Mythology

Sure, the stats are there. Barry Gibb has written (16) number one hits. The Bee Gees have the rare claim of occupying the #1 and #2 positions on Billboards Music Charts (behind the Beatles and Elvis Presley). The Bee Gees have had (9) number one hits; six of them in a row (tying with the Beatles and one behind Mariah Carey). And now it's their 50th anniversary. But this box set represents more than just that.Twenty years ago, the Bee Gees released  Tales From Bros Gibb , comprising all their singles and B-Sides on four discs (up to 1990). Now twenty years on, they focus on the songs they take the most pride in. This time, they include brother Andy Gibb, who was heavily rumored to become the fourth Bee Gee in the late 1980's, before his tragic death. This is a musical collection of the most popular family pop/rock group in history.Each disc is focused on one brother. Barry's disc (like the others) relies strongly on his lead vocals and comprises mostly hits. "Spirits (Having Flown)" begins the set, being one of the arguably best compositions the group has produced and ends with their first notable single, "Spick And Specks" from Australia in 1966. Each song is carefully remastered, a few in mono and the remainder improved in clarity and state of the art stereo. Barry, noted for his strong vocals including falsetto includes a few album cuts and previously unreleased cuts that are a marvel. "Barker Of The UFO" is a bewildering cut, but perhaps reflects the sixties atmosphere of random fun. Mostly, this disc shows Barry`s choices as being some of his finest in composition and production.Robin's disc also carries several hits, but contains some album cuts and B-Sides that could have been singles, or were for other artists. "Love Me" and his solo's "Juliet" and "Saved by The Bell" are historic masterpieces. The exquisite, "The Longest Night", almost a single and one of his most romantic is haunting. Pull in the ethereal, "Rings Around The Moon" and his version of "Islands In The Stream" and you get a clear idea of what Robin's voice can wield. For a true crowd pleaser, Robin includes the anthemic song, "Odessa" from 1969. A song that has received extensive critical acclaim as a masterpiece of songwriting and singing.Maurice Gibb never had a lead vocal single, as his expertises were in arrangement instrumentals and harmonizing, the latter being the magical glue that held the brothers harmonies together. From the sixties simple, yet satisfying, "Suddenly" to his post-mortem tribute song, "Man In The Middle", Maurice proves his talents. To emphasize his own style and talent, this collection contains two remarkable previously unreleased songs, "Angel Of Mercy" and "The Bridge" with shared vocals with his daughter Samantha of `Samantha Gibb and the Cartels'. Maurice's solo singles, "Railroad' and "Hold Her In Your Hand" are here in digital delight. It s a shame that the B-Side of "Railroad", the song "I've Come Back" is not here. His songs were lovingly chosen by his wife Yvonne and children Samantha and Adam Gibb.Although Andy Gibb unfortunately never became the fourth Bee Gee, his songs were chosen by his daughter Peta, who shows a talent for what her father's best songs truly were. All of Andy's singles are here (other than the notorious novelty song, "All I Have To Do Is Dream" with a C-list actress). But Peta cleverly mostly picks out the songs that Andy wrote himself. Most of his first album cuts are included here, pure in their style and innocence. Olivia Newton-John is included as well (a long time family friend) in a duet along with a heart-breaking unreleased song, "Arrow Through The Heart".On this box set, it truly is a family affair. The accolades are included with the music (which is enough already!), along with a 60-page booklet with rare family photographs from the early sixties to the recent. The Bee Gees history is carefully chronicled with excerpts from many artists. It starts with Barry Gibb under the title "From Our Family" and continues with his heartfelt reminiscing, particularly about Andy. Many many quotations are here, from Robin Gibb to Yvonne, Samantha and Adam Gibb. Peta Gibb also describes in loving terms her feelings about her father's legacy. The accolades don't stop there. Included in this tribute are extensive comments from extraordinary people like David English, Robert Stigwood, George Martin, Cliff Richard, Graham Nash, Elton John, David Foster, Olivia Newton-John, Franki Valli, Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, Dionne Warwick, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and many many others. There is so much more in this extraordinary box set that begs a look and a listen. Not many artists have achieved so much. Only one family has reached this height. The Bee Gees are forever.An Afterthought: Big hit songs like, "Lonely Days" and "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?" are omitted, as it was the harmony of the brothers and no one person took the lead of the song. That is bittersweet.

At first I bought this group of cds for one song, Rings Around the Moon. I could not listen to it except on You Tube. But now after listening to the cds, I’m so glad I got them. I love The Bee Gees music and these cds introduced me to some I had never heard before. So glad I have them now.

