Bee Gees single by single thread

"(The Lights Went Out In) Massachusetts" is a song by the Bee Gees, released in 1967. Written by Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb. Robin Gibb sang lead vocals on this song and it would become one of his staple songs to perform during concerts on both Bee Gees and his solo concerts. It later appeared on their 1968 album, Horizontal.

The song became the first of the group's five No. 1 hits in the UK, reached No. 1 in twelve other countries, peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually became one of the best-selling singles of all time, selling over five million copies worldwide. When the brothers wrote the song, they had never been to Massachusetts. In a UK television special on ITV in December 2011, it was voted third (behind "How Deep Is Your Love" and "You Win Again") in "The Nation's Favourite Bee Gees Song".

Writing and inspiration
The song was written in the Regis Hotel, New York City during a tour of the United States. The song was intended as an antithesis to flower power anthems of the time such as "Let's Go to San Francisco" and "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" in that the protagonist had been to San Francisco to join the hippies but was now homesick. The idea of the lights having gone out in Massachusetts was to suggest that everyone had gone to San Francisco.

There are two different memories, Robin remembers us doing it in a boat going around New York City. And I remember us checking in at the St. Regis with Robert, going to the suite, and while the bags were being brought in we were so high on being in New York, that's how 'Massachusetts' began. I think we were strumming basically the whole thing, and then I think we went on a boat round New York. I don't know if we finished it, but I think that's where the memories collide. Everybody wrote it. All three of us were there when the song was born.

— Barry Gibb
The song was originally intended for The Seekers. Upon arriving in London from Australia (following in the path of the Seekers who had arrived several years earlier) the Bee Gees had been unsuccessful in getting the song to the group, so they recorded it themselves. During a chance meeting in London between the Seekers' lead singer Judith Durham and Maurice Gibb, Durham learned that "Massachusetts" was originally intended for her group and in 2003 the Seekers recorded the song as a tribute to Maurice following his death earlier that year. The Bee Gees had never actually been to Massachusetts when they recorded this; they just liked the sound of the name. Robin Gibb explained about "Massachusetts" in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh:

"We have never been there but we loved the word and there is always something magic about American place names. It only works with British names if you do it as a folk song. Roger Whittaker did that with Durham Town." [Robin Gibb also recalled to The Mail on Sunday on 1 November 2009]: "This was a bittersweet victory. The day it went to number one it was Bonfire Night and I was in the Hither Green rail crash in Lewisham. Forty-nine people died and it was one of Britain's worst rail disasters. Luckily I didn't get injured. I remember sitting at the side of the carriage, watching the rain pour down, fireworks go off and blue lights of the ambulances whirring. It was like something out of a Spielberg film. I thought, at least there is one consolation, we have our first UK number one."

Recording
"Massachusetts" was recorded on August 9, 1967 along with "Sir Geoffrey Saved the World" at the IBC Studios in London and finished on August 17. Barry feels Bill Shepherd's orchestral score is perhaps the arranger's finest: "We never expected him to do that. Sometimes we would sing what we would [imagine] the strings doing. But in this case he did that himself, and I thought it was great. 'Massachusetts' was our first #1 in England".

Release
Before the release of this song, Australians Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney were facing deportation, and it appeared that they might have to leave the band as a result. On 12 August, British fans staged a protest on behalf of the musicians at the cottage of Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Three days later Bee Gees fan Deirdre Meehan chained and handcuffed herself to Buckingham Palace to protest the possible deportation. Ultimately, the musicians were allowed to stay.

When it was released in England, the title was "Massachusetts (The Lights Went Out in)" but the subtitle was later dropped. In America, Atco Records delayed it to release "Holiday". The song "Massachusetts" has a minor claim to fame in the history of British radio as it was the second record played on BBC Radio 1. The first song to be played was "Flowers in the Rain" by The Move. It was the first No. 1 hit single by a non-Japanese artist on Japan's official hit chart, Oricon Singles Chart, on April 1, 1968.

Massachusetts (Bee Gees song) - Wikipedia

 

'Massachusetts' went to number one in the UK on 11 October 1967, dethroning Engelbert Humperdinck's 'The Last Waltz'. It stayed at the top for 4 weeks, before being replaced at number one by The Foundations 'Baby Now That I've Found You'. It sold 450k copies in the UK.

