Legacy of the Brothers Gibb

When you think of the BeeGees (pictured above, from left to right: brothers Robin, Barry and Maurice Gibb), chances are good that the image in your mind is of a younger John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, strutting to the strains of "Stayin' Alive" or ruling the dance floor with "You Should Be Dancing". That movie memorably captured the zeitgeist of the late-70's urban disco scene, and the unprecedented success of its soundtrack (which would be the world's biggest-selling soundtrack until 1992's The Bodyguard) eclipsed everything the BeeGees had done before and since. As a result, many people are not aware that their remarkable career actually spans five decades, 220 million records, 9 Grammys, 5 American Music Awards, a 1997 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction...and then some.

People tend to be familiar with the BeeGees' 70's hits which include "Jive Talkin'", "Stayin' Alive", and "Night Fever", to name a few. However, these songs just scratch the surface of their music. Earlier hits include "New York Mining Disaster 1941", "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart", and "Words". Unfortunately, when disco died in the early-80's, so did the mainstream popularity of the BeeGees in America. There came to be a stigma attached to disco that carried over to them as well. Ironically, they had never set out to write disco music specifically, but yet they are closely associated with that era. They continued to record new music, and despite lackluster sales in the U.S. during the 80's and 90's, they remained popular throughout much of the world. Their biggest U.S. hit since disco was 1989's "One", which reached Billboard's top ten.

In addition to their own extraordinary recording success, the BeeGees also wrote songs for other artists that became major hits: "Grease" for Frankie Valli, "Islands In The Stream" for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, "Heartbreaker" for Dionne Warwick, "Guilty" for Barbra Streisand, "Chain Reaction" for Diana Ross, "Emotion" for Samantha Sang (later recorded by Destiny's Child), "Immortality" for Celine Dion, and others. Additionally, the BeeGees' music has been covered by a number of artists over the years (Elvis Presley, Al Green, Janis Joplin, Elton John, Eric Clapton, etc.) as well as sampled by many hip-hop artists. They had a younger brother, Andy Gibb, whom they also wrote songs for. He was never in the band but had a string of solo hits (including "Shadow Dancing" and "I Just Want To Be Your Everything") as a teen idol in the 70's. Andy died of an inflamed heart in 1988.

The band released a greatest hits album in November of 2001 which, unbeknownst to them at the time, would be their final release and also a fitting one. In January of 2003, the BeeGees phenomenal career came to a sad and abrupt end when Maurice died of a strangulated intestine. After his death, Barry and Robin decided to retire the band's name in his honor. Since that time, both have worked on solo projects: Robin recorded a live album with the Frankfurt Neue Philharmonic Orchestra, and Barry wrote songs for Barbra Streisand's album Guilty Pleasures. More recently, Barry was a coach on season 6 of American Idol, which reintroduced the timeless music of the BeeGees to a new era.

To this day, the careers of Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb are still assumed by the majority to have been relegated to the disco era. It is this enduring fallacy that continues to cause so many people to miss out on the true scope and quality of their exquisite body of work, a vast treasure trove of timeless music which offers a bounty of rewards for those willing to dig a little deeper. After all, the BeeGees defined much more than a Saturday Night; they defined generations.

On a side note: their name comes from the initials "B.G.", but contrary to popular belief, those letters did not originally stand for "Brothers Gibb". Rather, they stand for the names of two people: Bill Goode, a racetrack promoter, who introduced the band to Bill Gates, a radio DJ. Here is a live performance from 1997 of one of the BeeGees' many cherished love songs, "One". It was recorded at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas during one of their most famous concerts, and Olivia Newton-John was in attendance.