The Bee Gees Albums Ranked
The Bee Gees were so much more than disco. That’s not to say that their relatively brief disco period (as brief as it was for the whole genre) didn’t yield tremendous music, and you’ll see just what I think of that period soon enough. But it is to point out that from 1965 to 2001, the run of their 24 “canonical” releases, Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb were never relegated to one sound. Their story was tumultuous, with Barry now the lone surviving brother (younger brother and fellow musician Andy died first), but precisely because of their disco period, the Bee Gees cultivated a rabid and passionate fanbase that yielded the usual nostalgia tours and cover bands. Technically “formed” in 1958 as the 12-year-old Barry and 9-year-old Robin and Maurice (fraternal twins) followed up their earlier childhood band, the Bee Gees started out as an Australian act after their move to the country from England. After two Australian records, they would break out with an English production in 1967, and continue an array of pop music experiments over nearly forty years. I don’t think the Bee Gees ever made an unimpeachably phenomenal album, but I also think they made a ton of pleasant, fun, and downright moving music during their career. And so I’ve ranked their main 22 albums, plus the SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977) and STAYING ALIVE (1983) soundtracks; the former is too important to leave off, and by that inclusion, STAYING ALIVE should also be present. Not present on this list are soundtrack MELODY (1971), as it was pulled from previous recordings, nor INCEPTION/NOSTALGIA (1970, an interesting compilation album of previously unreleased songs) or SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1978). The latter truly is terrible, but it also doesn’t quite qualify as a “Bee Gees album” the way SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and STAYING ALIVE do. Anyways, I’ll qualify their inclusion more below.
#24 — STAYING ALIVE (1983)
Favorite track: “The Woman in You”
STAYING ALIVE is a bad sequel to SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, and so is its soundtrack. SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER represents the band’s peak, at the very least in popularity, and STAYING ALIVE represents its nadir. As with SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, the Bee Gees provided five songs for the soundtrack, which were supplemented by other artists, most notably director Sylvester Stallone’s brother Frank. Unlike SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, these five songs are not the group’s best. By the time of STAYING ALIVE, disco was 100 percent dead, and while the Bee Gees’ songs, and the others especially, aren’t trying to revive disco, they just play with extreme ’80s cheese. I think the ’80s were the worst decade for pop music, and STAYING ALIVE is a perfect representative for that sentiment. Despite my harsh words, I don’t think the Bee Gees are offensive on the record. Maybe worse, they were boring. This ranking, as my upcoming SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER ranking does, only considers the Bee Gees contributions, by the way.
#23 — STILL WATERS (1997)
Favorite track: “I Will”
STILL WATERS was the Bee Gees’ second-to-last album. It is also their second-to-worst one. As I explained with STAYING ALIVE, STILL WATERS’ biggest violation isn’t out-and-out terrible sounds; it’s just boring ones. By the late ’80s and ’90s, the Bee Gees had taken on a relatively bland adult contemporary sound that the over-the-top early ‘80s-ness of STAYING ALIVE nearly superseded. Still, the brothers’ harmonizing is still on respectable display, and I do believe the Bee Gees were among the best pop songwriters of their day. Good hooks are still to be heard on STILL WATERS, but the instrumentation and production makes them pass right through your ears instead of making them worm right into your cranium.
#22 — SIZE ISN’T EVERYTHING (1993)
Favorite track: “Fallen Angel”
STILL WATERS’ predecessor, SIZE ISN’T EVERYTHING, is marginally better and also more interesting. It has the same problem as its successor, in that SIZE ISN’T EVERYTHING has a bunch of solid pop songwriting nearly on display, but it’s buried behind the malaise of drum machines and synth of the ’90s. However, “Fallen Angel” just might be the Bee Gees’ best late career song, with a really great vocal harmony in the chorus. It’s a silly, melodramatic song, but the best kind of silly; it feels akin to the greatness of their ’70s work. The rest of SIZE ISN’T EVERYTHING isn’t nearly as good, but it’s generally more upbeat and varied than STILL WATERS, so it gets the edge.
#21 — ONE (1989)
Favorite track: “Tokyo Nights”
ONE was the second album in a series that lasted until the Bee Gees’ final one, during which they mounted a modest comeback, especially in Europe, after the disappointment of the fall of disco and their status as “radio poison.” It was a period of what I can only describe as adult contemporary, and it wasn’t as terrible as that genre could be. ONE is fine, if in keeping with the nearly boring albums that surrounded it on the Bee Gees timeline. “Tokyo Nights” sounds like a movie theme, something I suppose the band was skilled at creating, and it, along with the title track, display those songwriting chops I keep alluding to.
