The Story of The Bee Gees
Children of the World
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- $26.99
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- $26.99
Publisher Description
A dazzling biography of one of the bestselling bands of all time, told with brilliant insight by renowned pop music scholar Bob Stanley.
The world is full of Bee Gees fans. Yet for a band of such renown, little is known about Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb.
People tend to have their favorite era of the Bee Gees's career, but many listeners are also conscious that there is more to uncover about the band. This book will provide the perfect solution, by pulling together every fascinating strand to tell the story of a group with the imagination of the Beatles, the pop craft of ABBA, the drama of Fleetwood Mac, and the emotional heft of the Beach Boys.
Uniquely, the Bee Gees's tale spans the entire modern pop era—they are the only group to have scored British top-ten singles in the '60s, '70s, '80s, and ‘90s—and includes world-conquering disco successes like 'Stayin' Alive' and 'More Than a Woman', both from the soundtrack of the hit film Saturday Night Fever.
But the Bee Gees's extraordinary career was one of highs and lows. From a vicious but temporary split in 1969 to several unreleased albums, disastrous TV and film appearances, and a demoralising cabaret season, the group weren't always revelling in the glow of million-selling albums, private jets, and UNICEF concerts. Yet, even in the Gibbs' darkest times, their music was rarely out of the charts, as sung by the likes of Al Green, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, and Destiny's Child.
Capturing the human story at the heart of the Bee Gees, this book is a lyrical and stylish read, delighting hardcore fans with its details while engaging casual pop readers who simply want to know more about this important and enigmatic group.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Music journalist Stanley (Let's Do It!) aims to restore the "misfit" Bee Gees to "their rightful place at the very top of pop's table" in this rewarding deep dive. "Inventive, shape-shifting, writers of death-haunted melodies, with voices that sounded like no one else," the Bee Gees kicked off their career early, with English brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb recording their first single, "The Battle of the Blue and the Grey," in 1963, when Barry was 15 and the twins just 13. After Vince Melouney and Colin Peterson joined the group, the Bee Gees climbed British charts in the late 1960s with such hits as "New York Mining Disaster 1941." Still, they struggled to sustain their success until producer Arif Mardin repackaged their sound to emphasize Barry's falsetto in the early 1970s, giving the music a sexier feel. In 1976, "You Should be Dancing" catapulted the group into the disco stratosphere, an ascendancy cemented by their inclusion on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in 1977. With the group considered passé by the early 1980s, the Gibb brothers worked as producers and lyricists for such performers as Barbra Streisand and Dionne Warwick. The band reunited after younger brother Andy's 1988 death and hit the charts again in the late 1980s and '90s. Stanley meticulously investigates the chart-busting Bee Gees' paradoxical "outsider status," contending that it partly resulted from a "lack of worldliness" born of their "child-star upbringing," and gives welcome due to their idiosyncratic lyrics and lush harmonies. The band's devotees will celebrate this definitive biography.
