WTFThe Bee Gees?????

[Mutant Rose]

Cruising through the Rock N Roll hall of fame website and was astonished that they were inductees. I was even more astonished when I read the article I clipeed and pasted below. How do these guys even qulify as Rock N Roll They are POP artists. Is there anyone out there that can make this make sense for me??

Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb-better known as the Bee Gees-are among the most successful vocal groups in rock and roll history. They rank sixth on the all-time top-sellers list, having sold 64 million albums to date. Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees. The trio’s contributions to 1977’s Saturday Night Fever pushed that soundtrack album past the 40 million mark. It reigned as the top-selling album in history until Michael Jackson’s Thriller-an album that Jackson has acknowledged was inspired by Saturday Night Fever-surpassed it in the Eighties. Saturday Night Fever and 1979’s Spirits Having Flown combined to yield six #1 hits, making the Bee Gees the only group in pop history to write, produce and record that many consecutive chart-topping singles.

Britain’s first family of harmony, the Bee Gees might be pop’s ultimate chameleons. They took wing as a Beatles-inspired, vocal-oriented pop band, cutting the exemplary Bee Gees 1st, Horizontal and Idea in a two-year span during the late Sixties. Thereafter they made side forays into conceptual works (the double-LP Odessa) and even took a country-flavored turn (1973’s Life in a Tin Can). The mid-Seventies found them working in a more R&B-influenced groove-a fortuitous move that paid dividends within the growing dance culture taking shape at urban discotheques. With Main Course and Children of the World, the Bee Gees blossomed as architects of high-quality, song-oriented disco. Their career as pioneers of dance-oriented pop was forever sealed with the remarkable success of Saturday Night Fever and Spirits Having Flown. When their prolonged era of superstardom inevitably cooled, the Bee Gees re-emerged in the late-Eighties as a mature band of survivors.

Regardless of trends, the Bee Gees have demonstrated a unique ability to adapt to the changeable pop scene in an instinctive and organic way. While the various styles they’ve have undertaken may superficially seem unrelated, the introspective British pop and danceable American R&B that served as dual influences have remained consistent throughout a professional career that’s approaching its fortieth year.

Barry Gibb and twin brothers Maurice and Robin were born in Douglas, Isle of Man (an island off the British coast). Their father, Hughie Gibb, was a big-band leader and drummer. In 1958, the family moved to Australia, where they lived for eight years. Calling themselves the B.G.’s-short for “Brothers Gibb” and later amended to Bee Gees-the brothers began performing Down Under. Their first Australian hit came in 1966 ("Spicks and Specks"), and its success subsidized the family’s return to England in 1967. Over the next two years, the group launched a string of hit singles executed in a brooding, distinctively British pop style. From this period came such well-crafted, harmony-rich songs as “New York Mining Disaster 1941,” “To Love Somebody,” “Massachusetts,” “Words,” “I’ve Got to Get a Message to You” and “I Started a Joke.”

Following a temporary breakup, the Bee Gees promisingly kicked off the Seventies with another round of pop hits: “Lonely Days” (#3, 1970) and “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (#1, 1971). But the group thereupon foundered commercially and creatively until 1975’s Main Course, which found them taking a breezy, rhythm & blues oriented approach. Recording for the second time with producer Arif Mardin (who’d previously produced 1974’s Mr. Natural), the trio exploited their upper registers on such danceable mid-decade smashes as “Jive Talkin’ (#1, 1975) and “Nights On Broadway (#7, 1975), which established them as key architects of the emerging disco movement.

On the heels of this breakthrough, the Bee Gees were distressed to learn they could no longer work with Mardin since manager Robert Stigwood had shifted distribution of his RSO label from Atlantic (where Mardin was house producer) to Polydor. Nonetheless, the brothers proved resilient, teaming with engineer-producers Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson-who worked at Miami’s Criteria Studios, where Main Course had been recorded-for Children of the World. As it turned out, Main Course was just an appetizer compared to the awesome run of #1 hits that followed from 1976 to 1979: “You Should Be Dancing,” “How Deep Is Your Love,” “Stayin’ Alive,” “Night Fever,” “Too Much Heaven,” “Tragedy” and “Love You Inside Out.”

During the late Seventies, the Bee Gees’ dominated dance floors and airwaves. With their matching white suits, soaring high harmonies and polished, radio-friendly records, they remain one of the essential touchstones to that ultra-commercial era. Their pinnacle came with the 1979 release of Spirits Having Flown, which launched three #1 singles and sold 20 million copies worldwide. In the midst of all this came a low point, too: their starring roles (with Peter Frampton) in a 1978 musical film inspired by the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, an embarrassment that bordered on debacle.

The Bee Gees’ success hasn’t been limited to recordings issued under their own name. Individually and together they’ve written and produced major hits for such artists as Barbra Streisand ("Woman in Love,” Guilty,” “What Kind of Fool"), Diana Ross ("Chain Reaction"), Dionne Warwick ("Heartbreaker"), Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers ("Islands in the Stream"), Frankie Valli ("Grease"), Yvonne Elliman ("If I Can’t Have You") and their younger brother, the late Andy Gibb ("I Just Want to Be Your Everything,” “[Love Is] Thicker Than Water,” “Shadow Dancing"). In 1977, they became the first and only songwriters to place five songs in the Top Ten at the same time.

While their phenomenal hit streak of the late Seventies inevitably ended, the Bee Gees have remained intermittently active on the recording and performing fronts. In 1989, the title track from the album One returned them to the Top Ten. A comprehensive box set-Tales from the Brothers Gibb: A History in Song, 1967-1990-was released in 1990.