In Germany, it reached the number one spot on 1 December 1967, dethroning 'San Francisco' by Scott McKenzie. Both songs mention the city of San Francisco in their lyrics. 'Massachusetts' stayed at the top in Germany until 14 January 1968, selling 500k copies.

 

Massachusetts might possibly be one of the Bee Gees most beautiful compositions. In their top 5 at least. It's lush orchestration combined with the brothers superb vocals...it just doesn't get much better than this. To me, Robin's vocals on this song were some of the finest he ever recorded. It's no surprise to me that this song was such a hit.

The flip side(s) were interesting. Barker of the UFO is quirky and catchy. Not a personal favorite but good nonetheless. Sir Geoffrey Saved the World is another nice song. Again, not a personal favorite, but very good as well.

 

Beautiful song and arrangement. Maybe a bit maudlin, but I've always been quite fond of it.

 

One of my absolute favorites from this era,very basic vocals from Robin and Barry and it just works.

 

I found the following chronology online:

12 July: "To Love Somebody" debuts at #50
19 July: "To Love Somebody" drops off the chart
26 July: "To Love Somebody" re-enters at #50
2 August: "To Love Somebody" climbs to #48
9 August: "To Love Somebody" climbs to #46; First debuts on the album chart at #34
16 August: "To Love Somebody" climbs to #41; First climbs to #32
23 August: "To Love Somebody" drops off the chart, this time for good; First drops to #37
30 August: First climbs to #25
6 September: First drops to #34
13 September: First climbs to #22
20 September: "Massachusetts" debuts at #31; First drops to #33
27 September: "Massachusetts: climbs to #17; First climbs to #15

On the one hand, "To Love Somebody" did seem to drop off the charts pretty quickly once the album hit. On the other hand, "To Love Somebody" wasn't exactly burning up the charts even before the album came out.

The album seems to have been a decent seller out of the gate, although it didn't break into the Top 20 until "Massachusetts" was out, and wouldn't reach its #8 peak until November, after "Massachusetts" had hit #1. It looks like the album actually owed a great deal of its U.K. chart success to the profile boost the group got from "Massachusetts" hitting #1, even though "Massachusetts" wasn't on the album.

In the U.S., where it was standard procedure for singles to be available on albums, First would peak at #7. Interestingly, the album made the Top 10 even though none of the three singles released from it did. As in the U.K., the album did not reach its peak until November. Because Atco opted to release "Holiday" as a single in the U.S., "Holiday" was on the U.S. charts at the same time "Massachusetts" was on the U.K. charts. As result, First's chart peak came before "Massachusetts" had really broken big in the U.S. ("Massachusetts" was just debuting on the Top 40 the week that First reached its peak). First hitting its U.S. peak when it did was probably due to the accumulated popularity of its three hit singles.

 

Nice bit of research!

 

Whether or not one likes "Massachusetts" depends entirely on whether or not one also likes Engelbert Humperdink's "Release Me," which it is very much in the same vein as. They are both slow-paced and utilize only three chords.

I much prefer both flipsides. "Sir Geoffrey" is by far, Maurice's greatest moment as a bass player. It sounds like he was definitely influenced by McCartney's work on "With A Little Help From My Friends." It doesn't matter that the lyrics are all just a bunch of pleasant sounding vowels and consonants. I love the sheer Britishness of the whole affair.

"Barker Of The UFO" is completely unique. Nothing that came before or after it even remotely sounds like it. I can't even figure out what's going on with the bass. It sounds like it's being filtered through some sort of device that's attempting to make it sound like a tuba, but instead, it winds up sounding more like a bass jew's harp (if there were such a thing). And that toy xylophone! Once again, the lyrics are just a lot of nonsensical gibberish, and I wouldn't have it any other way. From beginning to end it reminds me of something one might expect to hear in a psychedelicized Beany & Cecil cartoon.

 

I liked Massachusetts a whole lot more than To Love Somebody. It helped to make me a fan, and for two or three years thereafter they were my favourite band. Then I discovered the Moody Blues ... meanwhile the Bee Gees split and got back together, but the '60s were over ...

 

"Massachusetts" is yet another Bee Gees song I re-discovered during 1974. I am certain I heard the song before I got the single; it had probably been in the background of my life in the late 1960s, as "To Love Somebody" had been. I love the string arrangement on this one.

