How Can You Poll a Broken Heart - the Robin Gibb Memorial BEE GEES TRACKS POLL RESULTS

yeah but that was later, for a charity thing

Oh OK. An underrated song, anyway - though not by ILM apparently :)

er wait, no it was one of their other late 70s bajillion sellers that was the UNICEF single, my mystake...

Though not issued as a single in conjunction with the parent album, it was issued as a single in the UK to promote the compilation Bee Gees Greatest, which was released in December, 1979.

I was thinking of Too Much Heaven

23. Spicks & Specks (Writers: Barry Gibb)
120 points (7 votes, 1 first place vote)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e88n68HviAE

The first single from the Bee Gees' 1966 Australian album "Monday's Rain". The album was subsequently quickly re-released as "Spicks and Specks" to capitalize on the success of the single. The success of "Spicks and Specks" across Australia, where it was a top-five hit in every state, propelled the Gibb brothers to move to England in 1967 to further their musical career.

Good song, but an odd choice for a #1.

Aussies...

:)

look, I will admit it was my typing-teacher's go to song in our typing class and because of hearing it EVERY week for an entire year it burrowed it's way into my head and I've loved it ever since then....even if it reminds me of repetitive typing drills whenever I hear it now

I stand by my choice

and Barry's big booming voice gives me chills

so there

22. Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You (Writers: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb)
123 points (5 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KzkIQonfk8

The B-side to "Holiday" in the US, taken from the Bee Gees' 1967 album "Bee Gees 1st". Covered by Killdozer & Alice Donut, Goon Moon (aka Twiggy Ramirez from Marilyn Manson + Chris Goss), the Flaming Lips, and Johnnie Young.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18W4iHkrgRE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxFgiFGGo1I

The first place I ever heard the song was a cover by The Posies. Then bought Bee Gees' 1st. Then became lifelong Bee Gees stan. Thanks, Posies!

21. Melody Fair (Writers: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb)
128 points (6 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftI8XSMo4ww

Released in 1969 on the Bee Gees album "Odessa", and later featured in the 1971 movie "Melody". Scottish singer (and wife of Maurice Gibb) Lulu released a version as the title song to her 1970 album "Melody Fair".

The first place I ever heard the song was a cover by The Posies. Then bought Bee Gees' 1st. Then became lifelong Bee Gees stan. Thanks, Posies!

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, June 19, 2012 3:33 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah that was my introduction to the song, too. great heavy cover!

hmm dunno how I missed that one. a popular tune with the Gen X kids apparently

20. Heartbreaker (Writers: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb)
129 points (6 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0S0-K3xlM

1982 single written and produced for Dionne Warwick, peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Warwick admitted in The Billboard Book of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits by Wesley Hyatt that she was not fond of "Heartbreaker" (regarding the song's international popularity, she quipped, "I cried all the way to the bank"), but recorded it because she trusted the Bee Gees' judgment that it would be a hit. It turned out to be Warwick's most successful solo hit of the 1980s.

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

Dionne Warwick not otm, Heartbreaker is awesome

Love the demo for this that Barry did. Some of his highest falsetto stuff.

19. Tragedy (Writers: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb)
145 points (8 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPcsMMEMbfw

Single from the 1979 Bee Gees album "Spirits Having Flown", reached #1 in both the US and the UK. For the explosion effect, Barry cupped his hands over a microphone and made an exploding sound. Several of these sounds were then mixed together creating the large boom heard on the record.

Barry Gibb, human beatbox

guitar on this is very proto-George Harrison to my ears

Some great footage of this song (specifically, the "explosion" overdubbing) being recorded in the In Our Own Time documentary (which is available on Netflix, for those who haven't seen it).

what is the most recent instance of this sort of squealing falsetto coming back into fashion...? It's such a strange vocal style that seems to periodically become popular (Four Seasons/Frankie Valli, Bee Gees, etc.) and then vanish.

Frankly I can only take so much of it, and Barry definitely over-did it imho (fucked up his back too, iirc)

18. You Win Again (Writers: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb)
149 points (8 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kses3SfG-lU

A single from the Bee Gees' 1987 album "ESP", it hit #1 n Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Norway, as well as making the top 10 in Italy, the Netherlands, Australia and Sweden. It also topped the Eurochart for 4 weeks. When this reached #1 on October 17, 1987 in the UK, it made the Bee Gees the first group to score a UK #1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, '70s, and '80s.

I had never heard of this song before this poll.

love!

17. You Should Be Dancing (Writers: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb)
152 points (8 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JoZS6LgqYI

A single by the Bee Gees, from the album "Children of the World" in 1976. The single hit number one for one week on the American Billboard Hot 100, number one for seven weeks on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart, and in July the same year, reached number five on the UK Singles Chart.[1] The song also peaked at number four on the Billboard R&B chart. It was this song that first launched the Bee Gees into disco stardom, and the first chart-topper in which Barry Gibb uses his now-trademark falsetto.

xoist it does have that slightly yuk mechanical 80's sound that I don't love, but it's just so goshdarn catchy I can't help loving it

You should be dancing? One word: HORNS

I guess the Scissor Sisters do the Barry falsetto... dunno how popular they are really. Does Timberlake ever do it, aside from the SNL parody? It's definitely in his range.

16. New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Writers: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb)
153 points (8 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z6_Ik7WrYY

The first Bee Gees song to be released in the United States, and their first song to hit the charts in the US[1] or UK. At the time, rumours circulated that the Bee Gees were The Beatles recording under a pseudonym (the Bee Gees' name was supposedly code for "Beatles Group"), in part because the record referenced NEMS Enterprises (Brian Epstein's management agency, which had just been joined by Bee Gees' manager Robert Stigwood).

According to the liner notes for their box-set Tales from the Brothers Gibb (1990), this song was inspired by the 1966 Aberfan mining disaster in Wales. In the second and third verses, the lyrical lines get slower and slower, as to indicate that life is about to expire for the miners.

Maurice Gibb recalled in an interview with Mojo magazine: "The opening chord doesn't sound like a conventional A minor. Barry was using the open D tuning he'd been taught when he was nine, and I was playing it in conventional tuning. It gives an unusual blend. People went crazy trying to figure out why they couldn't copy it."

In the movie Cucumber Castle – the movie that the Bee Gees starred in minus Robin Gibb – Maurice's character begins to sing this song while playing the banjo, only to end abruptly when a pie is thrown at his face.

15. I've Gotta Get a Message to You (Writers: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb)
154 points (8 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fAp2dJxycw

recorded by the Bee Gees in 1968, which became their second number-one single on the UK Singles Chart, and reached number eight on the US pop chart. In the UK the song was released as a single only. The song appeared on the US edition of the Bee Gees' third album "Idea".

Largely written by Robin, and intended originally for Percy Sledge (who did actually cover it later). Also covered by Swamp Dogg, Dusty Springfield, and Jose Feliciano.

14. Massachusetts (Writers: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb)
165 points (10 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCQIXK0-FVU

Written and recorded in 1967, and originally intended to be recorded by the Seekers, this song eventually appeared on the Bee Gees' 1968 album "Horizontal". It was their first Number 1 hit in Australia and the UK and eventually became one of the best-selling singles of all time, selling over 5 million copies worldwide. Strangely, even though "Massachusetts" was a worldwide number one single, it only reached #11 in the United States in... the state of Massachusetts.

er that last part should have been struck

in the state of Massachusetts

13. Islands in the Stream (Writers: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb)
166 points (7 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lixDK_tMEhE

written by the Bee Gees and sung by American country music artists Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. It was released in August 1983 as the first single from Rogers' album "Eyes That See in the Dark" and the second pop number-one for both Rogers and Parton (Rogers having been there with 1980's "Lady" and Parton with 1981's "9 to 5").

Islands in the Stream is, to me, one of the most perfect duets. The lyrics, the phrasing, everything is just so well crafted. I know it was originally written as a solo (right?)...I can't even imagine it as a solo thing now.

the Barry demo version is him singing solo with harmony vocals on the choruses iirc

but yeah this is really some beautiful alchemical combo, the perfect intersection of a bunch of different styles

Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)(Writers: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb)
182 points (9 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgDbE6WOyws

Written and performed by the Bee Gees for their Main Course album in 1975. It was the third single release from the album and peaked at number 12 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. This song was the debut of Barry's high falsetto/disco voice.

seems like an absolutely filthy songtitle in retrospect.

er that's no. 12. sorry.

