Bee Gees

Three brothers, many bands. As you'll hear, the Bee Gees' four-decade hit-making machine was geared up for full production before — and after — Saturday Night Fever swept the world. If the Disco Nation ever had an anthem, "Stayin' Alive" is it. From the opening swagger of "you can tell by the way I use my walk," the song smolders like a pent-up fireball just waiting to explode on the dance floor. Trafalgar's "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?" is a masterpiece of spent soul energy, as Robin Gibb struggles at the edge of collapse before his brothers rescue him in the chorus, like the Famous Flames picking James Brown up off the stage. And in "To Love Somebody," Barry pays vocal homage to the King of Soul, Otis Redding — for whom the song was intended — and rips the lyric straight out of his heart. In Next Steps, we'll hear the Gibbs onstage, on the charts after a decade's absence, and more.

With its sequencer percolating out a dit-da-dit-da-dit rhythm against a snare-smacking backbeat, 1989's "One" put the Bee Gees back where they belonged — in the Top 10 — after a decade's absence. "I Can't See Nobody" — released as a b-side! — proves how spectacularly deep the Bee Gees' songbook was, right from the starting gate. And you simply gotta hear Robin's lung-busting wail as the tune crescendos against your cranium in a tsunami of blue-eyed soul. "Edge of the Universe," originally from the album Main Course, grabs an energy boost from a very enthusiastic Los Angeles crowd, and newly added keyboard player Blue Weaver's tasteful synth adds a refreshing dollop of prog to the familiar disco mix. In Deep Cuts, we'll hear the sound of a broken heart mending, Americana through British eyes, and more.

Opening with a simple, stark solo piano drenched in so much reverb it sounds like it's being played in a cathedral, Trafalgar's "Don't Wanna Live Inside Myself" picks up where "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?" left off, the sad tale of a sad man desperately scratching his way toward better days. "Spirits (Having Flown)" lopes along with the gentle, rolling cadence of a top-down drive along the coast, deceptively subdued until the keyboard kicks the chorus into top gear, sending the brothers' harmonies soaring skyward. And oddly enough, even though the Bee Gees had spent practically no time in the U.S., their "Marley Purt Drive" nails the pre-Americana roots rock sound that Dylan and company had captured at Big Pink; if you have any doubt, listen to it back-to-back with the Band's "The Weight."

It's a long, long way from Brisbane to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Over the course of four decades, the Bee Gees have sold more than 130 million albums on their way to becoming the second-biggest band of all time. Between the release of "Turn of the Century" in the waning days of the British Invasion to "Alone" at the turn of the millennium, the band amassed 19 worldwide #1 pop hits, and at the height of their popularity piled up such a hit surplus that they couldn't even cut them all themselves; even superstars, including Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, and Diana Ross, turned to the Gibb brothers for surefire smashes. So, if you're under the impression that the Bee Gees were merely '70s disco kings, you're in for a serious surprise. Allow us to introduce you to all the other bands that bore the Bee Gees name.