Bee Gees single by single thread

'Paying the Price of Love' is good but not great, especially compared to many of their other singles. They tried to appeal to a younger audience at the time (especially with the futuristic music video) but the competition was tough. In 1993, Eurodance had invaded the European Singles Charts. There was not much space in the charts for an uptempo number by a band that already existed for 30 years.

 

"SIZE ISN´T EVERYHTING" was the album that brought me back to the Bee Gees. I didn´t mind the albums after "LIVING EYES", but I never felt the need to buy anything but the singles from most of them. (I have them all now, of course. Needs must. ) But "SIZE ISN´T EVERYTHING" got a fairly good review in Q, of all places, and I decided to give it a go. I thought that some of the albums in the 80s and early 90s sounded as if they were going through the motions a bit. On this album, they sounded as if they were having fun, and they had rediscovered their sense of humour. The album was uneven, as some of you mention, but it is a fun album. "PAYING THE PRICE OF LOVE" is a fairly typical Bee Gees hit, maybe not as strong as some of their earlier attempts, but very recognisable as a Bee Gees hit. I rather like it, but don´t play it that often. The album itself is a wonderful journey, with some great songs, some good ones and a few odd ones. As per usual. One of my favourites to this day is Maurice´s "OMEGA MAN".

I must find this album and play it.

 

'Omega Man' & 'Above and Beyond' are my favourite album tracks from 'Size Isn't Everything'.

I found this promo video to 'Omega Man' on YouTube:

 

I don´t know why, but I always had a soft spot for Maurice. "ON TIME" is another one of my Bee Gees favourites. I can´t remember "ABOVE AND BEYOND", apart from the Bobby Bare song, so I really should dig out my copy of the "SIZE ISN´T EVERYTHING" CD. Any excuse.

 

Me too. He always seemed to be a bit overshadowed by Barry and Robin.

 

Me too.

 

To me, Size is an absolutely awesome album. A Brothers Gibb tour de force. It is very balanced in terms of musical styles and lead vocal duties. Each of them is given a chance to shine, while also delivering beautiful, complex harmony singing. And the production is flawless - impeccably detailed, crisp and fresh sounding. Nice packaging and I like the look that the brothers went for (their clothing/fashion).

Some of the songs have a "throwback", nostalgic nature about them - "Blue Island" with its acoustic guitars recalling the early seventies sound, "Fallen Angel" sounding like a Robin eighties solo track, and others. "Omega Man" is probably my favourite Maurice-led number. I dig the "hip" sound of the lead single and "Kiss of Life" rocks (with superb vocals). "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is phenomenal - a power ballad to beat all other power ballads. I would have thought that "Paying the Price of Love" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" should have been huge in the States.

In South Africa we got the 12-track version, with "Decadance" as the twelfth track. To this day this version of "You Should be Dancing" still blows me away!

On top of solid album we get two magnificent b-sides. Wow! "My Destiny" is another great rocker and "855-7019" has some great singing and lyrics.

My opinion - this is the Bee Gees' best album. I think that they put heart and soul into it - what a disappointment that it did not do that well commercially.

 

Maybe not my first choice for a single but I get why it was and is a decent song.

 

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1993)



Released: November 1993
B-side: Decadance
Charts: #4 (UK), #109 (USA), #6 (Ireland), #13 (Belgium), #20 (Netherlands), #52 (Germany)

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" is a song by the Bee Gees, released as their second single from their album Size Isn't Everything in 1993. It peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart and number six in Ireland. A music video was also released for this song. This would be the band's highest-charting single in the UK in the 1990s, giving them a UK top 5 single in four consecutive decades: the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.



For Whom the Bell Tolls (Bee Gees song) - Wikipedia

 

Now that's what I call a fantastic song! I still remember when 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' was released. I was compiling my weekly personal chart at the time (I've always been a chart nerd ) and it quickly rose to number one in December 1993. I loved it so much that it made me buy the 'Size Isn't Everything' album.
The music video is also great, I love the scenes towards the end of the video where the brothers stand on the cliff surrounded by the sea.

 

Agreed! What a great song and music video! I have always loved this single. Love that both Robin and Barry alternate on lead vocals. Barry's falsetto is far more restrained on this song and just works beautifully. Robin sounds fantastic too.

For some reason, I have always thought this song and "Alone" from Still Waters were very similar structurally. Totally different melodies, but the song structures seem close. Love them both, but thought that was interesting.

 

I remember waiting for The Bee Gees to appear on The Tonight Show in 1993 to hear music from their new album. They played "Paying The Price Of Love" and I remember sitting there after it was over and thinking WTF. Why, why, why did he go into this insanely high falsetto? Top 40 radio was shying away from The Bee Gees by then and A/C outlets weren't going to play a psudeo hip-hop song with a screaming falsetto verse. I was so disappointed... and embarrassed for Barry.
Then I bought the album and heard "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and was instantly amazed at what a great power ballad it was. Now THAT should have been the first single. I don't care how many hours they spent on the PTPOL video creating holograms of themselves! There were many other standouts on that album such as "Blue Island" which they sang on other TV shows, "Kiss Of Life", "Haunted House" and "Omega Man". Of course, there are weaker tracks like "Anything For You" which still hasn't ended and "Above and Beyond". The version of "Decadance" which appeared as the B-Side of PTPOL (cassette only) was killer!