and the last one for today, an unfairly overlooked gem imho

11. Mr. Natural (Writers: Barry and Robin and Maurice)
188 points (7 votes, 1 first place vote)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wufvuw9WQ0

written by Barry and Robin Gibb recorded and released in 1974 by the Bee Gees. Released during a period in which The Bee Gees just had an album (A Kick In The Head Is Worth Eight In The Pants) rejected by their manager Robert Stigwood, Mr. Natural barely scraped the lower end of the Billboard Hot 100 climbing to #93 despite promotional appearances on The Mike Douglas Show and The Merv Griffin Show.

results so far

11. Mr. Natural
12. Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)
13. Islands In The Stream
14. Massachusetts
15. I've Gotta Get A Message To You
16. New York Mining Disaster 1941
17. You Should Be Dancing
18. You Win Again
19. Tragedy
20. Heartbreaker
21. Melody Fair
22. Every Christian Lionhearted Man Will Show You
23. Spicks & Specks
24. Run To Me
25. Emotion
26. Lonely Days
27. Holiday
27. Spirits Having Flown
28. Love You Inside Out
29. World
30. Lemons Never Forget
31. I Just Want To Be Your Everything
32. Words
33. Grease
34. Trafalgar
35. Odessa (City on the Black Sea)
36. Too Much Heaven
37. **TIE** I Can't See Nobody, Sweet Song of Summer, Guilty
38. Paradise
39. Don't Wanna Live Inside Myself
40. For Whom the Bell Tolls
41. The Flag I Flew
42. Shadow Dancing
43. **TIE** Kilburn Towers, Edge of the Universe, Nobody's Someone,
Please Read Me
44. I Laugh in Your Face
45. **TIE** Indian Gin And Whisky Dry, (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away, Seven Seas Symphony
46. Black Diamond
47. An Everlasting Love
48. **TIE** Throw a Penny, Chain Reaction
49. **TIE** A Very Special Day, (Love is) Thicker Than Water
50. Woman in Love

the Barry demo version is him singing solo with harmony vocals on the choruses iirc

and the last one for today, an unfairly overlooked gem imho

yeah I was bummed when it slipped out of the top 10.

That was my #1...can't believe it didn't make the top 10! Oh well...

I shortlisted "Mr. Natural" but ultimately it missed the cut, instead opting for a couple of other tracks from the album I like better. Mr. Natural is one of these transitional albums that catches a band halfway between their old sound they've grown tired of and a new sound they're striving for but haven't quite yet found.

I have no idea whether the top 10 will be deep-cut fan faves or the big hits. There are several of the latter I didn't vote for.

Mr. Natural is one of these transitional albums that catches a band halfway between their old sound they've grown tired of and a new sound they're striving for but haven't quite yet found.

Agreed, but that doesn't apply to the title cut. There's nothing "old Bee Gees" or "semi-disco" about it -- if anything, it's a very rare dip into blue eyed soul. But even there, the chorus is so elongated, it's not like anything in the genre.

One other thing I think "Mr. Natural" has going for it: the lyrics appear to be an extraordinary metaphor for the band's quest to regain artistic and commercial momentum at the time:

Burning embers.
I still remember all of those little things.
But I can't feel it so much 'cause I am so out of touch
with my heart and it won't sing.
Rusty rainbows.
That's how the pain goes, turning me inside out.
Well, I come home at night and you are out of my sight.
Yes. I'm dying and there ain't no doubt.
Well, I'm dying and there's no way out.

Well I try try try try try....
Mr. Natural (come on baby)
When I walk in the rain you won't know that I'm crying.
A smile on my face and I'm trying.
I'm trying to understand that a love that is lost can never be found again.
And you can see me dance, I look like a happy man.

Just when I think I'm getting it over, an old friend I should see.
He said he knew you well, and baby I could tell.
You know he knew you more then me.
I went home laughing and inside I'm crying.
We had a special thing.
You know I loved you so much, but girl I'm so out of touch
with my heart and it won't sing.
You know my heart just won't sing.

Well I try try try try try.....
Mr. Natural (come on baby)
When I walk in the rain you won't know that I'm crying.
A smile on my face and I'm trying.
I'm trying to understand that a love that is lost can never be found again.
And you can see me dance, I look like a happy man.

Still I try try try try try.....
Mr. Natural (come on baby)
Well I try try try try try
Mr. Natural (come on baby)
(repeat verse and fade out)

I really wanted to vote for this song, but ultimately there were 30 I liked better

It's ok -- not everyone can be right 100% of the time.