The 10 Best Bee Gees Songs

The 10 Best Bee Gees songs span the trio's career, from their beginnings in the early '60s as a harmonizing pop vocal group to their later reign as the kings of disco. Though Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb were initially mocked after disco died, the Bee Gees earned respect over time and were eventually inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.

Here's my take on the 10 best Bee Gees songs.

10 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (1971)
The band's last big hit before they went disco, this ballad from the album Trafalgar became their first American chart-topper. Interesting trivia: The Gibb brothers wrote this song and first offered it to Andy Williams, before deciding to record it themselves.

9 Nights on Broadway (1975)
"Nights on Broadway" might be the funkiest song the Bee Gees ever recorded, with its prominent bassline, funky beat and a chorus featuring Barry Gibb's trademark falsetto. The song hit #7 in the U.S. and rightfully earned a place on the list of the 10 best Bee Gees songs. Rapper DMX even sampled the song in 1998.

8 Tragedy (1979)
"Tragedy" was the Bee Gees' last big disco hit, hitting number one in early 1979. By this time Barry was singing the entire song in falsetto, which is almost comical, but I'll be damned if it doesn't make me want to dance.

7 You Win Again (1987)
The Bee Gees recorded only a handful of minor hits in the U.S. after 1984. "One" was the biggest, reaching #7 in 1989, but "You Win Again" was the better song. Its gentle, pulsing beat was a perfect fit for the '80s - the band might have had more hits in that decade if they'd recorded more songs like this.

6 Too Much Heaven (1978)
As the lead single from Spirits Having Flown, the trio's follow-up to Saturday Night Fever, "Too Much Heaven" reminded their disco fans that the Bee Gees were still a harmonizing R&B group at their core. The song hit #1 in the U.S., Canada, Italy, and New Zealand and reached #3 in Australia.

5 I Started a Joke (1968)
In retrospect this aching ballad seemed out of character for such a fan-pleasing dance act. "I Started a Joke" is perhaps the saddest song in pop music history, with lyrics like "I started a joke / Which started the whole world crying / But I didn't see that the joke was on me." Has there ever been a more heartbreaking line than, "I finally died / Which started the whole world living"?

4 More Than a Woman (1978)
"More Than a Woman" actually didn't chart in most countries, including the U.S., but its high-profile appearance in the dancing scenes of Saturday Night Fever made it an instant classic. No one who enjoyed the Bee Gees' music of this era would deny the song a spot among the 10 best Bee Gees songs.

3 Night Fever (1978)
This mid-tempo disco number was another smash hit on the charts. For nearly a month, "Night Fever" was the #1 song on Billboard while "Stayin' Alive" was #2, making the Bee Gees the first artist since the Beatles to hold down the top two spots on the pop chart.

2 How Deep is Your Love (1977)
The beautiful "How Deep is Your Love" is the best example of the Gibb brothers' exquisite harmonies. It was the first of three consecutive #1 hits for the Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The song has been covered by numerous artists over the years, including Take That and En Vogue.

1 Stayin' Alive (1977)
A massively successful song from a massively successful movie, "Stayin' Alive" has simply become one of the coolest songs in history. The band recorded the song in France on a tight deadline. They used a drum loop taken from "Night Fever," since the Bee Gees' drummer had to leave the recording sessions early. "Stayin' Alive" went on to become perhaps the single most recognizable song of the disco era and it tops the list of the 10 best Bee Gees songs.

10 Best Bee Gees Songs: Sources
www.billboard.com
www.beegees.com