The hits of the Bee Gees 1967 - 1969, part 2

Today we continue with the string of hits of the Bee Gees in the second half of the 1960s. There's till some great stuff coming up, I promise you. Aside from that, the pace of the singles, the albums accompanying them, it all suggests the band was writing day and night and using all other time, besides doing promo tours, eating and sleeping, on recording new songs in the studio..

Jumbo/The Singer Sang His Song (1968/2)

I remember liking this song a lot but forgot all about until I ran into the single second hand somewhere in the past decades. In the spring of 1968 there were several fantastic singles. 'Summertime Blues', 'Words', 'Lazy Sunday', 'Lady Madonna', 'Jumping Jack Flash' and Jumbo. Psychedelia had made its way to the band clotheswise, just look at the sleeve pictures of the band's singles, musically that certainly is far less the case, barring the lead guitar and mellotron on 'World'. Jumbo certainly is a psychedelic single; although the sleeve is no longer. Vince Melouney's lead guitar is totally trippy. With the song Bee Gees scored, again, an easy top 2 hit single in NL, which is a bit surprising, listening to this trippy song and comparing it to the band's singles from 1967. Perhaps that is the reason why it is the only single with a double a-side, the far more Bee Gees sounding song The Singer Sang His Song. The record company not really believing in the song. It may be explained by the fact that the band was so popular it could release anything for a while. I can't remember ever having heard the b-side at the time. Jumbo was the hit alright and in 2021 still a good song and no, not because I still think it is about a certain elephant called Dumbo.

I've Gotta Get A Message To You (1968/3)

And now for what always was my favourite Bee Gees single. Hearing them one by one I can ascertain whether that is still the case. Although a kind of ballad, it is the most powerful song of Bee Gees. Once again the lead guitar is allowed to go off in the chorus. Also for the first time the band shows what it can really do with harmonies. For the first time the band gets truly inventive here. Great harmonies, counter melodies and the three brothers fully going for it and not just a meagre ahh in the background. There's a great bass part played by Maurice as well. This is a band and it has gotten to be very good at what it does. A shame that the five piece is already nearly over here. So overhearing it all, my mind has not changed, this is my favourite.

I Started A Joke (1969/3)

Having reviewed a punkrock cover version by Kid Gulliver just a few weeks ago. I wonder how the original will do. It is one of those songs that are with me like forever. Where I have no doubt at all that I know from its release onwards. And it being the new Bee Gees single, it had to be good. Knowing it for certain, because of that sentiment at the time. I was to young to be a fan but certainly waiting for each new single, as I had come to understand that concept in the fall of 1968. I realised that new music was added to what already existed. That is a huge difference with the songs before that. They were there but not conceived by me as "new", just there.

I Started A Joke is a dragon of song, as we call it in NL with the dragon part not being positive or representing strength. A dragon of a song had this not been a Bee Gees song. It is the kind of sentimentality that comes with paintings with a little gypsy kid on them, with a tear rolling out of one of its eyes, that were so extremely in fashion about the same time. Had it not been a Bee Gees single. I can't help liking it. Robin sings it with all his heart and it shows. The prominent acoustic guitar is Vince Melouney's last contribution to the band. He had left the band, for reasons unknown to me, before the release as a single. Another top 3 hit was a fact, but not before much longer the whole Bee Gees were about to unravel.

First Of May (1969/2)

A voice, Barry Gibb, a piano, Maurice and an orchestra conducted by Bill Sheppard, that is what makes First of May. Even more sentimental than 'I Started A Joke' and yet one of those beautiful Bee Gees ballads that spells, big hit. Also the reason that Robin Gibb left the band, as he wanted his song, 'Limelight' to be the a-side. That's the stuff big bands break over, remember their ages, 22 and 20. There was also a story of one brother shooting the other in the stomach at the time. If there's any truth in that, I don't know.

Robin started a short solo career with one number 1 hit, 'Saved By The Bell' and another one later in 1969 before rejoining until the day he died. First Of May simply is a beautiful ballad, there's no other word for it.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow (1969/3)

I know this was a single but I have hardly any recollection of the song. I'm listening to it right now and it is not as if recollections come jumping up and down in my mind. It simply has not made that much of an impression it seems, except for Barry singing "Tomorrow". Listening to it, it is a powerful record but also a bit of both sort of Bee Gees singles. A bit 'Words' and a bit 'World'. The dark piano is there, the orchestra is there and the background vocal aahhss. The intro certainly does not tell the whole story of Tomorrow Tomorrow. It is perhaps the most solid of all the singles, the least poppy. For the chorus it all drops away, making it the cleanest Bee Gees production. Before the orchestra comes in full force. Bill Sheppard can be called the sixth Bee Gee with a reason. Tomorrow Tomorrow is a song that in 1969 perhaps made a short lived impression but also was one of those Bee Gees singles that just disappeared because there were so much more famous songs to chose from. I'm pleasantly surprised in 2021. Great trumpet part too.

Don't Forget To Remember (1969/1)

And here's the final number one single for the band, until 1978 that is. At the time I had no idea of course but we're listening to a country song alright. At the time it was the new Bee Gees single, so it was good. In 2021, and several decades before it, I simply have discarded it as a terrible song. I'm afraid I will never forget the song but it is the only one of the hits presented here, I would not mind forgetting. It's simply to cheesy.

Next Colin Petersen left the band. He can still be heard on Bee Gees second hit of 1970, the dreadful 'I.O.I.O.'. The story is Petersen was fired after calling out the role of Robert Stigwood and the power the manager had over the band, its production, ownership of music and managing. It was all in one hand and Petersen had his doubts. The rest is history.

I'm stopping here, because this series so far is about sixties bands, bands that often did not continue their respective success in the decades after it. Bee Gees did. The band's last chart entry was in 1998 in NL, spanning 31 years. As I wrote at the start of this exploration into the distant past, I have a hard time comparing the band to any other band, except the Dutch The Cats. Listen to singles like 'Lea', 'Why' and 'Marian' and you'll know why. In these few years in the late 1960s the Bee Gees cranked out a huge number of hits that all, except one, made the top 3 or higher, that is an exceptional level of consistency not matched by many, if any bands of the time. In other words the Bee Gees are a part of the 60s pop pantheon.

Wout de Natris