An Album A Day #14: Bee Gees GREATEST [1979]

The Christmas of 1979 was a very good one for young HERC's music collection.  After he nearly trampled his beloved little sister trying to get down the stairs (good times), he was elated to find several albums under the tree.  One was RSO Chart Busters (read about that one HERE) and another was also a RSO Chart Buster of sorts: Bee Gees Greatest, a double album of their hits on RSO from 1975-1979 in a tri-fold[!] cover with customized inner sleeves (below).  

Putting aside the fact that the collection as titled did not live up to its name, ignoring the nearly two dozen singles the group released from 1967-1974 including #1 hit "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart", Greatest does feature the eight other Number One hits they scored in five short years.

"Jive Talkin'" kicks off Side One of the album which is made up of four other dance floor proven tracks.  In fact, all five songs were chart-toppers.  Side Two starts with another Number One hit "How Deep Is Your Love" and continues the slow jams with four more Top 3 singles, including three that ended up as #1s.  To review, eight of the first ten tracks on this album were certifiable smash hit singles that spent a total of 23 weeks atop the Hot 100.

HERC never played the other two sides of the album all that much.  "Nights On Broadway" is the first track on Side Four and one of HERC's favorite songs but he had it on 45 so there was really no need to play that side of the album. Side Three was made up of songs covered by other artists and, at the time, HERC preferred the "original" versions to the Bee Gees versions though in recent years he's come to appreciate the songs of Side Three.

The set was released on compact disc in 1985 and then again in 2007 with seven bonus tracks including five modern dance remixes of their classic hits.