Absolutely wonderful compilation of songs by each brother...can't get Andy's cd out of the case

The long-delayed "Mythology" boxed set by the Brothers Gibb has finally been released. All big Bee Gees fans will have almost all the material, aside from a few tracks on Maurice's CD and one track on Andy's CD. On the latter, "Arrow Through The Heart" is an absolute gem. It was originally written and recorded by Andy, Barry and Maurice in 1987. The song has a great melody, thoughtful lyrics and a beautiful chorus. Andy's vocals are full of power and he exhibits good range as well. It's a shame he's gone. Ditto for Maurice.On Maurice's CD, fans will want to check out two previously unreleased tracks, "The Bridge" and "Angel of Mercy". They were recorded around the same time as the Bee Gees recorded "This Is Where I Came In". Both are duets with Maurice's daughter, Samantha. She has a lovely voice, similar to that of Enya. The songs aren't classics, but they are memorable and each features lush instrumentation and thoughtful lyrics. They are certainly worth having.The Robin and Barry CDs are made up of only previously released material. There is nothing new here, although the sound quality is improved on some songs. The same is true for the other two discs. Some latter day classics like "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and "One" are missing.The packaging is very clever, made to look like a hardcover book. It has many photographs and essays from Barry, Robin, Maurice's widow and children as well as Andy's daughter. Their sentiments are heartwarming. Also included are short essays praising the Brothers Gibb from a plethora of singers and songwriters and others in the industry.This set is highly recommended for the hardcore Bee Gees fan, but casual fans would be better served with one of the many greatest hits packages available.

I like the way this anthology is sorted (by who sings the lead). The first disc is Barry at the lead, the second is Robin, the third is Maurice and the forth (a bonus in my way of thinking is Andy who never got to become a Bee Gee though he was supposed to have finally joined his brothers on the "One" album but died too soon.This makes the album special because if you want to listen to Robin (for example) play disc 2.The sorting is also nice given the deaths of Robin and Maurice. The sorting adds focus to particular brother. My favorite disc is the more obscure music of Maurice's (Man In The Middle, On Time, Closer Than Close etc.)The album also includes a lot of their more obscure work, that true Bee Gees fans know and love. And, thank God, just as much attention is given to their non-disco years (about 95% of their career) as their chart-topping disco years. I love their 60s "Beatlesque" and 80s and 90s contemporary sound and does not focus on the disco years so much.However, as far as boxed set preference, I prefer "Tales From The Brothers Gibb: A History In Song": much more. Even though it does not include music from their last several albums (High Civilization, Size Isn't Everything, Still Waters and This Is Where I came In"). Where "Tales from the Brothers Gibb" lacks in latter content, it more than makes up for in overall appeal.

