Bee Gees single by single thread

Cucumber Castle was missing Robin's influences, imo. It's not a terrible album, but it's not one I listen to very often, if at all. The same can be said for Robin's Reign. Not terrible, but definitely missing the Barry/Maurice influences to make it truly great.

And this is just my personal opinion. I know some folks like Cucumber Castle/Robin's Reign just fine as they are, and that's cool too.

Pretty much agree. Individually they were good. Together they were phenomenal.

 

I like both Cucumber Castle and Robin's Reign. The latter has more variety; on the former, although I like all but one song, I think they tend to sound more similar to each other than do the songs on their previous LPs.

 

Just like every other city in the country, we had our regional hits, too. And I don't care what anybody says, IOIHMMOSE is a great Bee Gees tune and got to #1 on my personal Top 40.

 

I love it too - surprised to read the negative views here!

 

As I browse through my Sydney Top 40 Chart collection I notice that the Bee Gees very first hit single here to chart was "Wine And Women" in 1965.
They also had 2 "predictions" at the time.... "Everyday I had To Cry" and "I Was A Lover, A Leader of Men". The following year they had "Spicks And Specks".
These early tracks have significance to me as they were recorded at a small building just up the road from my place. Many a time at this small studio other
popular 60's Aussie artists would be recording songs and the Bee Gees would be invited to join in at some point. They backed Ray Brown & The Whispers on a
couple tracks and actually used Ronnie Burns "Coalman" backing track to sing the same song. Ronnie's version went Top 5.

 

You got that the wrong way round. Bee Gees recorded "Coalman" and "All the King's Horses" in the summer of '66. Burns used their backing track when laying down his vocals in November that year. Burns repeated that process in May '67 when laying down new vocals on the '66 backing tracks to "Butterfly", "Exit, Stage Right", "I'll Know What to Do", "Terrible Way to Treat your Baby" and "Top Hat" for his full-length album. He would also record "In the Morning" but did a new recording instead of using the Bee Gees backing tracks for that.

 

Either way... I think I liked Ronnie's version better >>> probably because I heard it more often.
I loved "First Of May" by the Bee Gees. Beats me why some versions had the fade at the end. Sydney's top rating radio station at the time used multiple compressors so the end fade volume remained the same until the very end.
With all that reverb and compression they used back then.. that final 10 seconds of vocal at the end of the song was a mixture of rumble and fried eggs crackling in the frypan.

 

Lonely Days (1970)

Released: 6 November 1970
B-side: Man for All Seasons
Charts: #3 (USA, Netherlands), #1 (Canada), #9 (Australia), #10 (New Zealand), #25 (Germany), #33 (UK)

 

"Lonely Days" is a ballad written and performed by the Bee Gees. It appeared on their album 2 Years On, and was released as a single, becoming their first Top Five hit in the US, peaking at number three in the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching number one in the Cashbox and Record World charts.



Writing and recording
On Friday, 21 August 1970, the three Gibb brothers announced they would reunite and start recording together, nearly 16 months after Robin quit the group. They said later that they wrote "Lonely Days" and "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" at their first reunion session, but the exact day when they recorded the song is unknown. However, a tape of stereo mixes received at Atlantic in October bears the tantalizing notation "August 20, 1970" which, if true, means the brothers announced the reunion the day after it happened. According to Robin Gibb in a 2001 Billboard interview with the Bee Gees, "That was written on Addison Road in Holland Park in London, in the basement of Barry's place".

This song was sung by all three together to Maurice's piano and bass and Bill Shepherd's string and horn arrangement, the slow verses contrasting with the pounding chorus. "'Lonely Days' was written in ten minutes. It was that quick. I was at the piano ten minutes". Barry revealed later in 1998, "A manager we had about five years back heard 'Lonely Days' in a restaurant and he said to a friend, 'That's one of my favorite Beatles songs' And he was managing us!"

Atlantic Records president Jerry L. Greenberg recalled:

"I heard that song ['Lonely Days'] and I went crazy. I thought it was going to be an amazing number one record. In those days we had our own recording studio, right down the hall from the main offices. Now the record was pressed and ready to go, but what I did was, I made up about 30 tape copies, just put the song on a tape on a regular plastic reel, and I called up a bunch of my promotions department friends."

Greenberg continues:

"I said, 'The Bee Gees just came out of the studio and they cut this record, and I don't even have time to press it up yet, but I wanted you guys to hear it, and I'm going to send you, you're the only one I'm sending, this tape, right from the studio'. I mailed it out special delivery and I have to tell you, within a week, thirty radio stations were all over 'Lonely Days', and it busted the record wide open. I was very proud of that. Ahmet [Ertegun] and Jerry [Wexler] were both talking about it. In those days, you had to come up with some creative ideas, how to promote a record. That record took off!"

