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The Bee Gees Make the Pop of Ages; Band and Universal Records Launch the Most Comprehensive Artist Timeline Spanning 50 Years


NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Nov. 16, 2001--In a world where artistic lifespans are often judged in terms of fads, most pop music acts last no longer than the trends that briefly catapulted them to fame. And those are just the ones that are lucky enough to end up in the "where are they now?" files.

It's rare to find a band like the Bee Gees, who started their musical career when nine-year-old brother Barry was joined by his six-year-old twin siblings Robin and Maurice. The group scored their first No. 1 hit in their native Australia back in 1966 and broke out to a world audience the following year. In their 40 years, the most successful trio in the history of contemporary music, the Bee Gees have
racked up some impressive numbers: 19 No. 1 singles, 25 albums, seven Grammys (out of 16 nominations) and 110 million album sales worldwide.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, "Saturday Night Fever" is still the best-selling soundtrack of all time. They're the only artists to have written and produced six consecutive No. 1 hits, and the only songwriters in history to have five simultaneous Top 10 singles. In fact, the Bee Gees are the most successful trio in pop music history.

All this and more from the Bee Gees' vast musical legacy is detailed at http://www.beegees.net, the group's official Web site.

"The Bee Gees Timeline is clearly in a league of its own for the Internet, though a pioneering `first' I believe in terms of scope and depth. After all, how many artists can claim an active and thriving career like the Bee Gees for almost half a century?" according to Michael Ameen, whose Los Angeles-based Web development and marketing firm, MACH 18, constructed http://www.beegees.net.

The interactive Timeline starts at the very beginning, with the birth of oldest brother Barry in the Isle of Man in 1946. By clicking on a camera icon, you can see pictures of Hugh and Barbara Gibb's wedding -- now click the newspaper icon three years down the timeline and an actual newspaper clipping shows the birth announcement of twins Robin and Maurice. Click the camera icons in the Fifties section, and you'll see a photographic timeline of everything from Barry's first guitar to the band's first public appearance under the name "The Rattlesnakes."

The Timeline continues all the way to present day, detailing every important aspect of the Bee Gees' lengthy and ongoing career. Icons link to newspaper clippings, rare photos, award information, and streaming audio and exclusive streaming video clips from four decades of Bee Gees history.

The Bee Gees will be releasing "Bee Gees: Their Greatest Hits: The Record" on Nov. 20 through Universal Records. The double CD will contain 40 tracks, including four newly recorded No. 1 hits.

Review of the new CD from the 11/18/01 edition of the Miami Herald

Bee Gees; Their Greastest Hits: The record (Universal).
Few acts in pop history could compile a two-CD, 40 track best-of and still not have room for all the hits. Features Gibb classics from the mid 60's to this year's This Is Where I Came In. But the selling point for collectors is the newly recorded versions of songs the Gibb's wrote for others (Emotion, Heartbreaker, Islands In The Stream and Immortality). Unfortunately, these don't stand up to the originals because of programmed tracks and lazt arrangements making them sound like demos.

(Please note this is a newspaper review and not my own personal opinion).

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LINER NOTES

The Bee Gees ability to change with the times is remarkable. In the sixties, they were classy harmonising popsters with a penchant for a big tuneful ballad; during the seventies they completely re-invented themselves with contemporary dance grooves, funky synths and falsetto vocals. In the wake of Saturday Night Fever, the biggest selling soundtrack album of all time, the brothers turned their attention to writing forother artists including the Woman In Love album for Barbra Streisand (US and UK No1), Islands In The Stream for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton (US No1), Chain Reaction for Diana Ross (UK No1) and Dionne Warwicks comeback smash Heartbreaker. Barry Gibb produced these records with his team earning him the rating as All-Time No3 Record Producer with the most No1 Records (14) to his credit.

Since the 1967 release of their first international hit, New York Mining Disaster, Bee Gees songs have topped the charts in five successive decades. They are the only group to have placed five singles simultaneously in the US Top 10, and to have monopolised the US charts with six consecutive No1s. Seven Grammies, a BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution To Music and 10 Lifetime Achievement Awards have contributed to earning the band honoured places in both the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame and the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.

Understandably, many top artists reserve the utmost respect for the Brothers Gibb but the way in which their songs have transcended generations is virtually unique. Megastars as diverse as Bono of U2, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Noel Gallagher of Oasis, and Destinys Child, have expressed their admiration for the trio of Man-cunian tearaways who grew up to dominate the worlds music charts. Delivering another No1, You Win Again, under their own name in the eighties, the Bee Gees proved they could still keep pace with the latest sounds, and in the 90s and the new millennium their flag was hoist aloft by a raft of younger acts who realised that truly great songs never die. N-Trance took Stayin Alive to No1 in Canada, Pras Michel morphed Islands In The Stream into Ghetto Supastar (US No1), Take That ended their career with UK No1 version of How Deep Is Your Love, Boyzone covered Words (UK No1) and Steps covered Tragedy (UK No1) and Chain Reaction. In 2001 Destinys Child released Emotion, 24 years after Samantha Sang made it a worldwide No1. In all, more than 500 cover versions of Gibb songs have been recorded by other artists.

Impressive as all of this is, the Bee Gees music is about much more than sales and awards. This group has provided the soundtrack to countless thousands of lives by writing the songs which bring lovers together, console the heartbroken, lift happy spirits even higher and cause young and old alike to get out on the floor, strut that stuff and forget, for a few precious moments, whatever cares might be troubling them.