Local Australian DJ Bill Gates (not that one) renamed the brothers' group to the BG's (later changed to 'Bee Gees') after his, speedway promoter Bill Goode and Barry Gibb's initials. After achieving their first chart success in Australia, they returned to the UK in 1967. The family moved to Redcliffe, in Queensland, Australia.
They were born on the Isle of Man to English parents, and lived in Chorlton, Manchester until the late 1950s. The Gibbs wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several massive hits for other artists. Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals was the main hallmark of their earlier songs, while Barry's high falsetto became their signature sound in later years. The group were known for their three-part tight harmonies. The trio were particularly huge in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent disco performers in the mid-to-late 1970s. “It will just take one or two successful marketing efforts to get them top-of-mind for people again.The Bee Gees were a pop group formed in 1958, consisting of brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, the latter of which were twins. “The catalog could use a couple of fresh impressions on listeners, but it's not like people have forgotten about their songs,” she added.
“The Bee Gees are such a beloved band that they never really went out of the public's consciousness,” Schwatz said. Regardless of whatever state the group’s catalog is in now, it won’t take much to remind people why they were so popular in the first place, said Mara Schwartz Kuge, president and founder of Superior Music Publishing in Los Angeles. “Barry's spin on this approach can include duets… with such mainstream artists as Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and Taylor Swift,” he said. His 1993 Duets album featured collaborations between the late crooner and some of the era’s top contemporary artists, such as Luther Vandross and Kenny G. Marketing, said that Gibb could follow the path laid out by Frank Sinatra. Business strategist Rafe Gomez, co-owner of VC Inc. “Look at what Cadbury did for Phil Collins,” he said, referring to a 2007 commercial that featured a gorilla playing drums to the tune of Collins’ 1981 song “In the Air Tonight.” The popularity of the ad put the decades-old song back on the U.K.
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It’s a start, but can the recently knighted Barry Gibb do anything to put the group on more people’s radars? “They need to find an ad agency and give them free rights to use their music,” said Rob Miller, an online marketing consultant at. “We’re always seeking ways to introduce new audiences to the Bee Gees’ incredible music, most recently with a CBS Television special last year, and we’re constantly thinking of exciting new experiences for the band’s passionate fan base,” the executive added. “The Bee Gees are a major part of pop music history, known from the early days for their iconic songwriting and harmonies to their evolution to a chart-topping powerhouse group,” said Resnikoff, who’s an avowed believer in the power of classic catalogs. The label has since released the compilation Timeless: The All-Time Greatest Hits, and a deluxe reissue of the " Saturday Night Fever " soundtrack to commemorate the 40 th anniversary of the seminal film and album.īruce Resnikoff, president and CEO of Universal Music Enterprises, a division of Universal Music Group that handles Capitol's catalog, said that his organization is aware of what they’ve got on their hands - and plans to handle it with care. But can anything be done to shake things up?īack in November 2016, a campaign to do exactly that was announced when Capitol Records signed the group to a long-term contract, pledging to “re-invigorate” their catalog. It may not be realistic to expect the Bee Gees to be as popular now as they were four decades ago. By comparison, such long-defunct legacy artists as the Beatles and Pink Floyd were among the platform’s top 25 most streamed artists last year. According to figures from Spotify, the group boasts approximately 6.5 million monthly listeners, putting them at only the number 375 spot on the service’s most-listened-to list. On streaming services, the situation isn’t much better. The group has also released several other chart-topping albums, but in the current era, compact disc and vinyl versions of many of their classic albums are out of print.
The group bolstered the 1977 soundtrack of “ Saturday Night Fever” a disco cultural touchstone that’s sold 16 million copies in the U.S.
Today, their catalog appears to be in danger of being forgotten by consumers. In their 1970s glory days, the Bee Gees were an unstoppable musical and commercial force.