For many years, I thought they were singing "I will remain in Massachusetts" at the end of the song; I already had heard or read that the Gibbs had never been to the state when they wrote it, so I thought they were being ironic. I can't remember when the true lyrics finally hit me.

Atco chose to delay the release of "Massachusetts" as long as possible, until radio stations started trying to play the song from imported Polydor 45s. Even then, the single came out only six weeks or so after "Holiday."

Atco had a mono tape of seven new Bee Gees songs, which it received from England on August 24, 1967; from that tape, which led off with "Massachusetts," it chose "Sir Geoffrey Saved the World" as the B-side. As a result, the UK B-side, "Barker of the UFO," which also was on that tape, remained in the vault in the States, not to emerge until the Tales of the Brothers Gibb box set. Also as a result, because Atco released the "Massachusetts" 45 in late October 1967 and UK Polydor released "World" in December 1967, the States had a temporary exclusive on "Sir Geoffrey."

I know I never heard "Barker of the UFO" until the Tales box came out; the same may have been true of "Sir Geoffrey," as even in '74 I didn't always listen to the B-sides of my 45s.

I tend to agree with idleracer's analysis of "Barker of the UFO"; it's delightfully strange, musically worthy of Dr. Demento. Had it been much longer, though, it would have overstayed its welcome.

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Cash Box had "(The Lights Went Out in) Massachusetts" as one of its Picks of the Week in the November 4, 1967 issue. It wrote, "Even as 'Holiday' registers strong gains nearing the top ten, the Bee Gees have a new one for the pop buyers. An English chart topper, 'Massachusetts' presents the team in a fairly new light with a splendidly arranged ballad somewhat in the Scott McKenzie bag. Slow, smooth side with tremendous impact. Flip: 'Sir Geoffrey Saved the World' is a happy cutie."

Billboard yet again predicted a Top 20 peak for the song, writing in its November 4 Spotlight Singles column, "Currently No. 1 in England, this smooth, off-beat folk rocker has the same sales appeal as their 'New York Mining Disaster.' Clever material, with a groovy vocal workout." Eight different songs earned a Top 20 prediction in that issue, and Billboard was right about several others, too, including "Daydream Believer," "In and Out of Love," "She's My Girl," and "Bend Me, Shape Me."

Finally, Record World put the latest Bee Gees single on its front page again as one of its Single Picks of the Week for November 4. It wrote, "'(The Lights Went Out in) Massachusetts' ... is the newest in the hit chain of Bee Gees songs. Again a different sounding love ode."

The three trades were in near agreement on the hit status of "Massachusetts"; it reached its highest peak in Billboard at #11, while it got to #12 in Record World and #14 in Cash Box. "Sir Geoffrey Saved the World" failed to chart.

In retrospect, I think that Atco's relentless single schedule -- it released its first four Bee Gees singles in only about a six-month span -- may have helped depress the peak positions of the 1967 hits, especially the later ones.

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The mono version of "Massachusetts" sounds similar to its stereo mix, which was first released on Horizontal. But the stereo version on the album is slightly longer than the mono mix, mostly because the mono version is slightly sped up.

Neither "Barker of the UFO" nor "Sir Geoffrey Saved the World" was released in stereo until Bill Inglot made stereo mixes for the Tales of the Brothers Gibb box. Those same mixes were used on the Horizontal deluxe version included in The Studio Albums 1967-1968.

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Virtually all sources state that "(The Lights Went Out in) Massachusetts" was released in the U.S. in November 1967. However, its reviews appeared in the November 4 trades. Even back then, all three magazines had at least a week's lag time from actual print date to publication date, so a release date of the last week of October 1967 is more likely.

The 45 has a catalog number of Atco 45-6532. "(The Lights Went Out in) Massachusetts" has a matrix number of 67C-12922 and "Sir Geoffrey Saved the World" 67C-12924. Logically, you'd think that two non-LP cuts (as of the time of release) would have consecutive matrix numbers. But remember that August 24 tape I mentioned earlier? According to Joe Brennan's Gibb Songs data for 1967, the exact order of its tracks is as follows:
"Massachusetts"
"And the Sun Will Shine"
"Sir Geoffrey Saved the World"
"Birdie Told Me"
"Barker of the UFO"
"Day Time Girl"
"Harry Braff"
Atlantic usually assigned master/matrix numbers in the order that new tracks were received, unless it got the whole album at once. So odds are that it used numbers 12922 through 12928 for these seven tracks, thus explaining the non-consecutive numbers for the two sides of the new single.

