Updating The Bee Gees' "Tales From The Brothers Gibb"

I recently found a reasonably priced used copy of the 4-CD compilation "Tales From The Brothers Gibb," a boxed-set of hits and rarities that was first issued in 1990 and is now, sadly, out of print in the U.S.

In addition to providing the best overview of the Bee Gees' career, this set offers first-rate sound quality and some excellent, unique stereo mixes. The only problem is that it was released 13 years before the Bee Gees' recording career ended -- so it omits eight or nine essential Bee Gees' classics from those last few albums.

While burning the set to CD-R for the car, I decided to rectify that problem. I expanded the set to five discs, and limited the first four discs to studio recordings. All of the live material that was originally on Disc 4 was then moved to Disc 5, where it was augmented by more lives tracks from the "Storytellers" CD and the "Live By Request" DVD. (Putting all of the live material on one disc -- with all of the songs from each of the three featured performances sequenced without any fades -- makes for a much smoother listening experience.)

I hope Rhino or some other label considers re-releasing, and updating, this classic set at some point. It's definitely one of the best boxed sets of the CD era.

Here's my own track listing for Disc Four and Disc Five, with all of the newly added tracks marked by an asterisk:

Disc 4
He's A Liar
Another Lonely Night in NY
The Woman In You
Someone Belonging To Someone
Toys
ESP (studio version, not the demo) *
You Win Again
Ordinary Lives
One
Tokyo Nights *
Secret Love *
The Only Love *
Heartbreaker (studio) *
Islands In The Stream (studio) *
For Whom The Bell Tolls *
This Is Where I Came In *
Alone *
Immortality *

Disc 5
Juliet (One For All Tour)
To Love Somebody (One For All Tour)
Medley: New York Mining Disaster / Holiday / Too Much Heaven / Heartbreaker / Islands In The Stream / Run To Me / World (One For All Tour)
Spicks And Specks (One For All Tour)
Words (from the "Storytellers" Target-exclusive CD) *
I Started A Joke (from the "Storytellers" Target-exclusive CD) *
Jive Talkin' (from the "Storytellers" Target-exclusive CD) *
I've Gotta Get A Message To You (from the "Storytellers" Target-exclusive CD) *
To Love Somebody (from the "Storytellers" Target-exclusive CD) *
Nights on Broadway (Live By Request) *
Wedding Day (Live By Request) *
Lonely Days (Live By Request) *
How Deep Is Your Love (Live By Request) *
You Should Be Dancin' (Live By Request) *

 

I like your idea of expanding the boxset and making it comprehensive, but to do it right would require the inclusion of all Bee Gees singles (A-sides and B-Sides), more solo material from the brothers, and at least a few of the Australian era songs. Looks like you are missing the singles "Living Eyes", "Angela", "Paying The Price of Love", "Happy Ever After", "Still Waters" and maybe a couple of others.

Therefore I would scrap the live material altogether. Also, if I was the curator, the set would include "Shine Shine", "Boys Do Fall In Love" and the tribute to Andy "Wish You Were Here".

 

I keep playing around with my own multi disc comp.
At present it looks like this:

The Battle Of The Blue And The Grey
The Three Kisses Of Love
Timber!
Wine And Women
I Want Home
Cherry Red
Monday's Rain
Spicks And Specks
I Am The World
New York Mining Disaster 1941
I Can't See Nobody
To Love Somebody
Holiday
Massachusetts
Barker Of The UFO
World
Sir Geoffrey Saved The World
Words
Sinking Ships
And The Sun Will Shine
Jumbo
The Singer Sang His Song
I've Gotta Get A Message To You
Kitty Can
Idea
I Started A Joke
Kilburn Towers

Odessa (City On The Black Sea)
First Of May
Lamplight
Marley Purt Drive
Melody Fair
Tomorrow Tomorrow
Sun In My Morning
Don't Forget To Remember
I.O.I.O.
Lonely Days
Morning Of My Life
How Can You Mend A Broken Heart
Country Woman
Walking Back To Waterloo
My World
On Time
Run To Me
Alive
Saw A New Morning

Wouldn't I Be Someone
Elisa
Mr. Natural
It Wouldn't Matter Much To Me
Charade
Heavy Breathing
Jive Talkin'
Wind Of Change
Nights On Broadway
Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)
You Should Be Dancing
Love So Right
Love Me
Boogie Child
How Deep Is Your Love
Stayin' Alive
If I Can't Have You
More Than A Woman
Night Fever

Too Much Heaven
Rest Your Love On Me
Tragedy
Love You Inside Out
Spirits (Having Flown)
He's A Liar
Living Eyes
Wildflower
Cryin' Every Day
The Woman In You
Someone Belonging To Someone
You Win Again
E.S.P.
Ordinary Lives
One
Bodyguard
Wish You Were Here

Secret Love
When He's Gone
Paying The Price Of Love
My Destiny
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Kiss Of Life
How To Fall In Love, Pt. 1
8557019
Alone
Rings Around The Moon
I Could Not Love You More
Love Never Dies
Still Waters Run Deep
Irresistible Force
Man In The Middle
This Is Where I Came In
I Will Be There

 

No "Tokyo Nights" in your comp? Ouch! That's one of their best latter-day tracks from the 1990s...
And no "Don't Throw It All Away" in there? Blasphemy!

