The Ultimate Biography of The Bee Gees

by Hector Cook

  But the nightmare was far from over. Ronald Selle appealed the decision. There would be yet another trial, yet more attempts to discredit them.

  * * *

  In 1983, The Bee Gees finished out their recording contract to RSO with five songs contributed to the soundtrack for the sequel to Saturday Night Fever, Staying Alive. Once again starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, the film was not destined to be a blockbuster like its predecessor.

  “My first impression when I first heard about it happening was, naturally, we were very knocked out that John was going to do it again with our music,” Maurice said, “and also the fact that Sylvester Stallone was directing was an added bonus. The people involved in this picture now … this is obviously going to be in a completely different direction, and the script, when we eventually read it, it read like a Rocky script, it was bang bang bang. I mean, a lot of people refer to it as ‘Rocky In Legwarmers’, because John … built himself up and Sylvester really worked hard with him for about three months before the film … and he looks great in it.”

  Robin Gibb, in Europe on a promotional tour, said, “The new music, of course, is different now. It’s 1983 now and probably our new music would not have worked in 1978. The new film Staying Alive is nothing like Saturday Night Fever. It has John Travolta in it and Bee Gees music, but it’s not a disco film.”

  In retrospect, it is easy to find fault with the project. Perhaps the problem lay in the fact that five years was too long a gap between the two films. Possibly Saturday Night Fever just captured the mood of its time, and that time had passed. Maybe it was a problem with the choice of director for the film, Sylvester Stallone. Whatever the reasons, Staying Alive as a film just didn’t seem to work, and as a vehicle for the music of the Bee Gees, it was even less effective.

  While the music of Sylvester’s brother, Frank Stallone, a heretofore unknown in the music world, featured prominently in the film, The Bee Gees’ tracks were lost, not so much edited as merely chopped.

  “Even still today,” Maurice mused, “the directors and producers still regard music as second class and regard it as something that’s not important … ‘Let’s work that out last, we’ll get all this done first,’ and then they think, ‘Huh, what about the music?’ ”

  “There is a sort of a barrier [between the composer and the filmmaker],” Barry added, “and it would be nice one day if that could be actually overcome. If the people who write the music for films and the people who make the films could actually sit down at the same table long before the film gets made, and discuss how the music will be treated or how the film will be made compared to the music.”

  The brothers rapidly disassociated themselves not only with the latest project, but also from the film which started the whole disco phenomenon.

  Robin insisted, “We didn’t think there should be a follow-up at all. The moment had passed. Kids know when you’re overdoing it; they know when they’re being patronised. Still, the original script wasn’t as bad as the movie turned out, so we agreed to some songs. But then it became clear it was Sylvester and Frank Stallone’s movies, so we gave ’em what we had and got out. It was a dreadful movie. Sylvester Stallone should never direct a musical. Gone With The Wind had a better musical pace than Staying Alive.”

  These five new Bee Gees songs were essentially the next Barry-Albhy-Karl project, as again all three brothers wrote the songs to be handed over to the production team. Robin and Maurice are barely noticeable on the recordings, which feature Barry on lead and backing vocals, together with the house band. This set of songs is better than those on Living Eyes but the film did not do well, and even if it had done, the songs are not well used within it.

  The lead single, ‘The Woman In You’, is a return to the funk sound Barry had avoided with Streisand and Warwick, and the song itself is more like the songs Barry wrote with Albhy. Only the harmonies in the chorus sound much like The Bee Gees that people remembered from Saturday Night Fever. The second single was the quiet ballad, ‘Someone Belonging To Someone’, another long and winding melody sung by Barry. The slow and fast dance grooves respectively of ‘I Love You Too Much’ and ‘Breakout’ deserved a better fate than they got. The second to last track on side one, ‘Life Goes On’, is a bouncy little pop song that’s pleasant enough on the ear but lacks that certain something to justify its worldwide release as a single, although it found its way onto seven-inch format in Japan.

  A drastically edited version of ‘Stayin’ Alive’ finished The Bee Gees’ involvement on the album. Its inclusion appeared to be something of an afterthought, perhaps in recognition of its importance as the title track of the film.

  Despite the negativity, the first single, ‘The Woman In You’ was released in May, 1983, and started out strong. Always the Gibb with an eye on the charts, Robin told interviewer Louis Bakens in Holland, “The new Bee Gees’ single is out in America now, which is a very big hit, and that in just a few days. Today’s it’s [gone] from 49 to 33, and it’s going very fast. Everyone is very excited over there, and they’re counting that it is gonna be a number one there in only a few weeks’ time. ‘The Woman In You’ is the fastest breaking single. The President of Polygram in New York said the other night that it is the fastest breaking single in the last five years. It is excellent news, considering that ‘Stayin’ Alive’ went on the charts as 75, ‘Night Fever’ as 71 and ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ as 89.”

  Although it didn’t reach the expected number one spot, it was a Top 40 hit in the US, Germany and Holland, reaching number 24, 23 and 26 respectively in those countries. It was also released as a 12-inch single with a special ‘Saturday Night Mix’, a medley of Fever songs on the B-side.

  The soundtrack LP followed in June, and the film had its premiere in Los Angeles on July 11 and in New York two days later.

  The second single, the romantic ballad ‘Someone Belonging To Someone’, followed in July, inexplicably reaching only number 49 in both the UK and the USA, although it did feature in the Dutch charts in the number 30 spot.

  * * *

  In late 1982, Robin began work on his first “solo” albumin more than 12 years. He had been disappointed that prior commitments prevented Arif Mardin from producing the LP, but rather than work with anyone else, he opted to co-produce the disc with Maurice.

  Although billed as a Robin Gibb album, this is primarily a duo record by Robin and Maurice, who wrote all the songs together. Maurice’s extensive work as songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, and back-up singer should rate him a co-credit but he chose — characteristically — to put himself in the background. Of the former Bee Gees band, Dennis Bryon, Alan Kendall, and the Boneroo Horns reappeared, along with “house band” player George Bitzer. Notably, however, Barry, Albhy, and Karl had nothing at all to do with this record.

  The lead single ‘Juliet’, released in June, packs everything into it to make a hit: the pseudo ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ opening, the dance beat, the high but not falsetto vocal, a stutter on “J-J-Juliet,” and after the second chorus, a bridge section (“close your eyes …”) rocketing through a new melody in different vocal styles before bringing it home for one last chorus. And it worked, at least in Europe, where “Euro-pop” was being born from the ashes of disco. “The story is about a man, really having his fantasies. It’s a love fantasy and she doesn’t really exist in the song,” he said. With a romantic video for the song filmed in Sussex, the single topped the German charts, although it reached only number 94 in the UK.

  The lively title song ‘How Old Are You’ was also issued as a single in October in some parts of the world, and the enjoyable video, set in a girls’ boarding school, mocks the singer’s melodramatic situation of finding himself with an underage girl. Robin starred not only as the schoolteacher, but he took on the George Cole type role of a “spiv” as well. Apparently, Dwina makes a cameo appearance as a hockey girl too, although she disguises herself well if indeed she is there. “It’s cheeky … it’s not a fantasy,
” Robin said. “I think it’s a lot of fun. I just liked the St. Trinian’s idea of the English school.” The song reached number 37 in Germany, but only 93 in Britain.

  A better follow-up single was ‘Another Lonely Night In New York’, released January of the following year. Although the melody owes a glaring debt to Foreigner’s 1981 hit ‘Waiting For A Girl Like You’, the single, with a video incongruously filmed in Holland, reached number 16 in Germany, and number 71 in the UK. Its failure to progress higher in Britain must have disappointed Robin who aggressively promoted it with live performances on various TV shows including Cannon & Ball, The Leo Sayer Show and Rod Hull & Emu. The performance on the last named show is of particular interest, audibly at least, as the backing tape includes instrumentation which would not be heard on either the single or album version.

