Can I nominate the blackest Gibb lyric? Robin’s solo 45 One Million Years:

“We wed, I knew she’d stay
Then I passed away”

Yes, there’s no doubt that SNF popularised and consolidated The Bee Gee’s as an international act. It’s worth pointing out that if you transposed those hits to the US you get a very different chart story: Two # 1′s, a # 3, a # 8, two # 12′s and a # 26 (live). All predating SNF. The film may have cradled them internationally, but they were on a hit-making roll before it.

@ Vinyscot # 21:

‘Too Much Heaven’ is a dirge? Ok, it isn’t ‘How Deep is Your Love’, but in my opinion it is a very good ballad. And ‘Tragedy’ was always going to hit the top (or near top) of the charts even without SNF. It has exactly what a big pop hit needs. They might not have been as consistent before SNF, but ‘Jive Talkin’ and ‘You Should be Dancin’ proved they could take a song high up the charts on hooks alone. And unlike those two, ‘Tragedy’ was a song that 12 year-old’s could immediately understand.

The song itself dressed in it’s spangly-shirted, bare-chested Gibbness, seems to me to be a perfect fit. An 8 for me.

Good point about that Feist record – it’s another example I had in mind of my preference for covers of Bee Gees songs over the originals. I’d say more but I see the sihouette of two big ears…

“Charade” · “Jive Talkin’” (1975) · “Nights on Broadway” (1975) · “Fanny (Be Tender with My Love) (1976) · You Should Be Dancing (1976) · Love So Right” (1976) · “Boogie Child” (1977) · “Edge of the Universe (Live)” (1977) ·

So, there you have two hits proper, a couple that made the lower regions, and some flops. Now, how many of them would have been hits if they’d come after SNF? At least two…

The reason that “Too Much Heaven” only made #3, despite the SNF factor, and eagerly awaited as it was, was that it was a disappointment, an uninspired and uninspiring dirge. Without SNF hype it probably wouldn’t have made the top 10.

“Tragedy” was better than that, but so were most things. It does not rank among the BeeGees finer moments; I have a colleague who has been a fan since the 60s and he agrees (not that that proves anything).

I would actually turn this around and say one would need to be quite naive not to factor SNF into its success.

It’s difficult to reinforce this without aggravating young Mr Bunny, as discussions on the song’s merit will undoubtedly cause him to spring into action, but suffice to say I stand by my original point.

It’s a fantastic pop song, timeless as proved by its mega success when re-recorded by Steps years later.Most of Steps records were spending 10-14 weeks in the charts and their version of this spent 30 weeks in the charts (forget the other side of the single “heartbeat” that was crap).

Basically it got them back to the top of the charts. It held Abba off number one which is no mean feat either.

I think it’s the “bombast”, for want of a better word, which does it. The sound is just so OTT – thunderclaps FFS! And what on earth made them think it was acceptable to sing like that?

If the remainder of their album hadn’t been so consistent with the SNF stuff, you could imagine this being the Gibbs trying to get their “rock” mojo back, something which had probably been missing since the very late 60s/early 70s and their (not very good) forays into concept albums etc.

Now I don’t mind hearing this as apiece of random background noise; I may even stop and listen to it when I hear it; but I never ever have the urge to hear it again after I’ve heard it once.

I don’t think this would have been a #1 without the SNF bandwagon still following them; it would probably been one of their occasional mid top-tenners, and I would have thought that would have been about right. At a push a 6.

This is a pretty dark song which, for all their white teeth and LA tans, they did do a lot of. As a song it vaguely reminds me of ‘Nights On Broadway’ and it’s tense and edgy “Heeere we are, in a room full of strangers” opening, except with this one it’s all turned up to 11 which drowns the effect somewhat.

At the time I thought the Bee Gees were a blot on the pop landscape, and although I’ve mellowed in respect of other stuff I didn’t like at the time, I’ll make an exception for this. I can’t defend it with a logical argument beyond saying the falsetto totally grates on me – not so much a musical instrument as a gimmick.