Barry Gibb: Getting his due (or disco doesn’t suck)

Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees.

Source: https://www.discogs.com/artist/151481-Barry-Gibb/

(May be subject to copyright)

It was such a big part of the 1970s then it was just gone. The backlash against it may have been the biggest before all the vitriol poured on Nickleback. Yet, the club and dance music that emerged in the ‘80s and ‘90s seemed to bear a striking similarity to disco, although that just seemed taboo to say.

I was thinking about all the anti-disco propaganda earlier this week when I heard Barry Gibb was part of this year’s “Kennedy Centre Honours”.

My first thought was, “Why has this taken so long?’, then I realized Barry Gibb and his groundbreaking band of brothers the “Bee Gees”, may have borne the brunt of that anti-disco feeling.

I wondered if it was the last bastion of that feeling, as I reflected on their music.

Sounds of "Saturday Night Fever"
The Bee Gees had been playing and singing music starting in around 1957 when they were growing up in England. They would move to Australia in 1958, and continued on their musical career.

Their big break came when they agreed to do the soundtrack for “Saturday Night Fever”, a movie that came out in 1977  about the disco craze starring John Travolta.

The songs are iconic. The first release from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack was “How Deep is Your Love” and it went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. “More Than a Woman” followed, peaking at number six on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. Then an avalanche of hits followed.

“Stayin’ Alive” stayed at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for four consecutive weeks. “If I Can’t Have You” was the “B” side of “Stayin’ Alive” for the Bee Gees. However, a version recorded by Yvonne Elliman was released as the fourth single off the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack and went all the way to number one. “Night Fever” followed and spent eight straight weeks at number one in 1978, the most of any single that year.

The Bee Gees went on to win five Grammys over two years for the album – Album of the Year; Producer of the Year; Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals twice, once in 1978 for “How Deep is Your Love" and once in 1979 for “Stayin’ Alive”; and Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices for “Stayin’ Alive”.

Backlash
The movie “Saturday Night Fever” is just a bit before my time, so all I recall is that everyone was talking about it, and it was the movie John Travolta left “Welcome Back, Kotter” for.

Unlike a lot of music of their contemporaries, I never heard the Bee Gees or the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack when I got into music in 1984.

Instead, the odd time I heard about the Bee Gees in the 1980s was followed by some variation of “Disco sucks.”

By virtue of the fact they were never on the radio, those around me kept saying disco sucks, and I was just getting into music, I bought into the hype. Initially, I didn’t give disco a chance.

However, as I got more and more into music, I wanted to branch out. Ultimately, I bought the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack on vinyl at a garage sale. I don’t recall listening to it then, but I eventually did give their music a chance and I have to say it – I like it as much or more than most of its contemporaries.

Family time
My Aunt Monica is my godmother, and she has always taken the role very seriously. Every time she came to visit, she always had something for me. One time, she came to the farm and had a present for me – a vinyl record of the Sesame Street version of the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack called “Sesame Street Fever“. It had Grover as John Travolta and Ernie, Bert and Cookie Monster as the Bee Gees.

It was around that time my Mom filled me in some more history. It may have actually been while I was looking at that record.

Back then, there was this singer named Andy Gibb I had heard of. I used to peek in on my sister when she was reading in her bedroom. One day I did and she was singing along to the radio. I asked who was singing. “Andy Gibb,” she said. I always remember that because I liked the song. I also learned he was dating Victoria Principal, who played Pam Ewing on “Dallas”, a very popular nighttime soap opera we watched.

Anyway, Mom told me Andy Gibb was the younger brother of the Bee Gees. When I asked my sister, she told me the Bee Gees were all brothers – Maurice, Robin, and Barry.

Resurgence
I think what really made me appreciate the Bee Gees was something that happened in 1997. I was listening to the radio in Edmonton, and I heard this song that sounded suspiciously like the Bee Gees. However, I dismissed that outright because, in my mind, the Bee Gees and disco were dead. Again, I could not have been more wrong.

The song was called “Alone” and the harmonies just touched my heart. Wikipedia reveals the Bee Gees had been doing well in the rest of the world, but success eluded them in North America – until “Alone”. It peaked at number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number eight on the Adult Contemporary charts while in Canada it hit number one on the Adult Contemporary and number 20 on the Top Singles charts.

Parting thoughts
Barry Gibb wrote all those songs for the Bee Gees, making him one of the most prolific songwriters ever. Wikipedia reveals in 1977, Gibb saw five of his songs simultaneously enter the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and, for one week, four of the top five songs were written by him. He is also the only songwriter in history to write four successive number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100. He has had number one songs in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Overall, he has written or co-written 16 Billboard Hot 100 number one singles.

With his brothers he was inducted into the Songwriter Hall of Fame in 1994; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002. He was awarded a knighthood in 2018.

The last hold out seemed to be the “Kennedy Centre Honours”.

I am glad Barry Gibb got his due there too.