#20 — E.S.P. (1987)
Favorite track: “You Win Again”
E.S.P. was the album that brought the Bee Gees back into some successful territory, and it came after their longest break between albums. If you consider STAYING ALIVE as a major album effort, which I clearly do, E.S.P. came only four years later, which also came between SIZE ISN’T EVERYTHING and STILL WATERS, and STILL WATERS and THIS IS WHERE I CAME IN. But E.S.P. came six years after the Bee Gees’ previous full-length LP, LIVING EYES. While I clearly don’t think the break yielded something better, I do appreciate that E.S.P. seemed to come from a more confident band, for better and worse. It started the band’s malaise era, but if there’s something I realized listening through the Bee Gees’ discography, it’s that there are still little gems to be found in a period that I had kind of written off in my head. “You Win Again” is just a fun, rousing head-bobber, and “Backtafunk” sounds like an attempt to capture a pre-SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER sound. The effort on E.S.P. is not wholly successful, but it turned out OK.
#19 — SPIRITS HAVING FLOWN (1979)
Favorite track: “Tragedy”
This may be blasphemy to some, as SPIRITS HAVING FLOWN was a huge success on the heels of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. The former was the Bee Gees’ second best-selling album, again, right after SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, and it yielded six chart-topping singles in a single year, also attained only by the likes of Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles. But then, “Tragedy” struck: the song is good, but SPIRITS HAVING FLOWN came out right before the disco crash later in 1979 and ’80. Even if it was in a vacuum of commercial success, however, SPIRITS HAVING FLOWN was the “sophomore slump” to the Bee Gees’ great artistic accomplishment in the disco world, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. The aforementioned “Tragedy” opens the record to great effect, but the rest of SPIRITS HAVING FLOWN is unable to keep up with the energy and catchiness of the first track. Honestly, it’s a bit hard to put my finger on it, but I think the success of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER took the group by surprise, and although there were 14 months or so between their releases, I believe the Bee Gees tried too quickly and too hard to replicate that success. The result is still an enjoyable disco album, just not up to par with, well, most of the band’s other albums.
#18 — TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN (1972)
Favorite track: “Paper Mache, Cabbages & Kings”
I’ve been pretty critical of the Bee Gees’ “malaise period” of their later work, but they kind of had one before their disco success. In the early ’70s, after Robin Gibb’s one-album absence and return to the group, the group really committed to their slower ballad sound. One of the results of that commitment, TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, subsequently lost the playfulness and fun of the Bee Gees’ ’60s output. I won’t deny there are some decent, pleasant displays of romance and angst on the album, but it never rises above a baseline of slightly enjoyable. “Paper Mache, Cabbages & Kings” is the best song on TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN because it hearkens the most to the whimsy of albums from just a few years earlier, and that speaks to the unfortunate situation with the album.
#17 — THIS IS WHERE I CAME IN (2001)
Favorite track: “This Is Where I Came In”
I may have an issue with assigning undue significance to a group or artist’s final work. Perhaps the impact of THIS IS WHERE I CAME IN, the Bee Gees’ last album, is increased because of the knowledge that Maurice would die just two years after its release, and Robin would follow in 2012. But I also do believe the record is a marked shift from the band’s previous decade-and-a-half of work. There is a more straightforward attention to pop rock, fused as it is with parts from the ’60s and late ‘90s/early 2000s. THIS IS WHERE I CAME IN’s title track is the best example, but the Bee Gees put their always solid songwriting hooks to better use on the whole album, without annoying or boring instrumentation obscuring, yes, kind of cheesy pop. It’s a solid album, and a surprising artifact on the precipice of the end of a great career.
#16 — LIFE IN A TIN CAN (1973)
Favorite track: “Living in Chicago”
“Living in Chicago” is one of my favorite Bee Gees songs, so it definitely lends some weight to my overall evaluation to its source album, LIFE IN A TIN CAN. But the record is also the middling output of that early ’70s period I’ve already described. It’s slow and wistful, but the latter quality isn’t always unwelcome or overplayed. That’s most apparent on, again, “Living in Chicago,” but opener “Saw a New Morning” is also solid. The Bee Gees’ apparent interest in America (reminiscent of the Kinks’ work) is represented by “Chicago” and “South Dakota Morning,” but also by a strain of country music in a couple of other tracks. LIFE IN A TIN CAN isn’t quite as sprightly as it should be with only eight tracks, but it’s a nice little meditation.
#15 — TRAFALGAR (1971)
Favorite track: “Don’t Wanna Live Inside Myself”
TRAFALGAR is the best of the early ’70s malaise trilogy comprised of it, LIFE IN A TIN CAN, and TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. Perhaps because it was the first, but TRAFALGAR has a bit more emotional weight behind its slow ballads. “Don’t Wanna Live Inside Myself” is a genuinely sad song, but TRAFALGAR also benefits from a bit of variety, especially in the form of “Walking Back to Waterloo.” Simply put, it does what the next two albums would do, but better.
#14 — HIGH CIVILIZATION (1991)
Favorite track: “When He’s Gone”
The best Bee Gees album post-SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (and I do believe Bee Gees fans measure things by pre- and post-SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER), HIGH CIVILIZATION is of course still a middling record in the scope of the Bee Gees’ entire discography. The album art is also terrible. Nevertheless, it represents a balancing of the equation I’ve described already: songwriting hooks + production + instrumentation = song quality. By that, I mean the execution of some of the rhythms, harmonies, and melodies match up much more effectively with the very ’90s sound present on HIGH CIVILIZATION. But hey, just listen to the pre-chorus and chorus on “When He’s Gone;” this is good Bee Gees stuff. Preceding tracks on the album, “High Civilization” and “Secret Love,” certainly establish a better first half of an album, but the entirety of HIGH CIVILIZATION is still a fun album, and a surprisingly bright spot in, yes, the darkness of the Bee Gees’ worst period.
#13 — SPICKS AND SPECKS (1966)
Favorite track: “Spicks and Specks”
It was 1966, so SPICKS AND SPECKS’ album cover implies more psychedelia than can actually be found on the record. But on their second album, made before the England move, the Bee Gees are still in the mode of early ’60s pop rock bands on the precipice of revolution. They had marginally more time to be a little ahead in ’66, but the Beatles, the Kinks, and The Rolling Stones, and the Beatles especially, were clearly an influence on the fledgling Bee Gees. But the Gibbs were impressive in their own right, with SPICKS AND SPECKS’ title track communicating an impressive gravitas and enveloping sound. It’s a little riskier than the band’s first record…
#12 — THE BEE GEES SING AND PLAY 14 BARRY GIBB SONGS (1965)
Favorite track: “And the Children Laughing”
…but that first record, if a little more “clean-cut,” and the natural first in a three-step process to BEE GEES’ 1ST, is just a little less muddy. I don’t necessarily or fully know what I mean by that, but the simplicity and yet full sound on THE BEE GEES SING AND PLAY 14 BARRY GIBB SONGS makes for such a great mid-60s pop listen. It’s really a kind of comfort food for a different era, and the overall quality of the songs are just a “speck” higher than that of SPICKS AND SPECKS. BEE GEES SING AND PLAY is almost a compilation album, as it collects a bunch of singles issued in the previous three years, but also some new tracks written specifically for the album. However, it then benefits from a relatively eclectic array of sounds within the early Bee Gees mode.
#11 — MR. NATURAL (1974)
Favorite track: “Mr. Natural”
MR. NATURAL is often noted as the album that set the Bee Gees on the path to disco, and for good reason. For their pass at some “plastic soul,” the Bee Gees used some funky basslines, a pounding beat, and an overall dancier approach to craft a fun album that, in hindsight, represented the fusion of the band’s ’60s sound and the then-contemporary funk and soul music being made by black musicians. MR. NATURAL’s title track is the best example of this, and therefore the record’s best song, but also turn to “I Can’t Let You Go” and “Heavy Breathing” for some other great listens.
#10 — HORIZONTAL (1968)
Favorite track: “World”
From BEE GEES 1ST through about CUCUMBER CASTLE, the Bee Gees worked within a pop/rock/psychedelic sound that accentuated British whimsy and choral/orchestral gravitas. HORIZONTAL, as the follow up to BEE GEES 1ST, is very much in that same style, but it also kind of took a step back from the more “quirky” elements of their international debut. The result is a less good album, but still very much a quite good one. “World” is a soaring little ditty, but “Massachusetts” and “Harry Braff” are also fun, and they are joined by other songs that, while never reaching the same heights, cohere to make a very enjoyable, atmospheric album. HORIZONTAL is a satisfying listening experience, with a wide emotional range and, while more limited than its predecessor, a welcoming sonic one as well.
#9 — CUCUMBER CASTLE (1970)
Favorite track: “I Lay Down and Die”
One of my favorite things about early Bee Gees is how angsty they could be. “I Lay Down and Die” is just so dramatic, my God. But it really is to their credit that the actual song behind that title is not schmaltzy or annoying, but instead genuinely compelling. It’s even more impressive that CUCUMBER CASTLE was as good as it is, considering it was spawned from an apparently iffy television special of the same name, and that it is the sole Bee Gees album without Robin Gibb. It was a period of some turbulent personnel changes for the band; in the earlier years, the Bee Gees had full-time, (semi-)permanent members in addition to the Gibb brothers. In any event, CUCUMBER CASTLE, like the best Bee Gees albums (that’s what we’re talking about now of course, we’re in the top ten), gives a whole listening experience, from silly to sad to smart and, honestly, to a little dumb. “I.O.I.O” is in fact catchy, but a bit ridiculous. But the whole of CUCUMBER CASTLE is quite playful, and I appreciate it for that.
#8 — ODESSA (1969)
Favorite track: “Whisper Whisper”
Regarded by some as the Bee Gees’ most significant artistic statement, double album ODESSA is almost certainly their most ambitious. By this time, the Beatles influence was on very clear display, and the Bee Gees took a crack at their own “White Album” (1968). The result did not yield positive commercial or critical reception, but ODESSA deserves the resurgence in popularity in more recent years. It’s a big ol’ send-off to the ’60s and the tone of the Bee Gees’ earliest work, and while some of it gets a little too self-indulgent and rambly, it all contributes to the feeling of ODESSA’s epic scope. Yes, the album is long, but musically, it’s deep as well. It looms large in the Bee Gees’ discography, but its weight keeps it from being among the very best albums from the Brothers Gibb.
#7 — LIVING EYES (1981)
Favorite track: “Cryin’ Every Day”
LIVING EYES is the infamous fall from commercial grace for the Bee Gees; their first post-disco release isn’t totally free from the sound of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and SPIRITS HAVING FLOWN, but in the case of the latter, it is improved. Considering its place in the Bee Gees’ downward spiral, I would have thought LIVING EYES has no business being as good as it is. But it is simply a great escalation and/or side-step from the disco world into a sound that had not yet been rendered into industrial cheese by the ’80s entertainment industrial complex. Oh sure, LIVING EYES is still pop music, but it’s oh so good. The belting from Barry and Robin on “Cryin’ Every Day” is gold, and the grooves on the title track, “He’s a Liar,” and “Don’t Fall in Love with Me” are surprising. LIVING EYES, I suspect, is a relatively underrated Bee Gees album, being sandwiched in a strange era for the band, and music in general.
#6–2 YEARS ON (1970)
Favorite track: “2 Years On”
The Bee Gees’ second release of 1970 saw the return of Robin Gibb. And I don’t know if it can all be chalked up to him, but the reunion yielded one of the band’s best albums. 2 YEARS ON is the perfect fusion of their ’60s psychedelia and orchestral influences and their slower instincts to come on the next few albums. It’s a moving record, with its title track remaining one of my favorite Bee Gees songs; the chorus is just so rousing. I haven’t yet mentioned it, but the Bee Gees also had a great little dry wit when it came to their lyricism, even on the angstier songs like “The 1st Mistake I Made” and “I’m Weeping;” or at least, that’s what the delivery and instrumentation makes me think. Regardless, 2 YEARS ON is a special little album, one that also slips behind the band’s more critically acclaimed and commercially successful releases.
#5 — IDEA (1968)
Favorite track: “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You”
IDEA, following HORIZONTAL in the same year, got back to being a little more whimsical, most obviously on songs like “Indian Gin and Whisky Dry” and “I Have Decided to Join the Airforce.” But the Bee Gees also did bittersweet in a whole new way, with songs like “I Started a Joke” and “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You;” the latter is a real treat, especially since it was only added to the American release to replace “Such a Shame.” “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” has one of those choruses you can only hum because you could never hit the notes without embarrassing yourself (OK, maybe that’s only me), but it’s one of the Bee Gees’ best. IDEA really is a special album, one that is as fit for writing, cleaning the house, or moving around a little bit in an approximation of dancing.
#4 — BEE GEES’ 1ST (1967)
Favorite track: “To Love Somebody”
BEE GEES’ 1ST, actually their third, was an incredible evolution from the Bee Gees’ first two records. Clearly informed by all of the English bands they were now joining the ranks of, the group nevertheless created something while also fitting into what was en vogue. The return to England was not just in the background; songs like “Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You” and “Craise Finton Kirk Royal Academy of Arts” seem designed to fuse British classicism and pomp with the new age of pop. And a song like “New York Mining Disaster 1941,” not just because of its name, carries a sense of Americana that complements the English wit, as well as the balladeering represented by “To Love Somebody.” BEE GEES’ 1ST is a triumphant record from a time when everyone was triumphing over the old order of things, and to be a part of that wave while defining the course of music once again a decade later is no small feat.
#3 — MAIN COURSE (1975)
Favorite track: “Nights on Broadway”
MAIN COURSE brought the evolution to a sound inspired by black music of the ’70s to the fore. MR. NATURAL was a slight flirtation with plastic soul, and MAIN COURSE was a full-blown affair with it. It is an incredibly important album in examining the role of white artists making the sounds of black music more “palatable” for white audiences in the form of disco music, but regardless of the sociopolitical factors that led to the creation of the album, MAIN COURSE is an absolute delight. There are probably a few other albums you could name, but between MAIN COURSE and CHILDREN OF THE WORLD, you could probably credit the Bee Gees with creating the missing links in the chain leading to disco. So just imagine, a record a little more soulful than your typical disco music, one with a little bit of a “harder” edge (in that the funk is a bit stronger), but also one with incredible attention to pop hooks. That’s how you get MAIN COURSE, strengthened especially by songs like “Nights on Broadway,” “Jive Talkin,’” and “All This Making Love,” but also deviations “Fanny (Be Tender with My Love)” and the specifically beautiful “Edge of the Universe.” MAIN COURSE is a great name for the album, because the Bee Gees made a whole meal of the influences on the record.
#2 — SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977)
Favorite track: “More than a Woman”
For the longest time, my impression of the Bee Gees was informed by the uber-popular songs written and performed by the band for SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER: “Stayin’ Alive,” “How Deep Is Your Love,” “Night Fever,” and “More than a Woman” (my personal favorite Bee Gees song ever). They were a disco band to me, so I would never have imagined they had been around, at least with studio albums, for 12 years already. I thought it was kind of an ABBA situation. But when I dug deeper into the Bee Gees some years ago, I discovered, of course, there was a lot more to their story. And yet nearly nothing tops SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, a soundtrack that also, to me, belied the nature of its accompanying film (a very good one, I might add) until I finally watched it a year ago. Ranking SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER at #2 on a Bee Gees album list is a little strange, considering only four original songs are performed by the band on the album, one more is performed by Yvonne Elliman, and two others are from previous albums. Never mind that the record is also supported by tracks from the score, and welcome additions from Kool & the Gang, KC and the Sunshine Band, and The Trammps. But at the end of the day, it is impossible to deny the sheer joy of those four new songs to be found on SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER; they alone stand as nearly the best thing the Bee Gees ever did.
#1 — CHILDREN OF THE WORLD (1976)
Favorite track: “You Should Be Dancing”
And yet, if I consider the Bee Gees experience I would most want to listen to at any given time, it would be CHILDREN OF THE WORLD. The predecessor to SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and the most explicit connection to disco the band made before they blew the genre wide open, CHILDREN OF THE WORLD opens with “You Should Be Dancing,” which is in fact comparable to the effect of “Stayin’ Alive” on SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. But the full ten-track record comes together as the fullest, most joyous Bee Gees album out there. They could be sadder, and funnier, and stranger, but Barry, Robin, and Maurice had ended up in a place almost unrecognizable from where they were 11 years earlier. It’s all the more incredible that that place, 11 years ago, was still a good one, and that most of the Bee Gees’ career should still be regarded with great respect, and listened to with great enjoyment. Put on CHILDREN OF THE WORLD and see what I mean.