Actually, that's a great compilation you have there. Hard to argue with those selections.

 

You can't have it all. I'm gutted that there was no room for Baby As You Turn Away.
Here's to a six-disc comp.

 

Yeah, the live material is not essential. I'd be happy to see them just revise Disc 4 so the whole set is nothing but studio tracks covering their whole career, with no live material.
But my Disc 4, with the newly added studio tracks, clocks in at more than 78 minutes, so there'd be no way to add the studio tracks you mention without either omitting some of the songs on the real version of Disc 4 or expanding to five discs.

 

Good point - I am so used to making playlists now I tend to ignore 80 min (old 74 minute) and 90 minute (cassette) limitations! But you could stretch it to six discs, still scrap the live material, and be more inclusive at each end (Australia, later years) with just studio material.

@Cloudbuster, that is quite a playlist you have!

 

I'll probably be modifying it until the day I die, lol.

 

I don't have this set but I did pick up Mythology, original release still sealed, a month ago - but have not opened it yet. Debating on if I should look for "Tales.." also.

Pat

 

If you can find it at a decent price, grab it. They are getting a bit scarce. There are a lot of songs you'll only find on CD on that set, and the consensus among fans is that it also has the best sound of any compilation released so far. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I found a copy in the original 12" x 12" format, with booklet, all in very good condition, for 20 bucks. A steal.

As I recall, the non-USA versions of this set include three solo Barry Gibb tracks not found on the American version.

 

I simply put together a fifth disc to complement the set. Seven of my 10 tracks match up with seven of your new nine! My unique tracks are "Emotion," "Still Waters Run Deep" and "Man In The Middle."

1. Secret Love
2. For Whom The Bell Tolls
3. Emotion
4. Heartbreaker
5. Alone
6. Still Waters Run Deep
7. Immortality
8. This Is Where I Came In
9. Man In The Middle
10. Islands In The Stream

 

These are all great ideas for expanding the Tales box. And I agree with everyone on most every point.....but am I the only one here that goes for the "deeper cuts" when I make Bee Gees playlists/compilations?? I really love songs like "Back Home", "I Can Bring Love", "Dogs", "Lovers", and "Can't Keep A Good Man Down". These are so overlooked. I do agree that they should compile all the single mixes of every track. Tales does a great job in what it did....but there are tons of single mixes that have never been released on disc to this day...aren't there? The BIG one I am referring to is the UK or some country single version of "Children Of The World" which I have heard is quite a bit different than the studio album version. Or is this just a myth?? I'd so love to at least get a chance to hear it one day. Bonus tracks or even a bonus disc would have been nice for these new Japanese reissues from this year and last. I'm not complaining though as I bought TWIMC and it sounds unbelievable to me. Best version by far in my opinion! Cheers!!!

 

I would add some of the Aussie track, basically the Gibb-original A-sides amd the odd non-album B-side ("I Want Home" and "I Am the World", I don't count Turn Around, Look at Us as a studio album). For CD 4 I'd toss out the live tracks and add more single A-sides and the odd rare B-sides (including both group and solo outings). I would expand the set to include all single A-sides, rare B-sides, bonustracks and non-album tracks up to 2001. It will probably boost the set to a 6 CD set but so be it.

 

I have this set. Bought it a few months ago for $16.00. I really love it but I wish they included songs the Brothers wrote for other performers.

 

Due to the lack of era-specific comps post-Greatest rounding up all their singles I've done some of my own. One being a 81-88 era comp mainly focusing on the last days of RSO and the subsequent solo work mainly with Polydor. This is followed by a 1987-91 Warner Bros era comp and lastly a 1993-2001 comp rounding off the end of the group. With some slight modifications they'd be a good continuation of a revised Tales set.

The 1981-88 comp:
He's a Liar
Living Eyes
Paradise
The Woman in You
Juliet [Robin Gibb]
Someone Belonging to Someone
Life Goes On
How Old Are You? [Robin Gibb]
Another Lonely Night in New York [Robin Gibb]
Boys Do Fall in Love [Robin Gibb]
Shine Shine [Barry Gibb]
Secret Agent [Robin Gibb]
Face to Face [Barry Gibb & Olivia Newton-John]
Fine Line [Barry Gibb]
Hold Her in Your Hand [Maurice Gibb]
In Your Diary [Robin Gibb]
Like a Fool [Robin Gibb]
Toys [Robin Gibb]
We're the Bunburys
Childhood Days [Barry Gibb]

I didn't bother sourcing the single versions so the above took 2 CDs to fit ~84 minutes of material on them. With the single versions I'd be able to squeeze it in just below 80 minutes. For a resequenced Tales set I'd move "Childhood Days" between the ESP and High Civilization tracks for the next disc to keep it chronological and still keep the full versions and make this the real Tales disc 4.

