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They of the funky falsettos
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The Bee Gees gave hit after hit in their glorious career
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EVOCATIVE HARMONIES Brothers Maurice (L), Barry (C) and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees
Brothers Barry (vocals, guitar), Maurice (vocals, bass, keyboards) and Robin (vocals) Gibb were born in England but migrated to Australia, where they first signed up with Festival Records in 1962. With their own material, they released a dozen singles and two albums, marked by their high harmonies that largely went unnoticed.
On relocating to Old Blighty, Spicks and the Specks zoomed straight to the top of the U.K. charts. The trio then roped in Vince Melouney (guitar) and Colin Peterson (drums), both Australians. With new manager Robert Stigwood, sourced from the Beatles' NEMS Enterprises, their first hit in the U.S. was New York Mining Disaster 1941. The track's striking and evocative harmony garnered a premature comparison with the Beatles. Many of the 14 songs, all composed by the brothers, from the album Bee Gees First, including Cucumber Castle, Please Read Me and Holiday, were winners.
The moving Massachusetts topped the U.K. charts in 1967, highlighting their ability to arrange their melodies with a touch of the sublime. In tune with the flux of the times, the Bee Gees forayed into pyschedelia in the footsteps of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. While on this vein, their double album Odessa was a disaster commercially. Quick on the comeback trail, I've Gotta Get a Message to You, a touching ballad of a condemned prisoner's final hour, rocketed them to the peak of the U.K. charts and a place among the U.S. top 20. At the turn of the Swinging 60s, the band was caught up in the lifestyle excesses of their musical peers, dissent breaking the brotherhood and Robin embarking on a solo career with limited success.
A few lawsuits later, they reunited in 1970 and announced their arrival with two major American hits, Lonely Days and How Can You Mend a Broken heart. When they moved to Miami, Stigwood sought five songs for a John Travolta movie on the Brooklyn disco scene. The Bee Gees duly delivered the soundtrack for the film "Saturday Night Fever". Spirits Having Flown came in 1979 and went platinum, containing three No. 1 hits in Too Much Heaven, Tragedy, and Love You Inside Out. The band weathered a constant and career-long critical backlash but was shaken by the death of their youngest brother Andy Gibb in 1988. Less than a fortnight later, Maurice died of a heart attack, making his brothers announce the `retirement' of the name Bee Gees.
A. GEORGE ANTONY
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