Movatterモバイル変換

At the end of 1975, RSO changed its North American partner fromAtlantic, its home since 1967, to the European-based Polygram, whichhad long handled RSO products in most of the world. This businessdeal had a profound effect on the Bee Gees’ music: it meant thatAtlantic’s house producer Arif Mardin was no longer available tocontinue the reinvention of the group. As an alternative theystarted work in Los Angeles for three days with top producer RichardPerry. But the Bee Gees said he did not understand why they wanted torecord ‘You Should Be Dancing’, and he was otherwise notin tune with their agenda, so they gave that up, and returned toMiami.

At Criteria, which was not an Atlantic-owned studio, they resumed workwith engineer Karl Richardson. Adding young musician and arrangerAlbhy Galuten to the control room as musical adviser, the Bee Geesproduced themselves with Barry taking the lead role. The new team sawthe group through a series of top selling recordings over the nextfour years.

Most of the work in 1976 was on one project, an album calledChildren of the World. It is the one really‘disco’ Bee Gees album, with mostly dance and funk tracksand falsetto vocals. Although the idea now was to create songs thatcould be done on stage, still they used a lot of overdubs,particularly voices and synthesizer. For the first time since 1966,no strings were used, but there is a horn section and a few guestplayers, and Blue Weaver contributed about as much as could be done atthe time with synthesizer strings. The leadoff single ‘You ShouldBe Dancing’ is one of the top songs of the disco era, and alsoexemplifies the high falsetto by Barry Gibb that became the standardBee Gees voice of the ‘helium years’.

songs

YOU SHOULD BE DANCING
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb
A side by Bee Gees, June 1976; album cut by Bee Gees, 1976

LOVE SO RIGHT
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb
A side by Bee Gees, September 1976;album cut by Bee Gees, 1976

SUBWAY
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb
B side by Bee Gees, June 1976;album cut by Bee Gees, 1976

LOVE ME
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb
album cut by Bee Gees, 1976;A side by Yvonne Elliman, October 1976

YOU STEPPED INTO MY LIFE
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb
B side by Bee Gees, September 1976;album cut by Bee Gees, 1976

THE WAY IT WAS
[THE RESTLESS YEARS ]
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Blue Weaver
album cut by Bee Gees, 1976

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb
album cut by Bee Gees, 1976

I THINK I’M LOSING YOU
probably Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb
no record

CAN’T KEEP A GOOD MAN DOWN
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb
album cut by Bee Gees, 1976

I JUST WANT TO BE YOUR EVERYTHING
Barry Gibb
A side by Andy Gibb, May 1977; album cut by Andy Gibb, 1977

(LOVE IS) THICKER THAN WATER
Barry Gibb, Andy Gibb
A side by Andy Gibb, September 1977;album cut by Andy Gibb, 1977

Most of the known songs were for theChildren of the Worldalbum. During the summer, Barry met up with Vince Melouney (Bee Geeslead guitar in 1967 and 1968) and wrote two songs, one of which wasrecorded in 2023 by a band Vince plays with. Later in the year inMiami, Barry wrote two songs for Andy Gibb to record.

recording sessions

Barry Gibb — vocal, guitar
Robin Gibb — vocal
Maurice Gibb — vocal, bass
Blue Weaver — keyboards, synthesizer, piano
Alan Kendall — lead guitar
Dennis Bryon — drums
Joe Lala — percussion
Gary Brown — sax
George Perry — bass (‘Subway’, ‘The Way It Was’)
Stephen Stills — percussion (‘You Should Be Dancing’)
The Boneroo Horns
Peter Graves
Whit Sidener
Kenny Faulk
Neil Bonsanti
Bob ?
Bill Purse
Debbie ?
engineer: Karl Richardson; John Blanche, Ed Marshal
producer: the Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten, Karl Richardson
January to March 1976, Criteria Recording Studios, Miami

