end of the '80s, found themselves
driven harder than ever by the death of their younger brother Andy Gibb. In 1989, they landed
in the top 10 for the first time in a decade with the ultra-slick, very '80s-sounding synth-pop
head-bobber "One."
This didn't lead to a lasting Bee Gees revival, per se, but it did remind the world that those
Gibb brothers sure could write a catchy song. History repeated itself eight years later
when, in 1997, the Bee Gees enjoyed another comeback hit. The keyboard and synth-wind-driven
mid-tempo ballad "Alone" hit number eight on the pop chart and became a smash on soft
rock radio. And that was nearly two decades removed from the disco era.
It's like the old saying goes: If it looks like a Bee Gee, sounds like a Bee Gee, and
was basically inescapable on the radio in the 1970s, then it must be a Bee Gee. But
this isn't quite true especially when it comes to Andy Gibb.
By the end of the 70s, the Bee Gees had such a hold on pop music that they decided to expand
their reach, providing Bee Gees-esque hits for other acts, including Samantha Sang, Yvonne
Elliman, and their youngest brother Andy Gibb. The latter Gibb hit number one with his first
three singles in 1977 and 1978: "I Just Want to Be Your Everything," "(Love Is) Thicker
Than Water," and "Shadow Dancing" — all with a writing credit from at least one other
Gibb sibling.
Not yet 20 years old, Andy Gibb became one of the period's most prominent teen idols,
much of which was down to the fact that he looked and sounded like a younger, blonder
version of the Bee Gees themselves. And while he was indeed a member of the Gibb family
and performed songs penned by his brothers, Andy was never a member of the Bee Gees. He
was a solo act through and through, right up until his untimely death in 1988.
Breaking up a band is a complex ordeal. There's plenty of potential for trauma and emotional
disarray when close friends and collaborators decide they no longer wish to work together.
Still, it does happen, and the consequences can be even more severe when the musicians
in question are family.
The Gibb brothers have always been the core of the Bee Gees. But while all three tried
to embark on solo careers, and often worked with other people, the Bee Gees never actually
broke up. Any time the Bee Gees weren't making music together were simply thought of as hiatuses
or creative slumps. In the end, the only thing that could break the Gibbs' close bond was
death.
Maurice Gibb passed away at age 53 in 2003, and surviving Bee Gees Barry and Robin Gibb
occasionally played together thereafter, including at The Prince's Trust concert in London in
2006.
"Nobody sings like you."
"We should get together!"
"We should get together! We should have lunch!"
The Bee Gees as an entity only truly ended in 2012, after the death of Robin Gibb, leaving
oldest brother Barry the only surviving member of the band.