Bee Gees

Heraus kam CHILDREN OF THE WORLD: Zum ersten Mal prägt Barrys Falsett den Großteil eines Albums, zum Ersten mal seit 1966 sind keine Streicher auf einem Bee Gees Album eingesetzt, zum ersten Mal arbeiten Barry Gibb, Karl Richardson und Albhy Galuten als Produktionsteam zusammen (das später für Alben wie GUILTY [Barbra Streisand] oder HEARTBREAKER [Dionne Warwick] aber auch für viele weitere Bee Gees Produktionen [z.B. Andy Gibb] verantwortlich zeichnete).
Und obwohl 'You Should Be Dancing' als die Disco-Single schlechthin gilt, ist dieses Album musikalisch interessanter und vielschichtiger (und auch besser) als der etwas alberne und kaum Ernst gemeinte Titelsong. Es überzeugt zum einen (wenig überraschend) mit großartigen Songs wie 'Love So Right', 'Can't Keep A Good Man Down', 'Love Me' oder dem grandiosen 'Boogie Child' und überrascht äußerst eindrucksvoll mit einer Produktion, die zeigt, dass die Bee Gees durch ihre Zusammenarbeit mit Arif Mardin viel dazu gelernt hatten. (Im Übrigen dokumentiert CHILDREN OF THE WORLD die hohe Qualität der Band, die die Bee Gees in der zweiten Hälfte der 70er Jahre zur Seite hatten).

Ein musikalisch allgemein unterschätztes Album, das im Übrigen ein Mega Seller war. Bis dahin war es das bestverkaufte Album der Bee Gees und prägte deren Image auf Jahre.

Self Produced Masterpiece!      5 von 5 Punkten
After the enormous come-back sucess of "Main Course", the Gibbs' followed with this album and the #1 'across the charts' hit "You Should Be Dancing". Arif Mardin could not produce for them again, due to record contractual conflicts. But, at the same time, Billboard magazine had just started a "dance" chart and this single topped it the summer of 1976. Followed closely to #3 was "Love So Right", a severe 'Stylistics' sound copy. "Boogie Child" surprised everyone with it's complex instrumental backing and the funkadelic vocals.

It was another step up for the Bee Gees. Again, with too many hits to release in a year, other artists like Melba Moore "You Stepped Into My Life" and an old Gibb friend Yvonne Elliman, "Love Me", snatched these songs up and made them their own giant hits. Radio Host Casey Kasem remarked during the showcasing of "Love So Right", that the Bee Gees have had more songs copied by any other artists, other than the Beatles! This was in 1976 before "Saturday Night Fever".!

The title track made a big hit in Europe and several other tracks became concert staples. Who knew that the next studio album would be the biggest selling soundtrack of all time?

"Children Of The World" is another amazing groundbreaker. History will probably never repeat itself like this again.

This was the Bee Gees third #1 album in a row and is a great five year feat.

The definitive collection of their disco music      5 von 5 Punkten
There have, of course, been many compilations of Bee Gees music but this one focuses specifically on the late seventies disco phase of their career.

The recordings here begin in 1975, when the Bee Gees were just starting to get into disco music, and end in 1979, when this phase of their career ended. All the famous songs from the period are here including Jive talking, Night fever, Tragedy, You should be dancing, Staying alive, How deep is your love and Too much heaven.

Also here are the Bee Gees' original versions of songs that became hits for others. These include If I can't have you (a transatlantic hit for Yvonne Elliman), Love me (a UK top ten hit for Yvonne Elliman), More than a woman (a transatlantic hit for Tavares), Rest your love on me (an American country number one hit for Conway Twitty) and Nights on Broadway (a UK top ten hit for Candi Staton, but an American hit for the Bee Gess).

There are some other great songs here that you won't normally find on other Bee Gees compilations - songs like Love so right, You stepped into my life and Children of the world.