YOU SHOULD BE DANCING
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1976)
19 January, 1, 8 February, 6 May 1976
stereo 4:16, lead vocal Barry Gibb
A side, June 1976;Children of the World, 1976
stereo 4:47, lead vocal Barry Gibb
promo single, 1978;Tales from the Brothers Gibb, 1990
stereo 6:01, lead vocal Barry Gibb
promo single, 1976

LOVE SO RIGHT
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1976)
21, 30 January, 6 May 1976
stereo 3:34, lead vocal Barry Gibb
A side, September 1976;Children of the World, 1976

As improbable as it might seem, the first two songs recorded wouldbecome the first two singles from these sessions. Not only that, butthe next three too would comprise the two B sides and a song to bemade a single by another artist. Apparently this much had all beenplanned ahead of time.

In the ten months since ‘Baby As You Turn Away’ Barry haddeveloped his falsetto to an incredible degree. There it was stillbreathy and tentative. Now it was loud and clear, a very expressiveinstrument that he began to prefer to his natural voice. The firstsong he did in full-force falsetto, the classic ‘You Should BeDancing’— also the first one the world heard— couldnot have been done any other way. Blue recalls that Maurice createdthe bass line and sang the horn parts to the brass players, whileBarry sang parts for Blue to play. Alan got in a short guitar solo.It was all still real rhythm section, drums, bass, and guitar. The4:47 version that first appeared on a promo LP and then onTales from the Brothers Gibb appears to be edited with repeats,and so does the even longer 6:07 version that appeared on a radiopromo single, the same mix but with the intro 15 seconds longer andmany repeats of of the title phrase at the end.

‘Love So Right’ by contrast is a more traditional kind ofBee Gees song thatcould easily have been sung in natural voicehad Barry been inclined to do so. The falsetto makes it sound morenew and different than it is. The question of how much falsetto isenough has caused much friendly argument among fans.

Stephen Stills and his tour band were at Criteria in January andFebruary, recording most of hisIllegal Stills album and thenrolling right into the first songs for theLong May You Runalbum with Neil Young starting on February 3. It was probably January19 or February 1 when he and possibly Joe Lala added percussion to‘You Should Be Dancing’, and George‘Chocolate’ Perry played on some of the other Bee Geessongs.

Note the several dates listed. The Bee Gees had long had a habit oftinkering with recordings. They would now do so more and more. Thedates shown may not be all the days these songs were worked on.

SUBWAY
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1976)
27 January, 6 May 1976
stereo 4:24, lead vocal Barry Gibb
B side, June 1976;Children of the World, 1976

And now the B side of the first single. Chocolate Perry played basshere instead of Maurice.

LOVE ME
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb (1976)
30 March, 23, 25 April 1976
stereo 4:01, lead vocal Robin Gibb, Barry Gibb
Children of the World, 1976

Robin illustrates why he didn’t sing much of this material withhis ducklike voice on ‘Love Me’, a song that seems muchmore suited to Barry’s natural or falsetto voices. Barry doescome in with a very high middle section. At any rate this one wasgiven away to RSO artist Yvonne Elliman, whose single of it appeared acouple of weeks after the Bee Gees’ album.

YOU STEPPED INTO MY LIFE
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1976)
3 February, 7 May 1976
stereo 3:25, lead vocal Barry Gibb
Children of the World, 1976

And, the B side of the second single! Barry in falsetto again, with areal stop-and-go funk beat that was more radical for the Bee Gees thanany of these except the thumping beat of ‘You Should BeDancing’.

Around this time ‘You Should Be Dancing’ wascompleted with the percussion by Stephen Stills and Joe Lala. Thatsame day, Barry followed up by having the assembled musicians playsomething completely different, the natural-voice country ballad‘Rest Your Love on Me’, with Stills on bass. Barry waseither making it up as he went along (as some have said) or justrevealing it for the first time. The song would be properly recordedin May.