 

For Whom reached number 10 on the Euro Sales chart and 11 on the airplay chart. In the AC chart the song reached number 7
in Europe. In Argentina where Size reached number 1 for Whom was a top 5 smash. In the UK the song peaked at number 4 in the sales chart and number 10 in the airplay chart.

 

Paying the Price was the 22th most played song in Europe in 93. In the AC chart it was the 7th most played song of the year. The song got much more airplay than For Whom but it sold less of course.

 

Might be my favorite Bee Gees song, but on any given day it could be "Tragedy" as my favorite also.
If I remember right the single edit on the "Ultimate Collection" has some distortion towards the end, or at least it sounds like it.
At any rate, I got into this song really late. I bought the CD single a few years ago for $1 (it also has "New York Mining Disaster 1941", etc.) and just loved the song. It was after that I bought the album and started to collect the later period Bee Gees CDs.

PT

 

Honestly, didn't hear this one until I got The Record. Thought nothing of it, still don't particularly care for it. Seems kinda...generic. Glad it gave them a Top 5 UK hit.

 

To me, their very last fantastic, truly Bee Gees classic song. There would be more good songs coming, but this song is what makes them what they are. Killer chorus, gorgeous vocals that build and build as the song progresses, and a perfect lyric to music. Very well produced...excellent choice on who sung what based on what voice worked best. Everything else on that album, for me, is a big step down. The others are competent but typical Bee Gees songs from that period, that frankly for me are forgettable five minutes after finishing the album. In fact, despite hearing the album many times I don’t even remember what four of them sound like reading some of the titles you guys mention up thread. Never liked Blue Island that much. A real crime that the US clearly completely ignored the single. My theory? As someone else said, putting Paying The Price Of Love out in the US, with that absolutely terrible falsetto during the bridge, absolutely killed any chance of US radio playing any other tracks. And I agree with the poster that brought up how terrible that was to hear on late night tv live. He wasn’t hitting those notes very well live at that point, and if I recall it was the Letterman show where I saw them do it and it was cringeworthy when he got to that part of the song. Bell Tolls would have likely been a huge hit here had they started with it first. Also...I absolutely hate the edited version of the song. The chorus is incredibly strong and they just abruptly fade it out early on the edited version, and that is the version they keep insisting on using to this day on compilations. Even the video uses the truncated version (though it is one of the few good videos they did).

I’m on a rare negative roll, so let me go on since being they are my favorite group and I rarely say anything negative about their music, the vinyl version of the album sucks because they crammed all those songs on two sides. I have to believe we will be seeing vinyl reissues (which in the US would result in seeing titles issued on vinyl here that never have been before...mine are imports) and I sure hope they won’t be cramming High Civilization and Size on one disc like they did previously where they were issued on vinyl. The artwork on those two albums look so much better on the vinyl releases!

 

'For Whom the Bell Tolls' sounds like an improved version of 'The Only Love'. That one already had the potential of an epic ballad with a great chorus but the verses, the production and the arrangements were not exactly perfect.

 

Going back to Paying the Price of Love for a bit, here is another (funny) Bee Gees spot promoting the single/album :

 

One of the most exquisite songs ever written.

 

How to Fall in Love, Part 1 (1994)



Released: April 4, 1994
B-side: 855-7019, Fallen Angel (Remix)
Charts: #30 (UK)

"How to Fall in Love (Part 1)" is a song by the Bee Gees. It was the third and final single issued from the album Size Isn't Everything. After the big hit of "For Whom the Bell Tolls", the Gibb brothers experienced a new European hit with this R&B ballad. The song was the result of one song written by Barry and another song written by Robin, mixed together. The single peaked at number thirty in the UK.

In other countries in Europe, "Kiss of Life" was released in place of "How to Fall in Love, Part 1". Polydor affiliates thought the lively "Kiss of Life" more likely to get the charts.

On the CD single, "855-7019" features the sound of a needle being dropped at the very start and being lifted at the very end, respectively followed and preceded by surface noise, making it sound like a vinyl transfer. (In Germany, the song was originally featured on the B-side of the 7" single in its German release.) It is unclear whether the inclusion of such noises on the CD version is intentional.



How to Fall in Love, Part 1 - Wikipedia

 

Kiss of Life (1994)



Released: April 1994
B-side: 855-7019
Charts: #43 (Netherlands), #51 (Germany)

 

Not a fan of 'How to Fall in Love' but I like 'Kiss of Life' a lot, more than 'Paying the Price of Love'. What a shame that it wasn't a hit.

 

I'm a huge fan of both How to Fall In Love (Part 1) and Kiss of Life.

I love the overall atmosphere of How To Fall In Love. It just works to my ears. However, I also can understand why it didn't necessarily do well as a single. I have also always found it interesting that it originally was two different songs combined into one. It worked very well.

Kiss of Life is just awesome. It's interesting lyrically, catchy, has one heck of a hook, and has that Robin/Barry dueling lead that I love so much. The music video was fun too.

I love Fallen Angel, but this remix doesn't work for me. The original version is far superior to the remix, imo. Great vocal delivery by Robin.

 

'Kiss of Life' should have been the follow-up to 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' in the UK. It's much catchier than 'How to Fall in Love', and given the fact that 'Bell Tolls' was a big hit in the UK it would have had good chances to be a hit there as well.