You can get the big hits on a career-spanning compilation covering their music over several decades and you can also get many of these songs on re-issues of the original albums on which they appeared, but there is something appealing about this compilation. It sets its own mood because the songs all fit together so well. If you are only interested in the Bee Gees for their disco music or if (like me) you appreciate being able to play their disco music separately from all their other stuff, this is ideal

Sehr gut gelungen      5 von 5 Punkten
Habe die Musik als Schallplatte gehabt und kann sie nur Empfehlen als schallplatte oder als cd.Ich bin ein Grosser Fan von den Bee Gess und freue mich wenn ich meine Sammlung erweitern kann.

absolutes Muss für jeden Bee Gees Fan      5 von 5 Punkten
Das mit Abstand beste Album der Bee Gees !!! Alle Hits von 1975-1979 auf zwei CD's. Von Jive-Talkin' bis Children of the World ist wirklich alles enthalten.

Absoluter Geheimtip ! (als US-IMPORT erhältlich)

Das wirklich beste der Bee Gees!      5 von 5 Punkten
Dies eine der wenigen "Best of", auf der man wirklich die Quintessenz des Schaffens der Brüder Maurice, Barry und Robin Gibb findet. Von den ganz frühen fast folk-orientierten Hits wie "New York Mining Desaster 1941" bis zum Dico-orientierten "Tragedy" ist alles dabei. Und man kann sehr gut die Wandlung der Bee Gees hin zur Disco-Musik nachvollziehen, nachdem sie vorher eher als Schmusesänger à la Engelbert verschiren waren. Mit "Nightfever" und "Stayin' Alive" legten sie sich erfolgreich ein neues Image zu, das Ihnen wohl keiner zugetraut hatte. Auf jeden Fall wird einem bei dieser Platte deutlich, warum die Bee Gees imemr noch zu den absoluten Superstars gehören und auch nicht nach dem Sterben von Disco untergegangen sind, wie so viele andere. (Dies ist eine Amazon.de an der Uni-Studentenrezension.)

The song "Man in the Middle" is included as a tribute to the late Maurice Gibb. "Number Ones" features 20-tracks, adding cuts such as "More Than a Woman" and "Islands in the Stream," a 1983 No. 1 hit for Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. If you buy this early, you'll get the limited-edition CD/DVD combo which includes rare footage of the Bee Gees performing "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," "How Deep Is Your Love," "Jive Talkin'," "Massachusetts" and "I Started a Joke" (from the U.K. TV show "An Audience With").

In this version, "More Than A Woman" replaces the USA versions "Lonely Days" and adds the tracks, "Immortality" and "Islands In The Stream", which are the same versions that are on "The Record".

After the Beatles and Elvis come the Bee Gees      5 von 5 Punkten
The collection of number one hits by the Beatles was later followed by an equivalent collection by Elvis Presley. Both those collections limited themselves to British and American number ones. If the same rule had been applied to the Bee Gees, there would have been too much empty space on the CD, so the net was cast wider. They trawled the charts of Germany (World, words, More than a woman), New Zealand (I started a joke, Don't forget to remember) and Brazil (Immortality - some other Brazilian number ones have been omitted) as well as Britain and America. They had other number one hits in the Netherlands, Japan and Hong Kong but declined to use those, presumably because they had enough songs.

One song that wasn't a hit for them is Islands in the stream, the song they wrote for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, who took it to the top of the American pop charts. On that basis, their most successful song is Woman in love - it appears to have been number one in more countries around the world than any other Bee Gees song, whoever performed by. It seems that they have not recorded their own version of the song despite there being several possibilities for gender-adapted lyrics. Of course, they couldn't compete with Barbra's version but it would be interesting to hear their version.

In the end, this compilation represents all aspects of their career although some great songs are missing from their folk-pop phase of the sixties and early seventies, First of May, To love somebody and Run to me are all omitted, along with Robin's solo Saved by the bell. However, seven tracks is a fair representation of this period on a single CD encompassing their whole career. Two of the seven (Massachusetts, I've gotta get a message to you) made number one in the UK while How can you mend a broken heart made number one in America.

Their disco period is represented by nine tracks including How deep is your love, Staying alive, Night fever, Too much heaven and their final American number one, Love you inside out. The next track (You win again) was a surprise UK number one hit in 1987 - it was to be their last.

The collection is completed by Man in the middle (a tribute to Maurice), their version of Islands in the stream and (at least on the UK version) Immortality.

If you just want a single CD of their music spanning most of their career, this will suit you. Nevertheless, you might prefer the earlier double CD, The record, especially if you like some of the classic songs that were omitted from this collection.