THE WAY IT WAS
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Blue Weaver (1976)
23 February, 12 April, 6 May 1976
stereo 3:19, lead vocal Barry Gibb
Children of the World, 1976

WALK BEFORE YOU RUN
Barry Gibb, Stephen Stills (1976)
26 February 1976
stereo, instrumental
unreleased

For the second time Barry took a melody from Blue Weaver and turned itinto a song, ‘The Way It Was’ (known as ‘TheRestless Years’ during production). A piano ballad made a nicecontrast with the other songs they had, and so did singing only partof it in falsetto. This is just Barry, Blue, and Chocolate Perry.Robin and Maurice were away on break, Maurice present on the Isle ofMan for the birth of his first child.

The next new song was ‘Walk before You Run’ credited toBarry and Stephen Stills, never released by either artist. Blueremembers playing piano on it, and says it was a jam session.

THE FEEL
probably Barry Gibb (1976)
6 March 1976
stereo, lead vocal unknown
unreleased

LOVERS
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1976)
29, 30 March, 6, 26 May 1976
stereo 3:36, lead vocal Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb
Children of the World, 1976

The group finished off recording at Criteria with another funk number,with more of a group vocal sound featuring Barry and Robin singing leadon different lines. Contrary to some opinions it is Barry doing thegrowl, not Maurice, who is not clearly heard singing on the whole album.

Barry Gibb — vocal, guitar
Robin Gibb — vocal
Maurice Gibb — vocal, bass
Blue Weaver — keyboards, synthesizer, piano
Alan Kendall — lead guitar
Dennis Bryon — drums
The Boneroo Horns
Peter Graves
Whit Sidener
Kenny Faulk
Neil Bonsanti
Bob ?
Bill Purse
Debbie ?
engineer: Karl Richardson; Nick Blacona
producer: the Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten, Karl Richardson
April and May 1976, Le Studio, Quebec

Everyone relocated on April 1 to Quebec, Canada. The reason the BeeGees left Criteria had to do with citizenship and taxes: theEnglishmen had to limit their hours of work in the United States, andBarry and Maurice were also staying out of the United Kingdom for taxreasons. Le Studio was just about the top place to go in Canada, sothey went there. It was booked by other artists, so the Bee Gees fitin their sessions on evenings and Sundays (April 18, 25, May 2).

BOOGIE SUMMER
probably Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1976)
2 April 1976
stereo, lead vocal unknown
unreleased

TOMORROW NIGHT
probably Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1976)
8 April 1976
stereo, lead vocal unknown
unreleased

The first two new songs were never released, and are unknown, unlessthey are ‘Boogie Child’ and ‘Can’t Keep a GoodMan Down’. The only other thing the Bee Gees definitely did inthe first two weeks there was to add something to ‘The Way ItWas’ on April 12.

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1976)
18 April, 6 May 1976
stereo 3:07, lead vocal Barry Gibb
Children of the World, 1976

I THINK I’M LOSING YOU
probably Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1976)
25 April, 2 May 1976
stereo, lead vocal unknown
unreleased

‘Children of the World’ would become the title song ofthe album. A week later they did yet another unreleased song. Betweenthese they added something to ‘Love Me’.

REST YOUR LOVE ON ME
Barry Gibb (1976)
2 May 1976
stereo 4:20, lead vocal Barry Gibb
B side, November 1978

The Bee Gees now made a proper recording of Barry’s countryballad ‘Rest Your Love on Me’. Its style did not fit atall into the album— even ‘The Way It Was’ found itsway in— so it was set aside and finally appeared in 1978.‘Rest Your Love on Me’ would become a number 1 countryhit for Conway Twitty in 1981. At this point a month of work inQuebec had produced only one more song for the new album.

CAN’T KEEP A GOOD MAN DOWN
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1976)
6 May 1976
stereo 4:43, lead vocal Robin Gibb, Barry Gibb
Children of the World, 1976

BOOGIE CHILD
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1976)
6 May 1976
stereo 4:12, lead vocal Barry Gibb
Children of the World, 1976

May 6 was an astounding date, if the documentation can be trusted.The record shows that the Bee Gees recorded two new songs, the lastones for the album, ‘Can’t Keep a Good Man Down’ and‘Boogie Child’, and also added something tofivesongs recorded at Criteria and ‘Children of the World’.More likely, May 6 was devoted to finishing touches, and‘Can’t Keep a Good Man Down’ and ‘BoogieChild’ are new titles for two songs previously started.

The only remaining dates known are the next day, adding to ‘YouStepped into My Life’, and May 26, adding to ‘Lovers’.Otherwise, May was devoted to mixing and otherwise preparing the songsfor release.

Andy Gibb — vocal, guitar
others unknown
engineer: ?
producer: Col Joye
1976, ATA Studio, Sydney

WALKING ALONG
Andy Gibb (1976)
undated 1976
stereo, lead vocal Andy Gibb
unreleased

CAN’T STOP DANCING
Ray Stevens, John H Pritchard Jr (1976)
undated 1976
stereo 3:10, lead vocal Andy Gibb
unreleased

IN THE END
Andy Gibb (1975)
undated 1976
stereo 3:23, lead vocal Andy Gibb
unreleased

TAKE A HOLD OF YOURSELF
Andy Gibb (1975)
undated 1976
stereo 3:02, lead vocal Andy Gibb
unreleased

COME HOME FOR THE WINTER
Andy Gibb (1976)
undated 1976
stereo 4:06, lead vocal Andy Gibb
unreleased

LET IT BE ME
Andy Gibb (1976)
undated 1976
stereo, lead vocal Andy Gibb
unreleased

STARLIGHT
Andy Gibb (1976)
undated 1976
stereo 2:33, lead vocal Andy Gibb
unreleased

Barry, Robin, and Maurice had absolutely no involvement in theserecordings, which are shown here only to fill in Andy’s musicalcareer.

Andy recorded further songs in Australia in the first half of 1976. Aproposed single of ‘To a Girl’ (the song he played ontelevision in 1974) and ‘Walking Along’ (or ‘WalkingAlone’) was not issued, nor was another proposed single of RayStevens’s song ‘Can’t Stop Dancing’, whichAndy sang on television this year.

Other known recordings from this time may have been for a projectedalbum. But none of this was released. Instead Andy was off to Miami torecord for RSO. (The hit version of ‘Can’t StopDancing’ by The Captain and Tennille was released after this, inMay 1977.)

Andy had got the call from Barry in June 1976, so he and ColJoye’s company ATA had proceeded with the new single knowingthat Andy would go to Miami later in the year. They must have plannedto release Andy’s Australian recordings followed by whatever hedid with RSO. No other explanation makes sense. But for some reasonthe plan was suddenly changed. Instead several Andy songs fromAustralia were re-recorded for RSO.

Andy Gibb — vocal
Joey Murcia — guitar
Tim Renwick — guitar
Paul Harris — piano, keyboards
Albhy Galuten — synthesizer
Harold Cowart — bass
Ron ‘Tubby’ Ziegler — drums
John Sambataro — vocal
Barry Gibb — vocal (‘I Just Want to Be Your Everything’, ‘(Love Is) Thicker than Water’)
George Terry — guitar
Joe Walsh — guitar (two songs)
Don Buzzard — steel guitar
Nelson Pedron — percussion
orchestra arranged by Albhy Galuten, conducted by Mike Lewis
engineer: Karl Richardson; Steve Gersky
producer: Albhy Galuten, Karl Richardson, Barry Gibb
about October 1976, Criteria Recording Studios, Miami

Andy Gibb recorded an album of songs at Criteria around October 1976.The exact dates are not known, but the range of possible dates is verylimited. Andy came to Miami in September, and the sessions atCriteria are known to have coincided with the Eagles recording theiralbumHotel California there, which they completed in October.Eagles member Joe Walsh plays on two tracks (not named) and Andy saidthat listening to some of the Eagles’ songs influenced the soundhe wanted on his album (although he had shown country influencesbefore).

The sessions were produced by Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, andwith Barry on two songs. Albhy chose the experienced musicians whoplay on the album. The core group was Joey Murcia and Tim Renwick onguitars, Paul Harris and Albhy himself on piano and keyboards, andHarold Cowart and ‘Tubby’ Zeigler on bass and drums. Forsome songs they were joined by other top session players. Barry wasvery impressed with the polished sound of the session players.

