Whether You're a Brother or Whether You're a Lover

Only Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold this musical trio in worldwide record sales. Their three part harmonies are automatically and instantly recognizable from the first note played the first word uttered. They co-wrote every song, every hit...and wrote and produced numerous other recordings for several other major artists. They are the Brothers Gibb or Maurice, Barry and Robin, but we know them as the Bee Gees. 

In recent news, Robin Gibb has been in a coma, has colorectal cancer, suffering from pneumonia and the same type of illness that his brother, Maurice succumb to in 2003. Robin in the past few days, we have learned, did awaken from the coma...but his holistic health and recovery remains hanging in the balance. 

They have had a broad spectrum of incomparable success, and their biggest successes began in the latter years of the 1970s, the Disco Era. The movies, Saturday Night Fever and Stayin' Alive set them permanently on the map of musical majesty. Who remembers? How could we forget? Those two albums alone skyrocketed them into a decade of music that is still appreciated today, maybe even more so than at the time.

The release of the soundtrack, Saturday Night Fever became the number one selling soundtrack of all time...over 40 million copies sold. This was, by all accounts, their first jewel to be placed in their crown. Then the backlash and criticisms of the era that was disco placed their careers in a tailspin. But I assure you disco is not dead...it's alive and breathing through many tracks and here's just a few of their's;

Stayin' Alive, How Deep is Your Love, More Than a Woman, Night Fever, You Should Be Dancin', Heartbreaker, Tragedy, Jive Talkin', and Emotion.

My mother and I went to the cinema to see both Saturday Night Fever and Stayin' Alive. That's when I first fell in love with Travolta and The Bee Gees. It was a double feature at the cinema in my hometown of Corbin, KY. I first saw Travolta in the movie, Grease (that continues to be one of my all-time favorites) with my mother as well in 1978. Still, Danny Zuko with all his T-Birds and Pink Ladies combined were not half as cool as Tony Manero or The Bee Gees.