Bee Gees single by single thread

It sounds like they said so in an interview or something.

 

Kim Wilde had many hits in Europe but only one US number one - a cover of the Supremes' 'You Keep Me Hangin' On' which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1987:

 

I searched the internet and found this interview Maurice gave the Sydney Morning Herald:

"What we used to do as kids is write songs for artists that we adored and idolised and we'd imagine, 'What would their next record be?' And then we'd sing it and it would be a Bee Gees record," the Bee Gees' Maurice Gibb says. "The first song we wrote for Saturday Night Fever was If I Can't Have You and we imagined ABBA doing it.

"They had the knack of writing songs that everybody loved to listen to," he continues. "Warm songs and a certain production sound that made it all the more enjoyable. Something no one has repeated yet. It's the melodies. They work in any country. You didn't have to know the words (because) their music was the best. It translated everywhere."

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/musical-spawned-by-abba-hits-from-the-70s-20020404-gdf64k.html

 

It’s a fair update, though it sounds a bit SAW. Kim’s vocal is good but the production lacks the warmth that graced the Yvonne Elliman version. I also prefer the mental, screechtastic Bee Gees rendition. It always makes me laugh.

 

Mo was right on the money about ABBA there.

 

Mo was really smart and a nice guy. A friend of mine worked for Polygram I guess back in the early '70s - she toured with The Who, Rod Stewart, Elton John and The Bee Gees, and she loved Mo. She actually cried the day he died. She said he was the nicest guy you could meet.

Oddly, she never had any problems with Rod Stewart, Elton John or even The Who. I would have thought major D-R-A-M-A, particularly with Elton, but there wasn't (provided you did your job).

 

It is also stated by Maurice in the booklet accompanying the Tales box set.

 

Additionally, when Agnetha was about to resume her solo career when ABBA hung it up it could have been Barry that ended up in the producer's chair instead of Mike Chapman. Fell apart since Barry didn't want to travel to Sweden where Agnetha wanted to record.

 

I didn't know until this past weekend, but apparently "Happy Ever After" was released as a single in the US after "When He's Gone". There'a a review in Billboard from September 14, 1991.

http://www.americanradiohistory.com...91/BB1991-OCR-Page-0036.pdf#search="bee gees"

 

Wikipedia lists 'Happy Ever After' as a single in the Bee Gees discography and claims that it reached #90 in Canada:
Bee Gees discography - Wikipedia

I asked a Bee Gees fan on another forum about this a while ago and he answered the following:
"It was never released to the public. It was sent only as a promotonial item to Radio Stations as a CD and Cassette. Wikipedia is wrong that the song reached number 90 in Canada. Not true."

That's why I decided not to include it here.

 

Paying the Price of Love (1993)



Released: 9 August 1993 (UK)
B-side: Decadance (USA), My Destiny (UK)
Charts: #23 (UK), #74 (USA), #5 (Belgium), #19 (Netherlands), #24 (Austria), #33 (Italy), #36 (Germany)

 

"Paying the Price of Love" is the first single from the Bee Gees' album, Size Isn't Everything. It was more reminiscent of the Bee Gees disco era than recent singles. With an uptempo hip-hop beat and soaring falsetto vocals, it was too heavy for adult contemporary radio, which is where the Bee Gees were primarily played in 1993. It reached the top 10 in Belgium and the top 40 in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and the UK. In the US, it did chart on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching #74, and made the top 30 on the A/C chart.The promotional video for the song showed the brothers performing the song as holograms on a futuristic version of MTV – which could be considered ironic, as the video never aired on the network, but rather on its companion channel, VH1.

Paying the Price of Love - Wikipedia

 

In Europe (the Bee Gees' biggest market in the 90s), this single clearly underperformed, especially considering the fact that it was the first single released from a new album.

The first singles from the 3 previous studio albums had all become hits in at least one of Europe's 2 biggest music markets ('You Win Again' in both the UK and Germany, 'Ordinary Lives' in Germany, 'Secret Love' again in both countries).

But 'Paying the Price of Love' didn't do so well. In Germany, it only reached number 36, which also hurt the performance of the 'Size Isn't Everything' album, which peaked at number 12 on the German Albums Chart, becoming the only Bee Gees studio album between 1987 and 2001 not to chart within the top 4 and not to receive a gold or platinum certification in that country.

 

Paying the Price of Love is a decent enough single, but it's not a favorite of mine. I do like the synth part--for me that's what makes the song--very catchy.

The next couple of singles from the Size Isn't Everything album are far better, imo. While not the most consistent album in their catalog, it has some absolutely outstanding moments that more than makes up for it. I usually rate this album pretty high in terms of overall quality of work.

 

I saw the cassingle at Wherehouse in California once.

 

Paying the price in spite of low sales in Europe was a smash on Euro radio peaking at number 5 in the Airplay chart on September 17. It was a top tenner in Germany and peak at number 14 in the UK. In Hungary and Poland it went all the way to number one. In the AC chart in Europe it peaked at number 2. River of Dreams of Billy Joel prevented the song of the number 1 spot

 

Meh. The melody isn't grabbing me.

The video is kinda pants, too - somebody musta seen Janet Jackson's "If" and thought, "Hey, we can do Asian kitsch!". Only without the cool dancing.

 

I hate the falsetto in that song, especially during the bridge. They did it on Letterman and it was just dreadful imo. His falsetto in the live performance was embarrassing. The instrumentation is pretty darn cool, but it just isn’t a good song. As someone else said, there were better cuts on that album. For Whom The Bell Tolls is one of my favorites!

 

I only really mind the falsetto in the bridge, apart from that it is a great track. I might attempt an edit some day, removing that particular section of the song.

 

The brothers appeared on MTV's Wall Of Death (I'm assuming in the UK or Europe) in 1993 (kinda) plugging the album. I have always found it hysterical to watch:

 

Same program, with a medley (including Blue Island from album):

 

Agree it is more of an issue during that section. I had thought at the time, however, that they were trying to distance themselves from the past and get some new fans. I just didn’t feel that song did them any favors in that regard, though it’s certainly not a bad song. I just think there are better tracks they could have gone with. I think it also points to the possibility that they just weren’t writing really strong singles at that point. We’re all speculating on what tracks may have been better to issue as such, and we did that on Living Eyes as well. If you go back to Spirits Having Flown, there is little doubt that they released the right three tracks. Some might argue Spirits Having Flown would have been better, and it is an awesome album track (maybe the best track on the album) but I never heard it as a single myself. We are all fans; we can’t even agree. Imagine the trouble a label had to go through to try and select a single. They still produced good albums, but clearly their days of writing monster singles were over. I’m amazed they did it for as long as they did!

 

That was awesome! Thanks for posting it. The musicians etc must have loved being around them in the studio!

 

Thanks so much for posting this! The VJ was Ray Cokes, I always watched him on MTV Europe in the first half of the 90s, he was hilarious! The Bee Gees were great on that episode, I didn't know that Robin was so funny!

 

Nice to see that they performed two of my personal faves, 'NYMD 1941' and 'I've Gotta Get a Message to You'.