I JUST WANT TO BE YOUR EVERYTHING
Barry Gibb (1976)
undated 1976
stereo 3:45, lead vocal Andy Gibb
A side, May 1977;Flowing Rivers, 1977

(LOVE IS) THICKER THAN WATER
Barry Gibb, Andy Gibb (1976)
undated 1976
stereo 4:15, lead vocal Andy Gibb
A side, September 1977;Flowing Rivers, 1977

Barry was present to record only two songs, the two that he wrote forAndy. These were in Albhy Galuten’s words Barry’s idea ofwhat would be good songs for Andy to sing, both of them in the dancemusic style of the Bee Gees. ‘(Love Is) Thicker ThanWater’ is credited to both Barry and Andy, and although Andysaid it was almost entirely Barry’s work, it does sound a littlecloser to Andy’s style.

These two songs were probably recorded around the same time as eachother. Barry is listed as a producer for the two, but only executiveproducer for the rest of the album. They are shown here before therest of the songs for Andy’s album, but none of the recordingdates are known.

WORDS AND MUSIC
Andy Gibb (1974)
undated 1976
stereo 4:38, lead vocal Andy Gibb
Flowing Rivers, 1977

DANCE TO THE LIGHT OF THE MORNING
Andy Gibb, Albhy Galuten (1976)
undated 1976
stereo 3:19, lead vocal Andy Gibb
Flowing Rivers, 1977

TOO MANY LOOKS IN YOUR EYES
Andy Gibb, Albhy Galuten (1976)
undated 1976
stereo 4:10, lead vocal Andy Gibb
Flowing Rivers, 1977

STARLIGHT
Andy Gibb (1976)
undated 1976
stereo 3:32, lead vocal Andy Gibb
Flowing Rivers, 1977

FLOWING RIVERS
Andy Gibb (1974)
undated 1976
stereo 3:37, lead vocal Andy Gibb
Flowing Rivers, 1977

COME HOME FOR THE WINTER
Andy Gibb (1976)
undated 1976
stereo 4:05, lead vocal Andy Gibb
Flowing Rivers, 1977

LET IT BE ME
Andy Gibb (1976)
undated 1976
stereo 3:30, lead vocal Andy Gibb
Flowing Rivers, 1977

IN THE END
Andy Gibb (1976)
undated 1976
stereo 3:16, lead vocal Andy Gibb
B side, May 1977;Flowing Rivers, 1977

For lack of information, the rest of the songs for Andy’s albumFlowing Rivers are shown here in the order they appearedon the album. No additional songs are known.

Listening to only these Andy-written songs gives a somewhat differentimpression than listening to the singles. They are a mix of countryand ballads. Six are new recordings of songs Andy wrote in Australia,and two are new. The title song ‘Flowing Rivers’,recorded here for the third time, could have been a single hadAndy’s handlers been willing to show this side of him, and‘Words and Music’ (another old song), ‘Too ManyLooks in Your Eyes’ (written with Albhy),‘Starlight’, and ‘In the End’ were goodballads that deserved more attention than they got.

selected record releases

Bee Gees : single
US: RSO, January 1976; UK: RSO, February 1976.

AFANNY (BE TENDER WITH MY LOVE)
BCOUNTRY LANES

The last single fromMain Course. Significantly for thefuture, they chose the track with the most falsetto. It went toptwenty in the United States, now looking like their main market, anddid nothing across the Atlantic.

Bee Gees : single
US: RSO, July 1976; UK: RSO, June 1976.

AYOU SHOULD BE DANCING
BSUBWAY

The first single from the new albumChildren of the World shotto number 1 in the United States, and even made top ten in Britainand top twenty in Germany.

Bee Gees :Children of the World
US: RSO, September 1976; US: RSO, September 1976.

