In Memory Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees

Robin Gibb one of the most famous groups in the world died from cancer in May 2012 after a very courageous battle with cancer. Robin was 62, and with his brothers was born on the Isle of Man in the UK. From there they all moved to Manchester and then on to Australia where they started there career as a trio with his twin brother Maurice (Died in 2003) and Barry the only surviving singing brother. The younger brother Andy had a solo career in the 1970s, but he died in 1988.

Robin had huge success in the 1960s with his brother, and he also had a brief solo career too after a dispute with his brother. But lucky for the world of pop they soon got back together as the Bee Gees.

THIS FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH THE DAY AFTER ROBIN DIED

Bob Harris, the BBC Radio 2 DJ and close friend of Gibb, said the singer’s former band mate and brother Barry would be “heartbroken” by his death.
He said: “One has to feel massively for Barry at this moment because he was watched his brothers pass away one by one and, even worse in a way, in reverse order in that the youngest each time has gone first.
“He must be absolutely heartbroken today.
“I loved Robin as a person. He was warm, gentle and kind. He had such a warm heart.

The Bee Gees first top twenty single hit was in 1972 Lonely Days written by all the brothers on the night they all reunited as a group. It was 1972 that they had a bigger hit with My World (video) from the album To Whom It May Concern.

Robin said ""One rollicking little jaunt that me and the lads came up with in downtown Birmingham, whilst doing a television show called The Golden Shot, the ensuing results being that it went on to be a huge top 20 hit in the UK and the US that left the three of us 'drooling' with pleasure."

The group had hits elsewhere in the world, including the fantastic  How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, but the next UK hit in 1972 was Run To Me, again from the album To Whom It May Concern.

The Bee Gees had nine studio albums in the 1970s, but only two made the top twenty in the UK. There was one live album in 1977 but again that did not chart in the UK.

Single wise it was not until 1975 that the group got back into the UK singles chart with Jive Talkin, which came from the LP Main Course. The song got its back beat from the noise the car made going across an American bridge. The title was changed from Drive Talkin to Jive Talkin, but the group was concerned it would be mixed up with black slang for bull shit. To try it out they delivered singles to many black radio stations without any identification of who was singing. It became a hit.

That became a number 5 hit in the UK. The next single to be released did very well in the U.S. but,  failed to chart in the BBC charts. That record was Nights On Broadway.

1976 saw the hit single You Should Be Dancing coming from the Children Of The World album. This fast paced single would later appear in a film called Saturday Night Fever.

Love so Right was the unsuccessful follow up. But no matter as the group released three compilation albums in the 1970s. This allowed all the hits from other territories to get radio play in the UK. Even now we look at those hit singles and cannot believe that an awful lot never actually charted high in the UK.

1977 saw the release of the film and the soundtrack of a film that would mark  the 1970s. Saturday Night Fever.

The album “Saturday Night Fever” started its 24 weeks at No. 1 in the U.S. charts.
Bee Gees singer Robin Gibbs remembers that time from the Guardian Newspaper in the UK.

The idea for the film that became Saturday Night Fever started when our manager, Robert Stigwood, saw an article in New York magazine entitled ‘Tribal Nites of the New Saturday Night’ by Nik Cohn, talking about teenagers going to dancing competitions.

When they first started dance rehearsals for the film with John Travolta, they were using our song ‘You Should Be Dancing’, which had been released the previous year. We were mixing a live album in France and Robert rang and asked if we had any other songs we could contribute. In the end we had five new tracks – ‘Staying Alive’, ‘How Deep is Your Love?’, ‘Night Fever’, ‘More Than a Woman’ and ‘If I Can’t Have You’ (recorded by Yvonne Elliman) – plus the previously released ‘Jive Talkin” and ‘You Should Be Dancing’. It was also our idea to call it Saturday Night Fever, because the competitions were on Saturday and we already had the track ‘Night Fever’.

One of the single hits from the album was originally written by the Bee Gees for Yvonne Elliman. But they did the song themselves and it was called How Deep Is Your Love . A few weeks later we had Staying Alive charting.

The idea for the film that became Saturday Night Fever started when our manager, Robert Stigwood, saw an article in New York magazine entitled ‘Tribal Nites of the New Saturday Night’ by Nik Cohn, talking about teenagers going to dancing competitions.
When they first started dance rehearsals for the film with John Travolta, they were using our song ‘You Should Be Dancing’, which had been released the previous year. We were mixing a live album in France and Robert rang and asked if we had any other songs we could contribute. In the end we had five new tracks – ‘Staying Alive’, ‘How Deep is Your Love?’, ‘Night Fever’, ‘More Than a Woman’ and ‘If I Can’t Have You’ (recorded by Yvonne Elliman) – plus the previously released ‘Jive Talkin” and ‘You Should Be Dancing’. It was also our idea to call it Saturday Night Fever, because the competitions were on Saturday and we already had the track ‘Night Fever’.

Here is the video of Night Fever.

 The "Saturday Night Fever" sold  forty million copies , and the "Night Fever" single was a huge worldwide hit, and this one album is responsible for so much inspiration in 70s music.

More Than A Woman was a Bee Gees hit, but not in the UK where the Tavares version hit the charts.

The Bee Gees were huge global starts now and 1978 only gave them one hit single. That was Too Much Heaven from their next album Spirits Having Flown. The song was originally to have been sung by John Travolta from a film. But the film was so bad the Bee Gees did not want Travolta to record it. Instead, they sang it and gave all the royalties to UNICEF.

The last year of the 1970s gave the group two more top twenty singles. The first being Tragedy.The huge explosions made on the single came from Barry making noises into a cup next to the microphone.

In 1979 the group had a place on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. They won five Grammy awards in the 1970s.

They had a new version of Sgt Pepper And The Lonely Hearts Club and wrote many songs for other artists in the 1970s including Emotion by Samantha Sang, Grease by Frankie Valli, Guilty and Woman In Love by Barbra Streisand. The group had single hits in the 60,70s,80,90s.

The last single of the 1970s though, was Love You Inside And Out

Here are eighty videos featuring the BEE GEES

Bee Gees interviewed in 1978