“The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” can currently be seen on HBO. But they’ve translated it into this interesting interpretation of soul.” The Bee Gees, originally made up of three brothers: Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb (died 2012), and Maurice Gibb (died 2003), have been successful for most of their. They were all falsetto lead singers,” he said, referencing top Black ensembles at the time.īritish singer-songwriter Mykaell Riley added, “The falsetto is very much a Black tradition. “We loved The Stylistics, The Spinners, The Delfonics. “Arif brought it out of us, you know we weren’t the first to sing in falsetto,” Maurice said. “This billion-dollar industry was being built way before the Bee Gees.” “Disco started in the gay and the Black community,” Nicky Siano, former Studio 54 DJ, said. “It was a discovery, and we discovered a new audience,” Barry said.īut the Bee Gees acknowledged they weren’t the first to use a falsetto sound to augment a dance track. With the success of their early dance tunes “Jive Talkin” and “You Should Be Dancing,” the Bee Gees broke into the club scene. “Everybody was saying the same thing: ‘Do that falsetto again, do that falsetto again.’ It was fine for me I was having a ball.”Īlso Read: Barry Gibb and 'Bee Gees' Director Frank Marshall Share a Brotherly Connection I came up with a lot of new ideas to suit the falsetto,” Barry remembered. “We found another sound we found a new sound. The band soon embraced disco and dance music, making use of Barry’s falsetto, which he wields with almost astonishing ease. “Everybody’s giving me credit,” Mardin said in the film. My whole life I never knew I could do this,” Barry joked. “I was thinking, my god, where is this coming from? I can do this. That was the first time Barry sang falsetto. It was in Miami that the Bee Gees began experimenting with new sounds, piggybacking on the influence of R&B and shows like “Soul Train.” While recording “Nights on Broadway,” producer Arif Mardin asked that someone harmonize while screaming in the background, Maurice remembered. “I thought those guys were really an R&B band that hadn’t really worked that out yet, and I thought, man, this would be so good if they could pick up on what’s going on in America,” Clapton said.Īlso Read: The Bee Gees' Disco Classic 'Stayin' Alive' Didn't Start Out as a Dance Tune In 1975, the band took the advice of veteran rocker Eric Clapton and went down to Miami to record their first album since the split at Criteria Studios in 1969. In the HBO documentary “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” surviving Bee Gee, Barry Gibb, takes viewers inside the studio, showing archival footage performing with his brothers Maurice and Robin and honing their signature sound. The Bee Gees’ sound evolved from pop to R&B in what became the disco music era, but it was their falsetto that was their unmistakable trademark… and it came about by accident many years into their career.
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