  “The Bee Gees are not breaking up; however, it’s the Gibb brothers together that will always [have] something going on because the Gibb brothers are songwriters,” Robin clarified.

  “Even though I know I’m producing with my brother, or whatever, I see it as a team,” he said. “I don’t think you can get things done if you see yourself as a leader. You’ve got to be able to take feedback and input. Maurice is very good at that. If either one of us had an idea the other didn’t like, we’d talk about it. We could discuss it. When you’re in the studio awhile, it becomes very relaxed.”

  While How Old Are You might have some links to The Bee Gees’ more recent work, it bore no resemblance at all to its predecessor, Robin’s Reign. “I was still in my teens and I was doing stuff that was just off the wall,” he said of his first solo effort. “I wasn’t following any set musical direction at all. But I’ve matured musically and I’m developing in a certain direction. I could never have done this kind of stuff then.

  “During the years, the styles of music change. My style of music also changes because I get older. I still like a lot of black groups … I still like Smokey Robinson … and from the English new wave groups, I like Culture Club and Human League and things like that.

  “Now in our careers, we’re writing more for other artists as the Gibb brothers. There’s only a certain amount one can do writing-wise just for the entity of The Bee Gees — that doesn’t mean The Bee Gees are breaking up, it’s just that the format of The Bee Gees will be limited to less albums possibly than there were six or seven years ago.”

  How Old Are You was released in July, but Robin had doubts about issuing the LP in the States. “I was in the middle of changing labels … and I didn’t want Polygram to release it because I was not able to support it,” he explained. “I didn’t want it to come out and die without my support. I didn’t feel they had its best interests at heart. I felt it would be better if I started with a new label, and one which was more into the kind of music I was doing.” In spite of this, 40,000 copies leaked through to the US in October and most were sold.

  Although Robin made the rounds of television shows promoting the album, he insisted, “I don’t really look for a steady solo career as an artist. It’s really a project with Maurice outside The Bee Gees, but I’m not looking to be separate from The Bee Gees. My priority is still The Bee Gees.”

  * * *

  Barry was also looking towards outside projects. In late 1982, he participated in both Dynasty star Linda Evans’ International Tennis Tournament to benefit a Spina Bifida charity, and Illie Nastase’s Tournament to benefit the American Cancer Society. Barry and his wife Linda — note the subtle change late in life to the spelling of her Christian name — also flew with Kenny Rogers in Kenny’s own plane to his home to discuss the possibility of writing and producing an album for him. “Kenny Roger’s private jet was a BAC 111 with about 20 seats in white kid leather,” Tom Kennedy recalled. “He did live a rather opulent lifestyle.”

  Kenny had approached Barry, asking for a song, and as Barry explained, it snowballed from there. “Someone may say, ‘Would you do a couple of tracks?’, and if I really love that artist, I’d say, ‘Well, I’d actually love to do a whole project, do an album rather than just do two songs.’ Because I think an album has an identity, and I think you work for the whole identity and you do it as a project … Then your heart’s in it, and it’s better than doing just two songs. I don’t think it works otherwise.”

  Although the visit was successful in that Barry and Kenny were able to agree to the project, for Linda the visit had a painful outcome. An afternoon of go-karting resulted in a broken arm. “It was one of those things … Odysseys, they’re called, with a roll cage. She turned it over and put her hand out to save herself, which was apparently quite a bad move,” Tom explained.

  For the casual listener of the late Seventies and early Eighties, familiar only with the falsetto-driven R&B hit singles, the pairing of the country music star and The Bee Gees may have raised many an eyebrow, although long-term Bee Gees’ fans would already have known about Barry’s predilection for country music. In fact, earlier that year, Barry had even received a BMI Country Citation of Achievement for composing ‘Rest Your Love On Me’. Kenny Rogers, seeking to broaden his image, maintained, “You have to stick your neck out and hope that your audience will stretch out their musical tastes with you. Just the thought of me working with The Bee Gees has to make people a little curious about these two different musical styles.”

