Musical Icon: Bee Gees

Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb, the Bee Gees. One of the most successful and one of the very best bands of all time.

A career that spanned 6 decades and 120 million record sales. The band developed from skiffle and rock band, to a disco hit making machine. There discography is ridiculously good.

Like many people I knew the big songs from the 70s and ‘Saturday Night Fever’ those have been a part of my life since I was a child, ‘Stayin Alive’ and ‘More Than a Woman’ especially, Barry’s unique vocal is so distinctive you know it’s the Bee Gees.

As I got into my 20s I delved deeper into the bands discography and was blown away especially with the stuff from the late 60s. A period that was filled with great music, the Bee Gees definitely stand up with the music of the time. The likes of The Beatles and Rolling Stones. Songs like ‘To Love Somebody’ and ‘New York Mining Disaster 1941’ are two exceptional pieces of music. It almost sounds like a different band. Classic 60s pop songwriting. However the band wanted to evolve and they moved with the times. 70s brought disco and a rejuvenated band, they wrote one of the best selling albums of all time ‘Saturday Night Fever’ disco took over and the band received some bad press.

They continued to make music both for themselves and other artists. Writing some classic songs including ‘Islands in the Stream’ for Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. The band carried on until 2003 when Maurice passed away, Robin passed away in 2012 leaving Barry as the only surviving Bee Gee.

Why are they musical icons. The music of course, they have written and recorded some of the best songs of the 60s, 70s and 80s a band that was never scared of change. A band never pinned down a scene or trend. Three unbelievable songwriters.

Robin, Maurice, Barry have a seat at the table with the very best songwriters of all time.

Thank you for reading