The three of them gravitated toward music, encouraged by their father, who saw his sons at first as a diminutive version of the Mills Brothers. Barry Gibb, born on September 1, 1946, in Manchester, England, and his fraternal twin brothers Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb, born on December 22, 1949, on the Isle of Man, were three of five children.

The group was also music's most successful brother act. What remained a constant throughout their history is their extraordinary singing, rooted in three voices that were appealing individually and melded together perfectly. Then, after hitting a popular trough, they reinvented themselves as perhaps the most successful white soul act of all time. Beginning in the mid- to late '60s as a Beatlesque ensemble, they quickly developed as songwriters and singers to create a style of their own that carried them from psychedelia to progressive pop. No popular music act of the '60s, '70s, '80s, or '90s attracted a more varied audience than the Bee Gees. LISTEN ONLINE on Deezer, Grooveshark, Last.FM, MySpace, Rdio, Rhapsody, Slacker, Spotify.įormed: 1958 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia The Bee Gees were one of the first white groups to explore that territory.įormer Fugees singer Pras sampled this on his song “Blue Angels.Excerpts from the album 'THE ULTIMATE BEE GEES'.īUY THE DELUXE DOUBLE CD & DVD SET from Amazon USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan.īUY THE DOUBLE CD from Amazon USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan.ĭOWNLOAD THE ALBUM from iTunes, or Amazon USA, UK, France, Italy,Germany, Spain, Japan. This was an R&B track that did very well in the black charts in America. The set became the best-selling soundtrack album of all time, until it was outsold by The Bodyguard soundtrack. Along with “You Should Be Dancing,” it was one of two previously released Bee Gees songs used – they wrote five more specifically for the film. The plan worked: the song was added to playlists and revived the fortunes of the group.Īlong with several other Bee Gees hits, this was featured on the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever in 1977. Knowing that a new Bee Gees single would be met with skepticism by radio programmers, their label sent promotional singles to stations with plain, white labels, giving no indication as to what the name of the song was, or who it was by. They were very successful as contemporary singers in the late ’60s and early ’70s, but the two albums they released before Main Course flopped, and it looked like their careers were over. They would often point out that disco became homogenized in the years after they got to it, and that their sound was really an extension of R&B. This criticism would weigh on them in later years as they felt that accusations of selling out and creating popular schlock were out of line. The group, which had considerable success before the disco era, took a lot of heat in the press. They had seven more #1 hits in the disco era, but the band went out of style at the same time as white leisure suits. We finished the song at the Criteria studios that day.” Some tar noises made a rhythmic sound on the wheels of our car, which created the feel to the type of song we wanted to write. We had the idea as we passed over a bridge. Robin Gibb explained to The Mail On Sunday November 1, 2009: “We’d already thought up the title for this song, but it wasn’t until Barry, Maurice and I drove from Biscayne Bay to Miami that we realized what the tune was going to be. The rhythm was inspired by the chunka-chunka-chunka sound of a car rolling over a bridge crossing Biscayne Bay near Miami.

This was called “Drive Talking” in its early stages, but producer Arif Mardin suggested the change to “jive” to play to teenage sensibilities. They have sold more than 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time The Bee Gees had an incredible 9 Number 1 hits, 15 Top Ten hits, and 43 songs in the Billboard 100. This song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, 5 in the UK, and #4 in New Zealand in 1975. You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing them blare out of the radio at that time. They became icons of the era, singing in falsetto harmonies over dance beats. This was the first big disco hit for The Bee Gees. This song started it all for the disco era Bee Gees. Jive Talkin’ has a strong R&B feel to it. The rhythm of this song drew me in when I was younger.

Bee gees jive talkin