  Once the suggestion was made, there was never any doubt that the project would come to fruition, with the team of Gibb, Galuten and Richardson producing. “Barry wanted to work with Kenny,” Albhy explained. “The basic rule of thumb was, if there was anybody who was inspirational for Barry to work with, then it would be great to work with them. Everything was tied to Barry writing great songs. If Barry was inspired that was all that was needed. If he wasn’t, you were wasting your time.”

  “We’ve been very fortunate because being songwriters first, we’ve been able to adapt ourselves to different people like Kenny Rogers,” Maurice explained.

  The project was done around the same time as Staying Alive. The same methodology was used as for Streisand and Warwick, although here Maurice plays rhythm guitar on some songs, and he and Robin even sing back-up on one, ‘Living With You’. Viewed as a whole, the project was much less successful than its comparable predecessors.

  “We sent all the songs and when he came to start singing, he didn’t know the words,” Maurice complained.

  Barry agreed that it was a drawback to Kenny’s performance. “The fact that they have to have a piece of paper in front of them, and they’ve been working on this album with you for three months, and they haven’t actually learnt the songs. You think … if I was the artist and you were the producer, I’d be at home memorising these words and making sure that I didn’t have to read when I sang ’cause it’s a different thing when you read and sing.”

  According to Albhy, Kenny had some difficulty interpreting the songs in his own distinctive style. The set of demos Barry and Albhy made for this album has surfaced on bootleg CD, and for all its rough edges, it is much more enjoyable to listen to than the finished album. The exception is ‘Islands In The Stream’, sung in duet by Kenny and Dolly Parton, which is not only the artistic highlight but was a huge chart success as well in both country and pop.

  The only song by Barry and Albhy, ‘This Woman’, was a follow-up single and reached number 23 in the USA charts although it failed to make any impact in Europe. ‘Evening Star’ by Barry and Maurice might be the best of the album cuts, possibly because it uses country musicians instead of the house band and has The Gatlin Brothers singing back-up. Barry’s demos of ‘You And I’, ‘Hold Me’, and ‘Eyes That See In The Dark’ show how good the songs themselves are.

  Albhy’s memories of the album are coloured by the fact that it was not a particularly pleasant experience for him. In past productions, the demos would be made to be used as guides for the finished song, to be replaced by tracks recorded by session musicians. He felt that in his performances, Kenny was trying to duplicate B
arry’s voice on the demos, rather than allowing his own style to come through. Always forthright, Albhy voiced his concerns to Kenny.

  “It just was not Kenny Rogers at all, I thought … so I was candid,” he recalled, “and I said to Kenny, perhaps not as tactful then as I would learn to be later, but nonetheless I said, ‘You need to sing it like you.’ And all I know is his manager came in and spoke to Dick and said, ‘You know, we think it would be better off if Albhy wasn’t there when Kenny sings his vocals.’“ Albhy claims he spent much of the remainder of the Eyes That See In The Dark sessions wind-surfing.

  Eyes That See In The Dark was released in August in the States and two months later in Britain. The first single was the title track, which failed to break into the Top 40 in either Britain or the United States, reaching only number 61 and number 79 on the respective charts of each.

  While the album’s sales overall were disappointing, the next single, ‘Islands In The Stream’, became the biggest selling single in RCA’s (Elvis Presley’s label) long and successful history, and the biggest country hit ever, eventually reaching platinum status. It was the number one single for two weeks in a row in the US charts, as well as achieving that ranking in the US Country charts for two weeks and the American adult contemporary charts for four weeks. It was also a massive number one in both Australia and New Zealand, and reached number seven in Britain. Although seen as a country styled song, it initially had a very different slant. “We wrote it as a black-feeling song. It could easily have been done by Marvin Gaye,” said Robin.

  “We were writing a song for Diana Ross,” Barry revealed, “but she never got round to hearing it and Kenny wanted a song and we came up with this one. It was written as an R&B song so it just shows you the relationship between the two types of songs that it could, in fact, turn into a country song very easily. It has become the most successful country song in history, which is overwhelming in itself.”