A 1YOU SHOULD BE DANCING
A 2YOU STEPPED INTO MY LIFE
A 3LOVE SO RIGHT
A 4LOVERS
A 5CAN’T KEEP A GOOD MAN DOWN

B 1BOOGIE CHILD
B 2LOVE ME
B 3SUBWAY
B 4THE WAY IT WAS
B 5CHILDREN OF THE WORLD

Peaking at number 8 onBillboard’s chart,Children ofthe World was the Bee Gees’ highest-charting album in theUnited States sinceBee Gees’ First, but it did nothingin Britain and Germany. The heavy dose of falsetto and funk did notgo over well with fans of the group’s older style.

Bee Gees : single
US: RSO, September 1976; UK: RSO, September 1976.

ALOVE SO RIGHT
BYOU STEPPED INTO MY LIFE

Yvonne Elliman : single
US: RSO, October 1976; UK: RSO, October 1976.

ALOVE ME
BI DON’T KNOW WHY I KEEP HANGIN’ ON

Yvonne Elliman hadalmost the first release of ‘LoveMe’, and its top twenty placing in the United States showed thatthe Bee Gees’ newfound chart magic could translate to other artists.

Bee Gees Gold volume 1
US: RSO, November 1976.

A 1HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART (1971)
A 2HOLIDAY (1967)
A 3TO LOVE SOMEBODY (1967)
A 4MASSACHUSETTS (1967)
A 5WORDS (1968)
A 6LONELY DAYS (1970)

B 1RUN TO ME (1972)
B 2I’VE GOTTA GET A MESSAGE YO YOU (1968)
B 3MY WORLD (1972)
B 4I CAN’T SEE NOBODY (1967)
B 5I STARTED A JOKE (1968)
B 6NEW YORK MINING DISASTER 1941 (1967)

A new collection of old songs for the American market. None of thehits from 1975 or 1976 were included.

Although this set seems intended to replaceBest of Bee Gees,that and notBee Gees Gold was reissued many times later on,and there was never aBee Gees Gold volume 2. It repeats thebad stereo mix of ‘Words’ fromBest of Bee Gees,but the sound quality of the other songs is improved here, mostnoticeably in the case of the songs fromBee Gees’ First.The song selection is very much geared to the US charts and omits somesongs well-known in other countries that missed in the US.

Odessa
US: RSO, November 1976.

A 1ODESSA (1969)
A 2YOU’LL NEVER SEE MY FACE AGAIN (1969)
A 3MARLEY PURT DRIVE (1969)
A 4MELODY FAIR (1969)

B 1SOUND OF LOVE (1969)
B 2GIVE YOUR BEST (1969)
B 3I LAUGH IN YOUR FACE (1969)
B 4NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (1969)
B 5FIRST OF MAY (1969)
B 6WITH ALL NATIONS (1969)

It would be hard to reissueOdessa without featuring Robin(vocal) and Maurice (Spanish guitar and others) on the title, but onceyou get that out of the way, what if we give Barry the spotlight oneverything else? Preferring ‘Never Say Never Again’ to themissing tracks is hard to explain otherwise. Obviously someone at RSOwas handed the unenviable task of cutting the album down to twotwenty-minute sides, and it seems unlikely that the brothers werepaying attention. This hit the shelves withGold: they hadconsecutive catalogue numbers.

All This and World War II
US: 20th Century, November 1976; UK: Riva, 1976.

GOLDEN SLUMBERS / CARRY THAT WEIGHT
SHE CAME IN THROUGH THE BATHROOM WINDOW
SUN KING

Maurice Gibb :Bee Gees Information
Germany: New Blood, 1976

A 1LAUGHING CHILD
A 2SOLDIER JOHNNY

B 1SOMETHING’S BLOWING
B 2JOURNEY TO THE MISTY MOUNTAINS

A limited edition disk (believed to be 200) for the fan club Bee GeesInformation, not released to the public. All four cuts are from thealbum Maurice recorded in 1969-1970, but the source appears to be anacetate, not the master tapes. The songs have never been released.

The EP has no title. The picture sleeve has the club name ‘BeeGees Information’ in large letters, ‘Maurice Gibb’under that, and the names of the songs.