Bee Gees songs that were hits for other artists

always partial to the two boyband hits from the mid 90's, good slow set memories iykwim- take that's 'how deep is your love' or boyzone's 'words' but come come that is merely by way of noting their existence, voted chain reaction

Yeah, I excluded them because the criteria included "written *specifically* for other artists", or else I'd never hope to fit them all in; there must be hundreds of covers! My first memory of a Bee Gees song was the cover of "Tragedy" by Steps when I was about 9 or 10. It seemed that every pop group had a Gibb cover around that time.

oh right fair enough, missed that

can we really say that they wrote *specifically* for andy though, i mean wasn't it just 'boys, give andy a song or no dessert'

xpost: yeah, I probably should have put it in the title!

I think they wrote entire albums for Andy, and they never released those songs themselves first. Good quality stuff too.

in this era though, they were churning out hits every other day, so no biggie, but yeah, I think they were for Andy specifically.

aw, gotta be one of the andy gibb songs. maybe shadow dancing.

this is either 'heartbreaker' or 'shadow dancing' (probably 'heartbreaker') but i'm voting for 'guilty' cuz i suspect it'll need the help

Islands in the Stream

I love that in that late 70s/early 80s period they were able to crank out weird genre hybrid hits - oh here's a 50s rock song for you, a cod reggae song for you, a country song for them over there etc. Something for everybody!

Down to Tavares, Kenny & Dolly, "Shadow Dancing", "Our Love Don't Throw" "Emotion", "Guilty", Yvonne Elliman, Warwick. But voted for "I Just Want To Be Your Everything".

"Grease" is a remarkable song imo. Voting "If I Can't Have You."

yeah "Grease" is underrated. i hate the soundtrack, but that song is cool.

Hadn't heard the Tavares "More Than a Woman" in a long time. That is really nice - Freddie Perren production.

ridiculously hard to choose, but... "Islands in the Stream"

Two-way race between "Islands in the Stream" and "If I Can't Have You," the latter being probably my fave disco-era Bee Gees tune.

Here's a terrifically Vegas-y version of the former from Season 4 of "American Idol" just in case DJP pops into the thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAka4hiRLhM

"More Than a Woman" is probably their best song but their own version beats Tavares' for me so "If I Can't Have You" it is. on a whim.

I can listen to Dionne Warwick's "Heartbreaker" only a couple times a year because I weep every time. Like many Gibb librettos it makes no sense line to line though.

"Grease" is a remarkable song imo. Voting "If I Can't Have You."

― timellison, Wednesday, January 1, 2014 10:18 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah "Grease" is underrated. i hate the soundtrack, but that song is cool.

― billstevejim, Wednesday, January 1, 2014 10:39 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The soundtrack is an abomination, but that song is brilliant. I saw Barry interviewed about how Robert Stigwood asked him to write the title song (I think on the VH1 Legends special). "What? How am I supposed to write a song called 'Grease'?!" "I dunno...'Grease da da da Grease da da da'...now be on the next plane to LA with the song."

and Peter Frampton on guitar!

Dionne's delivery of this verse is as good as music could ever get tbf:

My love is stronger than the universe
My soul is cryin' for you
And that can not be reversed
You made the rules and you could not see
You made a life out of hurtin' me

"If I Can't Have You"

My soul is cryin' for you
And that can not be reversed

I love how she gives the impression she's going to trip on the second verse but no she sails through it like a pro

If I've missed any (and I probably have)

They wrote a lot for other artists in the 60s... but I don't know if they had any hits, this was a hit though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1auBpqZ4E

Yeah, I was reading about that last night after I started the poll. I'd never heard of it before, much less heard it, but it's a fairly nice pop ditty. I think they complained that it was "too simple" and they fell out with the Gibbs after that. Bit of a one-hit wonder.

Those Barry Gibb demo albums of Guilty, Heartbreaker, Eaten Alive et al are kinda fascinating listening.

I like this one, but it wasn't a hit:

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

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWKdMmH0B-E

if Otis hadn't died my vote would be for "To Love Somebody"

definitely not To Love Somebody by Gallon Drunk

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.