The 1987-1991 Warner Bros comp:
You Win Again
ESP
Crazy for Your Love
Angela
Ordinary Lives
One
Tokyo Nights
Bodyguard
Secret Love
When He's Gone
Happy Ever After
The Only Love

For the Warner Bros comp I did have the majority of the single versions handy so that was what ended up here. For Tales disc 5 I'd add the non-album track "Shape of Things to Come" from the 1988 Olympics album along with the above mentioned "Childhood Days".

The 1993-2001 Polydor comp:
Paying the Price of Love
For Whom the Bell Tolls
How to Fall in Love, part 1
Kiss of Life
Alone
I Could Not Love You More
Still Waters (Run Deep)
Ellan Vannin
This Is Where I Came In
Sacred Trust
Heartbreaker

This rounds up the remaining singles before the end. For the revised Tales I'd include some non-album tracks such as "My Destiny", "855-7019", "Decadance", "Love Never Dies", "Rings Around the Moon", "Emotion", the cover of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "I Will Be There", "Islands in the Stream", "The Bridge", "Angel of Mercy" and why not throw in "Sensuality" to add something really rare and awesome to the set. This will probably bring the disc total to about 7 and I haven't even rounded up the odd solo work Barry and Robin did post-Bee Gees...

 

Fun lists guys - I will makes a Tales Vol 2 set this weekend!

 

I also played around a bit with disc 1 of Tales. I included all the Aussie A-sides, plus the B-sides that didn't turn up on Sing and Play and Spicks and Specks. I dropped "I Can't See Nobody" from the original tracklist and ended the disc with First of May, I also made disc 1 all MONO.

For disc 2 I would like to add more of the solo work like "One Million Years", "August October", "I've Come Back" and "This Time" (the latter two have been ignored for far too long already!). I'm not sure how much of this will affect the disc break at this point but I would like to have the Mr Natural tracks go alongside the songs from Main Course for disc 3 but preferably nothing prior to those.

On top of moving the Mr Natural tracks over to disc 3 I can see myself adding a few more and effectively splitting it across two CDs, heck, I might even put the Living Eyes and Staying Alive OST tracks right after the Spirits tracks and leave the following disc all about the 80s solo stuff!

 

Bought this set in 1990. Don't have it anymore. Bought Mythology box in 2010. Awesome set better than 90 box. Awesome cd # 5 though for Tales, wish they wouls update the tales box.

Cheapen the packaging for this later release:

Mythology Bee Gees - Mythology - Amazon.com Music ».

This was the set I bought with the original book like packaging.

Mythology (4 CD) Box set Edition by Bee Gees (2010) Audio CD https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FW68RZW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_gbXuxbMJJ2KAY

 

No, mastering and song selection on Tales trumps Mythology which is a bit of an earsore for me. The only reason to get Mythology is for "Hold Her In Your Hand", "Angel of Mercy", "The Bridge" and "Arrow Through the Heart" and even then I'd wish they sounded better.

 

I'm still irritated that this box doesn't include "Lamplight" because in Germany it was an a-side in 1969. But from an American/ British perspective it's obviously just a b-side that's also on "Odessa". STILL I feel it somehow belongs on here

 

Lamplight was the B side to First Of May, it just happened to get a lot of airplay on German radio. Deservedly so, great track.
The Bee Gees Discography - Germany - 45cat »

 

https://www.discogs.com/Bee-Gees-Lamplight-First-Of-May/release/1746796

It's a bit of a fascinating release since the sequence on the vinyl still has "1st Of May" on the first side. While the - new unique - picture sleeve clearly promotes "Lamplight" as lead track. So technically in Germany it is both, a AND b. This is why it received lots and lots of airplay

 

About halfway down the page there's a history of the Bee Gees on the German charts 1967 - 1987.
Lamplight got to #4 on the radio chart.

UKMIX • View topic - The Bee Gees :: Charts & Sales History »

 

A list with "Wish You Were Here" and "Irresistible Force"...
So, my favourite is: Cloudbuster's list.

(Sorry, but i like very much these two songs)

 

I bought it as a Christmas present for myself, and it is excellent. The price can fluctuate a fair amount, but you can pick it up for a good price.

The packaging is great, but more importantly, this is one of the best sounding Gibb brothers' collection, on CD - go for it!