Again, Atco used five different pressing plants for this 45, the same five as for "To Love Somebody" and "Holiday": Specialty (SP), Plastic Products (PL), Monarch (MO), Columbia Pitman (CP), and American Record Pressing (AM). For the first time, it appears as if every copy from each plant is identical to every other copy from the same plant. Thus there are five variations of "(The Lights Went Out in) Massachusetts," one from each of the pressing plants.

Again, AM copies have the catalog number at the left of the label with no "45-" prefix. The four other plants have the "45-" and the number at the right.

The perimeter print on the records is as follows.
AM: "ATCO RECORDS 1841 BROADWAY, N.Y. N.Y."
CP and PL: "Division of ATLANTIC RECORDS, New York, N.Y."
MO: "DISTRIBUTED BY ATCO RECORD SALES, 1841 BROADWAY, N.Y., N.Y."
SP: "Division of ATLANTIC RECORDS, 1841 B'way, N.Y., N.Y."

Promo copies that I've seen come from Monarch (MO) and, oddly, American Record Pressing (AM). A promo from Specialty logically should exist, but none was on eBay, Discogs, or 45cat. At this time, Atco promos had all-white labels with black print and the words "PLUG SIDE" on the side it thought was the hit. There is no other mention of the 45s' promotional status.

 

Bang! Massachusetts was the Bee Gees first song to hit #1 in the New Zealand charts (three weeks at the top) and the start of large scale chart success for the group through to 1972.

 

just another fantastic song. the boys were just churning out great songs and folks were starting to get it.

 

Nonsense!

 

Can they still like it if they've never heard Release Me?

 

Those are some bright teeth on the Gibb Bros! Little wonder that Kenny Everett punningly referred to their pearly whites as ‘Massive Chew Sets’.

 

Just remembered - my uncle had this single. I'm pretty sure he had a couple of Bee Gees pre-'70s albums as well.

 

The reason is obvious:

 

One thing I love about Massachusetts is that whether you listen to the original studio recording (with all the orchestral arrangements) or just to a couple of guitars with vocals, it's still a beautiful song:

 

One of the hallmarks of a great song for me is how well it comes across with just a voice and a guitar (or piano). This performance drives home what a beautiful song "Massachusetts" is.

 

Video clip

 

Always love these videos!

 

World (1967)

Released: December 1967
B-side: Sir Geoffrey Saved the World
Charts: #9 (UK), #6 (Australia), #1 (Germany & the Netherlands), #2 (New Zealand & Switzerland)

 

"World" is a song from the Bee Gees' fourth album Horizontal, released in 1967 in the United Kingdom. Though it was a big hit in Europe, Atco Records did not issue it as a single in the United States, having just issued a third single from Bee Gees' 1st, "Holiday".

Composition
The song's lyrics question the singer's purpose in life.

Recording
The song's first recording session was on 3 October 1967 along with "With the Sun in My Eyes" and "Words". The song's last recording session was on 28 October 1967. "World" was originally planned as having no orchestra, so all four tracks were filled with the band, including some mellotron or organ played by Robin. When it was decided to add an orchestra, the four tracks containing the band were mixed to one track and the orchestra was added to the other track. The stereo mix suffered since the second tape had to play as mono until the end when the orchestra comes in on one side. Barry adds: "'World' is one of those things we came up with in the studio, Everyone just having fun and saying, 'Let's just do something!' you know". Vince Melouney recalls: "I had this idea to play the melody right up in the top register of the guitar behind the chorus".

Release
In 1990, Bill Inglot synched up the two tape reels and made a new stereo mix for the Tales from the Brothers Gibb box set. Two mixes of the record were played to journalists at a press conference before its release. The released version is mainly the unorchestrated version but the orchestrated version is used from 2:39. The track features Robin on organ and Maurice on double-tracked piano. The vocals are mostly by Barry but Robin sings the chorus a few times prior to the fadeout.

Allmusic's Donald A. Guarisco described this song as "a thoroughly psychedelic ballad worthy of the Moody Blues' finest similar efforts". The original promotional video for "World" is black and white.

World (Bee Gees song) - Wikipedia

 

I like that b-side a lot!

Given how prolific the brothers were, and how many unreleased songs still remain in the vaults, it is a shame they ever used deep album cuts on the single flip sides.