[pain cake]

Great group

[Zeppelin]

In your thread subtitle it says "vocalist group". In that sense, the Bee Gees damn well deserve to be up there.

[Zint]

Totally worthy accolades in the pre disco era.

Amazing harmonies.

Pop is under the rock umbrella,it's all part and parcel.

[ffrankwhite]

the vocal group is pretty much a non-entity in music now, they seem all identical, its a damn fucking shame that there arent such examples of individualistic and distinct and talented groups around nowadays. harmonising in general i think is lost on the nowadays crowd. again, crying shame.

[Mutant Rose]

But Alice Cooper and Guns N Roses have not even been inducted yet and the Bee Gees were put in before all of these people. 2007

Performer

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

Patti Smith

R.E.M.

The Ronettes

Van Halen

2006

Performer

Black Sabbath

Blondie

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Miles Davis

Sex Pistols

Lifetime Achievement

Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss

2005

Performer

Buddy Guy

Percy Sledge

The O'Jays

The Pretenders

U2

Lifetime Achievement

Frank Barsalona

Seymour Stein

2004

Performer

Bob Seger

George Harrison

Jackson Browne

Prince

The Dells

Traffic

ZZ Top

Lifetime Achievement

Jann S. Wenner

2003

Performer

AC/DC

Elvis Costello & the Attractions

Righteous Brothers

The Clash

The Police

Sidemen

Benny Benjamin

Floyd Cramer

Steve Douglas

2002

Performer

Brenda Lee

Gene Pitney

Isaac Hayes

Ramones

Talking Heads

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Sidemen

Chet Atkins

2001

Performer

Aerosmith

Michael Jackson

Paul Simon

Queen

Ritchie Valens

Solomon Burke

Steely Dan

The Flamingos

Sidemen

James Burton

Johnnie Johnson

2000

Performer

Bonnie Raitt

Earth, Wind & Fire

Eric Clapton

James Taylor

Lovin' Spoonful

The Moonglows

Early Influence

Billie Holiday

Nat "King" Cole

Sidemen

Earl Palmer

Hal Blaine

James Jamerson

King Curtis

Scotty Moore

1999

Performer

Billy Joel

Bruce Springsteen

Curtis Mayfield

Del Shannon

Dusty Springfield

Paul McCartney

The Staple Singers

Early Influence

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys

Charles Brown

1998

Performer

Fleetwood Mac

Gene Vincent

Lloyd Price

Santana

The Eagles

The Mamas and the Papas

Early Influence

Jelly Roll Morton

I remember singing along with them and doing the whole disco thing when it was cool, but I have a play list that is over three days long that does not have a single Bee Gees tune. I don't own even one of their CD's Even those of you defending them how much of their stuff do you actually own and regularly listen to?

They are ok, but I think it would be better if Pop had there own Hall of fame and leave the Rock n Roll one for the actual Genre and the early influences of such as the blues. JMO

Edited December 7, 2007 by Mutant Rose

[DCGNR]

I like A LOT of BeeGees songs and I'm not afraid to admit it!

Edited December 7, 2007 by DCGNR

[Zint]

But Alice Cooper and Guns N Roses have not even been inducted yet and the Bee Gees were put in before all of these people.

...all in good time,it'll happen

I remember doing the whole disco thing when it was cool

It was never cool..

[santana]

I've never understood why people are so quick to dismiss the Bee Gees. Seriously, if you can get past their disco phase (which was still great) they are definitely one of the greatest bands of all time.

Seriously. Do yourself a favor and download their song "Lonely Days."

[shades]

Seriously. Do yourself a favor and download their song "Lonely Days."

great choice

ignore large white guy in shirt and tie at the 1:23 mark

[AxlsAngel]

I've always liked the Bee Gees. They have some very sweet love songs too.

Edited December 8, 2007 by AxlsAngel

[DCGNR]

I've never understood why people are so quick to dismiss the Bee Gees. Seriously, if you can get past their disco phase (which was still great) they are definitely one of the greatest bands of all time.

Seriously. Do yourself a favor and download their song "Lonely Days."

Lonely Days is a great song, very good piano vibe going, but I always thought that towards the end, whichever Gibb was singing ( Andy, I think), sounds a little too much like John Lennon

[lagofala]

But Alice Cooper and Guns N Roses have not even been inducted yet and the Bee Gees were put in before all of these people. 2007

GNR is only eligible in 2009

[santana]

I've never understood why people are so quick to dismiss the Bee Gees. Seriously, if you can get past their disco phase (which was still great) they are definitely one of the greatest bands of all time.

Seriously. Do yourself a favor and download their song "Lonely Days."

Lonely Days is a great song, very good piano vibe going, but I always thought that towards the end, whichever Gibb was singing ( Andy, I think), sounds a little too much like John Lennon

It was probably Barry, he was the lead singer. Andy was never in the Bee Gees.

[Mutant Rose]

I like A LOT of BeeGees songs and I'm not afraid to admit it!

You lucky soul you never went to my Highschool. Deep in Red neck territory where no one dared listen to the beatles and those who listend to rock were beat up if they didn't turn off there radios before they parked on school property. Unfortunatly when Disco hit that was pretty mucyh all there was at the dances Oh to have those pictures now. The would make some great blackmail shots. Ok anyway Thanks for everyones input I will listen to thre non "disco stuff" If I am the only one shuddering at the thought I must have missed something.

[artfromtex]

"Words" and "To Love Somebody" are greatness.

[Lithium]

I like Bee Gees, they are the defining disco band after all.

[Zint]

"Words" and "To Love Somebody" are greatness.

yes indeed

[G n F n R]

Bee Gees definitely have some great tunes.