With the
sad news earlier today that founding member of the Bee Gees Robin Gibb has died, we've decided to offer our own meager tribute to the pop music legend by running through the best songs released by the Bee Gees, because after all, as Gary Barlow tweeted this morning "his music will outlive us all". In a career spanning six decades, and including over 200 million record sales, Robin Gibb - whose death after a long battle with cancer was announced by his family yesterday - and his brothers formed one of the cornerstones of the British music industry with instantly memorable songs and some classic albums including the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. The Bee Gees work and success saw them inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1997, but Robin also had a successful solo career away from his twin Andy and brother Maurice. A statement posted by Sony Music said: "Rest in peace, Robin Gibb. Thanks for the music." And here's the best of it...
10. Massachusetts
Released in 1967, as part of the Horizontal album (though originally intended for The Seekers), this song was the first UK Number One for the brothers and has since gone on to be one of the best selling singles of all time. A lead singing role for Robin Gibb on "Massachusetts" gave the song his usual touch of sweet pathos. http://youtu.be/AbkbGF27JyY
9. How Deep Is Your Love?
Taken from Trafalgar, "How Deep Is Your Love?" was supposedly originally offered to Andy Williams, before being released in 1971. It hit number one in the US, but didn't even chart in the UK, though numerous cover versions have gone on to enjoy success since then. http://youtu.be/XpqqjU7u5Yc
8. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?
Another song which takes advantage of the tender falsetto that the Gibb brothers made their most iconic facet, and continued the rich vein of tender, broken hearted love songs that formed a subgenre of their main body of work. http://youtu.be/ovASg2ewwMw
7. Tragedy
If you can ignore the horrendous, but popular Steps version, "Tragedy" is one of the finest disco tunes ever released, and as a mark of its quality made it to number one in both the UK and the US, where it knocked fellow disco classic "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor off the top spot. It is an infectious song - a sign of quality which invariably also opens a song to derision when its catchiness becomes perceived as annoying - and is almost impossible not to sing along to, falsetto voice and all. http://youtu.be/dga0gGXg9nA
6. You Win Again
While the majority of the Bee Gees most popular work came in the 70s, this 1987 classic offered something of a new direction for the Gibb brothers, and confirmed them as the first UK act to score a number one in three consecutive decades. http://youtu.be/QRXK4UcxhTE What will be number one? Read on to find out!