The Friday Canon: BEE GEES

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

It's Barry, Maurice and Robin! The helium-filled disco trio had 31 UK Top 40 hits - you get to pick your favourite TEN. Do a little dance!

[Poll #1003654]
Genesis/Collins/Gabriel: (link)
1. Solsbury Hill
2. Sledgehammer
3. In The Air Tonight
4. Easy Lover [w/ Philip Bailey]
5. Don't Give Up [ft Kate Bush]
6. Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)
=7. Games Without Frontiers
=7. Invisible Touch
=7. Sussudio
10. Land Of Confusion

Comments

To Love Nobody

[koganbot]

How was "To Love Somebody" not a hit in Britain? Was it never a single?

Personally think that every song on Bee Gees 1st (which may have been their third or fourth if you count England and Australia, but we Americans tend to be very lax about counting England and Australia) is wonderful.

Also, and this I will have trouble explaining, but I should have put "I Can't See Nobody" and "To Love Somebody" on my yesterday's list of personal turning points. I did not like those two songs originally because they sounded too much like Motown, which I also did not like (believe it or not but Motown sounded leaden and maudlin to my undiscerning ears and I got impatient whenever the 4 Tops or Supremes came on the radio), but then something shifted where all of a sudden those two Bee Gees songs sounded intense and heartrending, and at some point I was liking the Supremes and the 4 Tops as well - though somehow I never realized that the Bee Gees had propelled this shift until typing up this post right now!

I loved "New York Mining Disaster" right away, because it was folk music. I believed at the time that the greatest recording in the modern world was the Brothers Four's version of "Spring Hill Mine Disaster."

WBZ in Boston embraced "New York Mining Disaster" right away, even reported the rumor that it was the Beatles recording under a different name (which is ridiculous, the Bee Gees' voices were different, way more quaveringly soulful even on that one - hey, just because someone's using ringing harmonies doesn't make them the Beatles); the song leapt to number one in Boston in one week; I've always considered that "Massachusetts" was meant as a thank-you and also as an attempt to consolidate the Boston market. But it's a terrible song. The Bee Gees got so wanky so fast. And then they got rhythm, and turned it around. Turned the beat around.

To Love Nina instead

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Everyhit sa the Bee Gees' version of "To Love Somebody" only got to #50, but Nina Simone went Top 5 with a cover version in 1969.