One of tonight's thrift acquisitions (see "the Traveling Turntable" thread in "Turntables and Tape") is "Best of The Bee Gees" on Atco, 1969. Obviously, this was long before that pox that was the "Saturday Night Fever" part of the career of Bros. Gibb.

One forgets all too easily how talented these Aussies were before glitter, long hair, bell bottom white trousers and screaming falsettos set to a disco beat ruined them.

Every track on this collection was penned by the boys...who incidentally look very young and....British, even though they're technically not.

In a way, it's sad that it took schlock like SNF to garner worldwide acceptance and big sales for these lads. Great stuff on this collection. :thmbsp:

Most of we "thinking Aussies" were quite happy to claim the Gibb boys as ours until SNF. Then we were happy to remember that they were really poms. :D

Ah, you've found one of my favorite albums. I've made a bunch of people listen to it and they're at first pretty skeptical of what's about to assault their ears..then it begins to spin and play and the shock takes over. "This is the BeeGees?"

-john

Thats the Bee Gees that i prefer to listen to...the pre-SNF stuff. I have the Best of album also. There were three volumes to that series. Great stuff!
-Tony

Hi Sansui Louie,

Excellent LP and one of my favorite Bee Gees LPs of all. I recommend getting "Bee Gees 1st", "Idea" and "Horizontal" since they are loaded with fine melodies. The originals are on Polydor UK and the US originals are on Atco here. The new Reprise reissues are excellent and contain Mono and Stereo mixes and alternate/unreleased tracks. The Reprise set is also available on vinyl to boot.

Most of we "thinking Aussies" were quite happy to claim the Gibb boys as ours until SNF. Then we were happy to remember that they were really poms. :D

But the brothers of Gibb are in fact refugees from sunny Manchester, England!:D

And while not the best of the Bee Gees work, the SNF sndtrk, never turned my stomach to listen to.
They would do far worse than SNF, in a few short years. Evergreen, anyone?

Have to agree, the SNF years to me weren't so bad...It's after they started to release stuff like "He's A Liar"....That "Living Eyes" and "Stayin Alive" soundtrack weren't that great. However my favorite Bee Gees albums are "Main Course" and "Children Of The World"

Found out that an old friend of mine is now in a Heavy Metal Bee Gees Tribute Band. Amazing!!!

http://www.myspace.com/letsmaketragedyhappen

I like all of The Bee Gees work. Very talented songwriters and great performers. It always shocks people that I like them as much as I do.

Some woman singer remarked once, how wonderful it is that the Bee Gees have done this wonderful thing, to sing like three black women.

I've liked them since the early 70s through SNF. I haven't played them in a couple of decades though, except a newer live CD which was horrendous.

I remember seeing them on Ed Sullivan as a little kid. I can't remember what song they did for the life of me, though. "I Started A Joke"? Must've been 1966-67, maybe it was '68? I can't remember.

I've always liked them ever since, (up till the early 80's anyway), though for some strange reason, as a kid I always confused them with the Monkees, go figure.

At least now, I think I can tell the difference

When I was 10 or 11, my grandma took me to Sears to spend my leaf-raking money. I bought my first two albums: Best of the Bee Gees and Revolver. Beginners luck.

One track on BBG is "To Love Somebody." It's kinda fun to contrast the BGs reading of it with Janis Joplin's version. I'll take both, thank you.

Regards,

D-Ray

I recently heard an old replay on Howard Stern, and it was the Bee Gees doing a live acoustic set, and guess what? They didn't play any of there disco crap- just the old stuff. And it was UNBELIEVABLY good! I had forgotten how good they were and how much I enjoyed their music before the disco days...:smoke:

When I was 10 or 11, my grandma took me to Sears to spend my leaf-raking money. I bought my first two albums: Best of the Bee Gees and Revolver. Beginners luck.

One track on BBG is "To Love Somebody." It's kinda fun to contrast the BGs reading of it with Janis Joplin's version. I'll take both, thank you.

Regards,

D-Ray
One of my first 20 albums, also. The Animals (Eric Burdon) did a very soulful version of "To Love Somebody".

Found out that an old friend of mine is now in a Heavy Metal Bee Gees Tribute Band. Amazing!!!

http://www.myspace.com/letsmaketragedyhappen

Thats very cool Louie disco falsetto = metal falsetto

used to be a band in Melbourne (Australia) called Heavy Denver, self explanatory

Most of we "thinking Aussies" were quite happy to claim the Gibb boys as ours until SNF. Then we were happy to remember that they were really poms. :D

And AC/DC and the Easybeats and well just about all our 1960's pop stars