Musical structure
The song incorporated the innovative structure and knack for changing tempos exemplified by the second side of The Beatles' Abbey Road album,
released the previous year and a clear influence on this single. "Lonely Days" shifts back and forth between a piano-and-strings-dominated verse reminiscent of "You Never Give Me Your Money" and "Golden Slumbers," and an up-tempo stomping chorus that echoes "Carry That Weight"; perhaps as an acknowledgment of the debt, as the record approaches its fade-out, the lead singer's voice is filtered to sound like John Lennon's.

Release
In the United States, Atco released "Lonely Days" on 6 November 1970. As in other territories, "Man for All Seasons", also taken from 2 Years On, featured as the B-side. Atco also issued a promotional single featuring the mono and stereo mixes on the disc's respective sides. A music video of the song was made following the release of the song, the first scene features Maurice playing a Fender Malibu acoustic guitar and sitting next to the window. The second scene features Barry walking his dog in a London park and the third scene features Robin showing loneliness and wanting to go outside driving his car.

The Bee Gees performed "Lonely Days" on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Johnny Cash Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. On their performance of this song in The Andy Williams Show, they also performed "Man for All Seasons".

Lonely Days - Wikipedia

 

Lonely Days is the true end of the 60s version of the Bee Gees.
From here their music morphs into what was the early 70s.

 

I'm really surprised at all the negative comments about this song, because I love it, the tune, the production, the whole thing. It's in much the same vein stylistically as their upcoming huge hit "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart", but I consider it a much superior song, though it's pretty easy to see why "Heart" was the bigger hit. Sing a song about your heart being broken, and that's half your potential fanbase hooked already.

I'm willing to be corrected here, but I believe "If I Only..." was released here along with "I.O.I.O." as two sides of a single, and I recall it being a moderate hit, though I'm uncertain whether it made top 10.

 

It barely scratched the Hot 100 so I'm not surprised about the general consensus but you're spot on. It's a fantastic song and does seem to be the precursor to How Can you Mend A Broken Heart. Maybe it's all about timing?

 

(How on earth did I miss the update when "I.O.I.O." was posted? Let me try to get caught up here.)

On my post for "If Only I Had My Mind on Something Else," I wrote that two of the Bee Gees' Atco singles eluded me in my first collecting binge in 1974. Actually, there were three I missed, and I'll mention them when I get to them.

Believe it or not, "I.O.I.O." was not one of the stray Atco singles. I found a promo copy in 1974, and for a few years, until I learned it made the lower reaches of the charts, I thought it might only exist as a promo. For some time, it was one of two or three Bee Gees promo 45s I owned; I didn't find a stock copy until possibly the late 1990s or early 2000s.

"I.O.I.O." is catchy, I'll give it that. That chorus is memorable, too. But it's at best a second-tier Bee Gees A-side. I'm not sure what Atco was thinking in releasing "I.O.I.O." as the second (third, if you include "Don't Forget to Remember") single from Cucumber Castle rather than timing it with the rest of the world, because to me it's better than "If Only I Had My Mind on Something Else" for sure. The trades also seemed to think so, as we shall see.

"Then You Left Me," the U.S. B-side, is sweetly melodramatic. Except for the way the title is spoken, which is right out of U.S. country & western music, it could have been either an earlier or slightly later Bee Gees album cut. Not bad, but not great, either.

---

In its June 13, 1970 issue, Billboard predicted "I.O I.O." would make the top 60 of the Hot 100, though once again the review was mostly generic: "A Gibbs' original, this infectious rhythm item with a top vocal workout will fast prove a big chart item. Strong entry!" The same week, Cash Box listed "I.O.I.O." fourth in its Picks of the Week, behind "Close to You" by the Carpenters, and its reviewer was impressed: "At long last, a break in the string of Bee Gees variations on the same theme. Newest side introduces a new sound to the act, more tempo and rhythm effectiveness for teen top forty formats, and a melodic shift that shines a new light on the group." Record World was so bullish that it put "I.O.I.O." on Page 1 of its June 13 issue as one of its four Single Picks of the Week: "'I.O.I.O.' ... is a chant-ballad from the Bee Gees. It should score with music lovers everywhere as there's much to it."

Despite the change in direction, or perhaps because of it, "I.O.I.O." was an even bigger failure than "If Only I Had My Mind on Something Else." The #94 peak in Billboard was its best chart placement in any of the trades, and it spent only one week in the Hot 100 (July 11, 1970) after a week on the Bubbling Under chart at #101. In Record World, "I.O.I.O." peaked at #98 on July 4 and spent only two weeks on its 100 Top Pops chart. Finally, in Cash Box, it never escaped the Coming Up list, peaking at the functional equivalent of #102 on June 20 and 27.

In the ARSA database, I couldn't find a single U.S. radio station on which "I.O.I.O." was a Top 10 hit.

Had this been the final Bee Gees single, as it could have been, they would have bowed out in most ignominious fashion.

