![]() They proved as much with “Massachusetts,” a single whose glamorous-sounding location appealed to European fans, most of whom still only knew American states from their namechecks in popular culture. ![]() If the Bee Gees were supposedly a new Beatles, they also had harmonies that would have done the Beach Boys or the Mamas and the Papas proud. “So there is a touch of The Beatles in the early vocal harmonies,” wrote Peter Jones, reviewing the newly-heralded group’s new single for Record Mirror, “but the song is dramatic, poignant, well-written - and features an easily picked-up melody theme. The courageously stark narrative, inspired by the real-life Aberfan mining disaster in Wales only a few months earlier, gave Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb a first Top 20 hit in both the UK and US in early summer that year. “New York Mining Disaster 1941,” released in April 1967, remains one of the most arresting debut hits to start any international career. The brothers auditioned for impresario Robert Stigwood, who in no time was talking about them as the new Beatles, and were in a recording studio by early March. But then things moved incredibly quickly. They literally performed for their passage back to England, paying for their fares by singing on the deck of the Sitmar Line’s Fairsky steamship and arriving in February 1967. There was an incubation period of four years from the first single released in Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb’s adopted home in Australia (1963’s “The Battle of the Blue and the Grey”) to their international arrival. International Year Zero, 1967 New York Mining Disaster 1941 But this primer, overflowing with classics, sets out just some of the unforgettable music they made during a near-35-year chart heyday. Decades on from their first international success, this look at the best Bee Gees songs is a jumping-off point to a songbook that could easily stand a second list of 20, and a third, and so on. There are other Bee Gees collections that dive more deeply into their career, but as far as single-disc sets go, you can't do better than this.Quite simply, the brothers Gibb are up there with the greatest groups, and songwriting partnerships, of all time. It's just the hits, one brilliant track after another. All the biggies are here from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, plus proto-disco jams like "Nights on Broadway," "Jive Talkin'," and one of their slightly under-the-radar classics, "Fanny (Be Tender with My Love)." No pop band of the past 50 years had a more impressive chart run - both commercially and artistically - than the Bee Gees, and Timeless does a fine job laying out the facts and not muddying the waters with rarities. The shift to the dancefloor and bedroom meant that the songs were lighter and slicker, with Barry's sleek falsetto taking the lead on most of their hits. The baroque pop sounds were lush and moving, equally melodramatic ("New York Mining Disaster 1941"), painfully romantic ("To Love Somebody"), and emotionally devastating ("I Started a Joke"). Starting with their early hit from 1966, "Spicks and Specks," then ending with 1987's "You Win Again," the collection gives definitive proof that the brothers Gibb were geniuses at both songwriting and making records. Timeless: The All-Time Greatest Hits collects the cream of the crop from both their late-'60s/early-'70s baroque pop and brilliant mid-'70s funk and disco-pop periods. The Bee Gees were impressive enough to have two amazing stretches when they not only topped the charts, but helped define the music of the era. The bands that do have a run of charting songs usually fade away after making a splash, never to be heard from again except on nostalgia tours and cruises. ![]() Most bands are lucky to get a single hit, much less a couple songs people will remember.
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