Is this four-disc album everything you could possibly want to own from the Bee Gees? Probably. Released to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Isle Of Man-born brothers Gibb's careers in music and curated by the surviving brothers, each brother gets a single disc to showcase their compositions and performances, accompanied by a substantial booklet filled with photographs, tributes by those who have worked with them and admire them as well as a few words from Barry and Robin who were, at that point, the two surviving brothers. We have, sadly, lost Robin since this compilation was released, so Barry is the sole surviving ambassador for some of the most memorable, enduring and endearing pop music to have ever been written in the twentieth century. Indeed, there are only a handful of artists who can really stand alongside The Bee Gees in terms of the sheer amount of commercially successful timeless classics they've written. The Beatles, The Stones, Elton John, Abba perhaps... they're certainly amongst the most covered artists in history, too.I believe that one of the foundations of their success was the way they adapted and evolved with music; writing big, beautiful ballads and psychedelic gems in the late sixties and early seventies, embracing disco in their Saturday Night Fever phase and then adding their brilliant, instinctive pop touch to eighties smash hits such as Diana Ross' Chain Reaction, Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers' Islands In The Stream and Dionne Warwick's Heartbreaker, before returning as the Bee Gees with the superb You Win Again in 1987. Just when most people have forgotten them after a couple of lacklustre releases, they came back in 1997 with their Still Waters album which spawned the memorable hit Alone. Suddenly, and I was one of these people (in my early twenties at the time), everybody re-discovered the brilliance of The Bee Gees all over again.The one thing that Mythology reveals is just how brilliant individual members of The Bee Gees were; namely Barry and Robin. Their writing stands head and shoulders above Maurice and Andy's (although, of course, Andy was never really part of the Bee Gees group and also died in 1988, aged only thirty) and this does mean that while the first two discs of this compilation are ridiculously good, the final two discs are a little less impressive, especially when they are directly compared with their brothers' compositional talents which, as part of the same release, you cannot help but doing. There are still plenty of relatively unknown but still excellent songs to discover on Maurice and Andy's discs, though, so they shouldn't be written off. It is impossible for me to discuss every single brilliant song in detail here, as this would turn into a twenty thousand word dissertation rather than the short review I like to write, but I believe Barry and Robin's discs are absolutely astonishing in terms of the quality of songwriting they contain, as well as their unique arrangements, harmonies, the emotive delivery and the innovative, often imitated (and lampooned) falsetto style they trademarked in the seventies. Many other groups would kill for just one of these songs in their catalogue; The Bee Gees have dozens of songs which are evidence of their musical genius.I wish I could go deeper, but I'm going to mention just a handful of songs which personally mean a huge amount to me. You Win Again, which is one of the first songs I remember being released in my lifetime by The Bee Gees; so wonderfully infectious and cleverly capturing the complicated, competitive nature of a fractured relationship. Tragedy, a platinum-plated disco classic, which is the kind of song that takes up camp in your brain and refuses to be evicted for weeks. Words, a song with beautiful, yearning lyrics coupled with a truly gorgeous melody. One of my very favourite Bee Gees tracks is Spicks And Specks, a hit for them in their then home, Australia, in 1966. Spicks And Specks is such a perfect, gloriously melodic sixties pop song that you'd expect it to be by someone like The Lemon Pipers or The Move, rather than the group responsible for Stayin' Alive, but it was that song's success that led to them returning to the UK to work with producer Robert Stigwood and the rest, as they say, is history. I think I like it particularly because of how untypical it is of the rest of The Bee Gees' music and what it did for their career. There have been some great covers of it, too.There's also the magnificent Massachusetts, which is almost like the Bee Gees' answer to Scott McKenzie's San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair), the pathos-scented I Started A Joke, which is just jaw-droppingly perfect. The utterly heartbreaking It's Just The Way, from Maurice, is probably the most underrated song here, but perhaps my true favourite (although it is very difficult to pick) is Run To Me, which always seem to bring tears to my eyes every time I hear it. All these great songs and I haven't even mentioned the terrific, evocative New York Mining Disaster 1941, the pleading I Gotta Get A Message To You or the anthemic To Love Somebody, all of which are a masterclass in songwriting. Simply put, The Bee Gees have too many classic songs to talk about even a small fraction of them in depth, without spending several days writing about this four disc compilation. Just one thing... where on earth is Nights On Broadway? Rather a terrible omission, I'd say! You Could Be Dancing is also missing, but I'm personally less bothered about that one. Needless to say, I recommend Mythology highly; just as I would a quality single or (preferably) double-disc best of, and this is probably all the Bee Gees a casual fan could ever want, and plenty more besides.

I bought this CD as I wanted more than just the best known songs from the Bee Gees. I was delighted to find 4 cd's in total for an amazing price. To date I have only listened to the first cd containing songs sung by Barry and the second one by Robin because to be honest I just love all the tracks on both of them that I always run out of listening time before I get to the other two. I read the reviews prior to ordering and must admit that I was unsure that i had made the right choice, but even if you don't like the other two discs you are getting 42 fantastic songs, including their biggest hits for an unbelieveable price. What more could you ask for!!!!

This album is a special selection of the music of each of the Gibb brothers, chosen by themselves or their families (in the cases of Mo and Andy). It is a good listen, but perhaps not all in one session. It is nice to know which were their favourite songs.

Absolutly everything you would want from the Bee Gees is included in this package, the first three CD's are the personal favourites of the Bee Gees, the fourth is all Andy Gibb, not really the same standard as the first three CD's but very listenable too and to be fair the Bee Gees catalogue stretches over 40 years whereby Andy tragically died after a very short career. I highly recommend this collection.

I AM A BIG FAN OF THE BEE GEES, SO WHEN I SAY THIS BOX SET PRICED AT £9.99 I JUST HAD TO HAVE IT! EACH OF THE FOUR MUSIC DISCS IS BASED ON EACH BROTHER, SO THERE'S 4 DISCS, AND A REALLY INFORMATIVE BOOKLET TOO! TELLING HOW THE BROTHERS ROSE TO FAME!! THE PRODUCT WAS WELL PACKED, AND THE DELIVERY WAS NICE AND QUICK!! MANY THANKS, SUZANNE.