---

The usual U.S. release date listed for "I.O.I.O." is May 1970; if so, it was very late in the month, based on the appearance of the reviews in the June 13 trade papers. Released on Atco 45-6752, stock copies were pressed at Specialty (SP), Plastic Products (PL), and Monarch (MO). I've seen white-label promos from SP and MO, both of which are mono, like the stock copies. Considering that stereo promos exist for both of its predecessors, a stereo promo of "I.O.I.O."/"Then You Left Me" can't be ruled out, but I've seen no evidence of it.

This is another U.S. 45 that is harder to find than its value on the collector's market would indicate. I also think, based on both personal experience and the copies for sale on the Internet, that the promo 45 is more common than the stock copy -- the only Atco Bee Gees single for which this is the case.

After this single, most future Bee Gees promo 45s would have the same song on both sides, usually mono/stereo, but with some exceptions.

 

Lonely Days

Fantastic song.

Once the brothers reunited--magic.

The song is simple. It's not overly orchestrated. The vocals are totally spot on. It's catchy. It's a classic.

One thing I thought was interesting is that their return single had all three brothers singing lead in unison for the most part, further emphasizing they were re-united.

Man for All Seasons

Pretty good song. Catchy enough that it gets stuck in my head from time to time lol.

Overall, 2 Years On was a great album. Some of my favorite songs in their catalog come from this album, like the title track, Portrait of Louise, Back Home, and Alone Again:

 

Good song, after a succession of directionless half-assed efforts, lyrics are nonsensical but that's never been a problem for the Bee Gees.

 

In my opinion, this is the Bee Gees' greatest achievement. If "New York Mining Disaster" was a beautiful baby, this is the handsome man it grew into 3½ years later. When the three of them sing that opening verse, I can actually visualize them sitting in a window seat in a coffee house early in the morning, then watching the sunrise, and all the shadows slowly shifting as it does.

The chorus is unique. The same phrase repeated five times, with the chords in a slightly different order each time. Incidentally, the audio in the video (that's posted above) is slow. The song is in Cm not Bm.

This single undoubtedly was an influence on the group America when they recorded "Sandman" shortly thereafter.

Sadly, there's nothing much else of note on the album that accompanied it. The only two other tracks from it that I can even remember are Maurice's goofy novelty tune, "Lay It On Me" and the upbeat "Back Home," with it's then already outdated reference to Lyndon Johnson (who had been out of office for two years). The selection of "Man For All Seasons" as the B-side was pretty much arbitrary.

 

I agree the album isn't very good. "Alone Again" is great though.

 

Lonely Days is an epic. Brilliant in form and execution. Anyone who says pre-Jive Talking Bee Gees were boring is daft.

 

I've never been too fussy about Lonely Days. It's not terrible, not great, just ... is. Like thousands of other middle-of-the-pack songs.

A Man for All Seasons is the only track I liked much on Two Years On, which really was a marker of decline in my books. I suppose I should give those early '70s LPs another listen.

 

Loved this one as a kid but never realized it was a) this old or b) had done this well on the American charts.

I always consider this one both Beatles-esque but also with its stomping beat in the chorus and some R&B touches sort of a prelude to their disco reign of the '70s. As with "To Love Somebody", to me "Lonely Days" demonstrates how talented Barry was in that blue eyed soul department.

The perfect single for them to transition from the '60s into the '70s.

 

I’ve adored “Lonely Days” since it was first released. I’m late to the party, but I first heard “If I Only Had My Mind...” perhaps two years ago now, and it was like discovering a rare gem buried for decades. It’s so gorgeous it literally breaks my heart to hear it. Just reading about it here guarantees it will be on my mind for the next day or two.

 

Once again I seem to disagree with the majority. I never liked "Lonely Days". It starts off well, has a good production, but descends into boring repetition. It's as though the boys said "This is the part here where we want the audience to stamp their feet and bring their lighters out." And that corny echo effect. Yikes.

Then again, I never liked "To Love Somebody" either.

 

I suppose that somebody should mention that somewhere in between I.O.I.O. and Lonely Days, Barry and Maurice put out solo singles. To my ears, what they both have in common is that the B-sides are both superior to the A-sides. Click on the titles to listen to them on YouTube:

I'LL KISS YOUR MEMORY
THIS TIME
RAILROAD
I'VE COME BACK

That last one reminds me a bit of this, which reputedly also had involvement from Maurice at the time:

 

Wow, you're not kidding. those A-sides are both awful. "Classic country". Sounds like something Charlie Pride would record.

The B-sides are much better, though I would not say they are great. "This Time" actually sounds like a genuine Bee Gees song - in a good way.

Given that I never liked Robin's solo stuff much either, for me the Bee Gees were definitely a case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.

 

Alone Again deserved a single release,it is one of Robins finest leads.