Bee Gees - "Alone Together"

In March 1969, Robin Gibb quit the Bee Gees, leaving his brothers to carry on and record the album Cucumber Castle. Robin in turn recorded his debut solo LP Robin's Reign. Both acts had hit singles, but their respective albums didn't sell particularly well. Soon after Cucumber Castle's release, Barry Gibb announced he was going solo, leaving Maurice Gibb no other choice than to go solo as well.

All three brothers recorded solo albums in early 1970, and singles were chosen and album cover art created for all three. But it seems that all three Brothers Gibb had second thoughts about venturing out on their own, and all three solo albums were put on hold.

Initially, Robin and Maurice reunited and planned to record a new Bee Gees album, but soon Barry also rejoined the group. They recorded and released 2 Years On in November 1970, and the Bee Gees remained together until Maurice died in 2003.

What's intriguing to me is that the Gibb brothers not only abandoned their 1970 solo albums, but they didn't even re-record any of the songs for Bee Gees albums. Robin's solo album, Sing Slowly Sisters, remained unreleased until 2015 when it was included as part of the compilation Saved by the Bell: The Collected Works of Robin Gibb, 1968-1970. Maurice's and Barry's solo albums, The Loner and The Kid's No Good, respectively, have still not been released to this day.

I wondered what could have been if the group had, instead of starting from scratch, simply taken the best tracks of their solo albums to create a new Bee Gees album. With Barry's and Maurice's albums unreleased, this would have been difficult, except that singles from the albums were released.

SIDE A
1. Sing Slowly Sisters
2. Great Caesar's Ghost
3. I've Come Back
4. This Time
5. One Bad Thing

SIDE B
1. I'll Kiss Your Memory
2. Railroad
3. Engines, Aeroplanes
4. The Days Your Eyes Meet Mine
5. C'est La Vie, Au Revoir

While Barry's album has not been released, a single was: "I'll Kiss Your Memory" b/w "This Time." Other tracks have trickled out on bootlegs. Of those, both "One Bad Thing" and "The Day Your Eyes Met Mine" were co-written with Maurice, so I thought they were good ones to include.

Maurice didn't usually have many lead vocals on Bee Gees albums, which is good because we only have two songs to use. Like Barry, while Maurice's album wasn't released, one single was: "Railroad" b/w "I'll Come Back."

For Robin's contributions, we have the whole solo album to choose from. I decided I wanted to equal the number of Barry's tracks. Two of Robin's songs were originally considered for singles, the title track and "Great Caesar's Ghost," so we include both. I also included "Engines, Aeroplanes" and placed it after Maurice's "Railroad" simply because I thought that was a humorous connection. And "C'est La Vie, Au Revoir" was slated to be the closing song of the album, and seemed appropriate for this as well.

I thought Alone Together was a fitting title for this album. For a cover, I wanted to do something artistic, like creating one face from all three of their faces. However, I was quickly reminded of my limitations as an artist and eventually scrapped the idea. Instead, I used a portrait from about that time period and added titles and the record company logo. It's not great, but it's OK.

Bee Gees - "Night Fever"

The Bee Gees have at least four unreleased albums, including three solo LPs and one group album. But the album I'm showing off here was one that was never actually completed. I'm calling it Night Fever.

In early 1977, the Bee Gees began work on their follow-up album to the previous year's Children of the World. But before they got too far, their manager, Robert Stigwood, approached them to provide songs for a film he was producing. Plans for a new studio album were set aside as the group focused on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Of the eight songs the group recorded, half appeared on the soundtrack. Another song, "If I Can't Have You," was covered by Yvonne Elliman for the soundtrack. The Bee Gees' version appeared as the B-side to the "Stayin' Alive" single. Of the three other songs, two were covered by brother Andy Gibb ("(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away" and "Warm Ride") and the third, "Emotion,"  was covered by Samantha Sang. 

The Bee Gees' versions of these four songs eventually popped up. "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away," "If I Can't Have You" and "Warm Ride" appeared on the album Bee Gees Greatest, and "Emotion" appeared on Their Greatest Hits: The Record.

The only problem with trying to create a Bee Gees album as originally intended is that it's short, even when including the extended promo version of "Stayin' Alive," which I do. It could use at least one more song, and preferably two or three. But after doing a bit of research, I can't find any other songs from this period that could be included. I think the Bee Gees became so involved in assembling the soundtrack and working on other people's albums at the time, that they never got around to writing and recording additional music for themselves. So we just have to be content with a fairly short album. [*]

SIDE A

1. Night Fever

2. How Deep is Your Love

3. Emotion

4. (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away

SIDE B

1. More Than a Woman

2. If I Can't Have You

3. Warm Ride

4. Stayin' Alive

This collection kicks off with "Night Fever" and then slows down for the ballad "How Deep is Your Love." Then, those are followed by "Emotion" (the only song with lead vocals by Robin Gibb) before ending the first side with "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away." Side A is about 15 minutes, which is pretty short. It should be at least 17 or 19 minutes long. Maybe someday another song will surface to make it more complete.

The second side starts with "More Than a Woman" and continues with "If I Can't Have You" and "Warm Ride." The album ends with the 12-inch promo version of "Stayin' Alive," which runs 7 minutes, making an epic ending. That puts the second side at just shy of 17 minutes. Still a little short, but what can you do?

I put together the album cover using various images I found on the web. Here's a playlist of the album on YouTube.

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* Post Script:
Months after publishing this blog entry, I came upon extended versions of both "Night Fever" and "More Than a Woman" that clock in at 6:43 and 4:41, respectively. Now, the first side is 18:33, and the second side is 18:16. Yippee!