In a 2017 interview, Barry Gibb said it was his favourite song he'd written for its clear and emotional message. The group's second single was a minor hit in the UK, but it success has endured over the years and remains one of the most popular songs of the 1960s - covered by everyone from Nina Simone and Janis Joplin to Rod Stewart and Michael Buble. MORE: ABBA's Official Top 20 biggest songs 7. Despite having never set foot in Massachusetts, the track was their first global hit - and has the small claim to fame as the second song ever played on BBC Radio 1 following its launch that year. The group's first UK Number 1 was originally written with Australian group The Seekers in mind. The track was originally titled Drive Talking, inspired by the sound rhythm made by their car. The lead single from their 1975 album Main Course (and later featured on the 1977 Saturday Night Fever soundtrack), Jive Talkin' was seen as somewhat of a comeback for the group after a three-year absence from the charts. 20 years after its release, Tragedy landed at the summit once again thanks to Steps. The track became their fourth UK Number 1 and was also a chart-topper in America, where it knocked I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor off Number 1. Tragedy (1979)īy the time Bee Gees released hook-laden Tragedy they had been regulars at the top end of the Official Singles Chart for well over a decade. They used a 32-track recorder that Mardin described as “very, very brittle” and, in the final version, the song was sped up, raising it about a quarter tone, to improve the sound.MORE: Bee Gees' Official UK Chart history in full 10. Robin recalled that the brothers were so convinced that this was going to be a huge hit that they spent a month recording it and re-mixing it (including at Criteria Studios in Miami) to try to get it as perfect as possible, despite problems with the technology of the time. So, that’s one little secret – give people an automatic identification of who it is,” explained Maurice.Īll three brothers sang on “You Win Again” (Barry also played guitar and Maurice was on keyboards) and Robbie Kondor was featured on keyboards and synthesizer bass. “As soon as you hear that ‘jabba-doomba, jabba-doomba’ on the radio, you know it’s us. The group retained the steady, pounding opening beat for the final recording of the track at the Middle Ear studio in Miami Beach, with a new drum program devised by Maurice and celebrated producer Rhett Lawrence. When the band worked on a demo of the song in Maurice’s garage, they went for what Maurice called the distinctive “stomps” at the start. (Robin claimed he had not heard that song and was more worried that the title was too close to the Hot Chocolate hit “So You Win Again” from 1977.)įor the song, the Bee Gees reunited with producer Arif Mardin – a man who engineered and produced an incredible array of classic records from artists such as Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Diana Ross, and Barbra Streisand – who said that he was “inspired” by working again with such “incredible singers.” In the end, they chose the title “You Win Again,” even though it was the same as the Hank Williams classic from 1952. It ended up as a big demo in my garage,” Maurice recalled in 2001. When Barry told his brothers Maurice and Robin about his chorus, they immediately got together to write lyrics to accompany the tune, about a man losing “a battle of love.” “We had no idea how it might turn out as a song. “The chorus of ‘You Win Again’ came that way, but I didn’t have the recorder, so I had to run around the house and find something, because like a dream those things will disappear. “Some of my best grooves usually come in the night, in a dream, so I keep a little recorder nearby,” he told the BBC in 2016. “You Win Again,” a global hit that sparked a Bee Gees revival in the late 1980s, contained one of the band’s catchiest melodies – one that supposedly came to Barry Gibb in a dream.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |