The Bee Gees’ sound developed from pop to R&B in what turned the disco music period, nevertheless it was their falsetto that was their unmistakable trademark… and it took place by chance many years into their profession.
In the HBO documentary “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” surviving Bee Gee, Barry Gibb, takes viewers contained in the studio, displaying archival footage performing together with his brothers Maurice and Robin and honing their signature sound.
In 1975, the band took the recommendation of veteran rocker Eric Clapton and went right down to Miami to file their first album for the reason that break up at Criteria Studios in 1969. “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 stated.
It was in Miami that the Bee Gees started experimenting with new sounds, piggybacking on the affect of R&B and exhibits like “Soul Train.” While recording “Nights on Broadway,” producer Arif Mardin requested that somebody harmonize whereas screaming within the background, Maurice remembered. That was the primary time Barry sang falsetto.
“I was thinking, my god, where is this coming from? I can do this. My whole life I never knew I could do this,” Barry joked.
“Everybody’s giving me credit,” Mardin stated within the movie. “No, he was singing it. I said, ‘Keep on doing it.’”
The band quickly embraced disco and dance music, making use of Barry’s falsetto, which he wields with nearly astonishing ease. “We found another sound; we found a new sound. I came up with a lot of new ideas to suit the falsetto,” Barry remembered. “Everybody was saying the same thing: ‘Do that falsetto again, do that falsetto again.’ It was fine for me; I was having a ball.”
With the success of their early dance tunes “Jive Talkin” and “You Should Be Dancing,” the Bee Gees broke into the membership scene. “It was a discovery, and we discovered a new audience,” Barry stated.
But the Bee Gees acknowledged they weren’t the primary to make use of a falsetto sound to reinforce a dance monitor. “Disco started in the gay and the Black community,” Nicky Siano, former Studio 54 DJ, stated. “This billion-dollar industry was being built way before the Bee Gees.”
“Arif brought it out of us, you know we weren’t the first to sing in falsetto,” Maurice stated. “We loved The Stylistics, The Spinners, The Delfonics. They were all falsetto lead singers,” he stated, referencing high Black ensembles on the time.
British singer-songwriter Mykaell Riley added, “The falsetto is very much a Black tradition. But they’ve translated it into this interesting interpretation of soul.”
“The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” can at present be seen on HBO.
