The Bee Gees
I used to make fun of the Bee Gees when I was in middle school and high school. They had high girly voices. It was cool to make fun of them because of their falsetto, but secretly I liked their music. (I also like Barry Manilow and The Carpenters.) My sister snuck me into the movie Saturday Night Fever and I instantly became a fan of the Bee Gees’ music. FYI, Saturday Night Fever is not a great movie to see for your very first R rated movie. I was pretty shocked at what my innocent young self saw on the big screen.
The Bee Gees were comprised of brothers Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb. They had been in the business for close to 50 years when Maurice died in 2003. That’s a long time. They weren’t just around either. They had at least one top ten hit in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s. I don’t really know any of their stuff from the 60’s, but I’m very familiar with their stuff from the 70’s as the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever is like the best album ever!
Saturday Night
The Bee Gees weren’t even part of Saturday Night Fever in the beginning. John Travolta said that he was dancing to Boz Scaggs and Stevie Wonder. The Bee Gees were commissioned to write songs for the film which they claim they did in one weekend. Uhh…..really? The soundtrack ended up selling over 20 million copies and was the top selling album in history until Michael Jackson’s Thriller came along six years later. Saturday Night Fever was the best-selling soundtrack of all time until The Bodyguard (Whitney Houston) happened in 1992. Saturday Night Fever had a longer title so was shortened to Saturday Night. (Isn’t that a Bay City Rollers song?) Because of the song Night Fever, the title of the movie was changed to Saturday Night Fever.
After Saturday Night Fever, The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton made a movie. The movie was Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and was inspired by the Beatles album. The movie tanked big at the box office. One critic said it was a film with a dangerous resemblance to wallpaper. Hahahaha! You know what? Screw the critics. I liked the movie. It had good looking guys (Frampton is gorgeous!) and great songs. Oh, it also had Leif Garrett and a ton of others in the closing scene.
Andy Gibb
The Bee Gees little brother Andy Gibb came along about this time (late 70’s) and I was a fan. My first concert I ever went to was Andy Gibb. So my first R rated movie was a Bee Gees thing and my first live concert was Andy Gibb. That’s cool. The night of the Andy concert was so exciting. He was wearing tight yellow pants and no shirt. Enough said. Unfortunately, Andy died in 1988. He was my favorite Gibb.
My second favorite Gibb, Maurice, died in 2003. Barry was my next favorite Gibb but he’s still alive. Robin passed away in 2012. At 72, Barry is the only surviving Gibb. This makes me sad.
The Brothers Gibb left us with a lot of great music. I think I’ll go put some on now. Thanks for being here. Please come back again soon.