Editing Bee Gees (section)

===1975–1979: Turning to disco===
====''Main Course'' and ''Children of the World''====
[[File:Bee Gees' wordmark logo (1975-1981).gif|thumb|upright=1.1|Bee Gees' wordmark logo (1975–1981)]]
At [[Eric Clapton]]'s suggestion, the brothers moved to [[Miami|Miami, Florida]], early in 1975 to record at [[Criteria Studios]]. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented [[disco]] songs, including their second US No.&nbsp;1, "[[Jive Talkin']]", along with US No.&nbsp;7 "[[Nights on Broadway]]". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP ''[[Main Course]]'' up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used [[falsetto]],<ref>{{cite web |last=James|first=Nicholas|title=Main Course – Bee Gees|url=http://www.beegeesreviews.info/reviews/maincourse.htm|work=Bee Gees reviews |access-date=8 December 2012}}</ref> something that became a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's ''Idea''.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} ''Main Course'' also became their first charting R&B album.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

On the Bee Gees' appearance on ''The Midnight Special'' in 1975, to promote ''Main Course'', they sang "To Love Somebody" with [[Helen Reddy]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh_GJ9uEhQg |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/Mh_GJ9uEhQg| archive-date=11 December 2021 |url-status=live|title=HELEN REDDY JAMMING WITH THE BEE GEES – MIDNIGHT SPECIAL – THE QUEEN OF 70s POP |date=30 January 2012 |publisher=YouTube |access-date=17 February 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers—"[[Golden Slumbers]]/[[Carry That Weight]]", "[[She Came In Through the Bathroom Window|She Came in Through the Bathroom Window]]" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "[[Sun King (song)|Sun King]]" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary ''[[All This and World War II]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beegees/75.html |title=Gibb Songs: 1975 |last=Brennan |first=Joseph |access-date=1 December 2014}}</ref>

The next album, ''[[Children of the World]]'', released in September 1976, was filled with Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} The first single from the album was "[[You Should Be Dancing]]", which features percussion work by musician [[Stephen Stills]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/stephen-stills-interview-were-still-here-haha-haha-ha-8772387.html |title=Stephen Stills interview: 'We're still here, haha haha ha!' |date=17 August 2013 |access-date=17 February 2015}}</ref> The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some diehard fans. The pop ballad "[[Love So Right]]" reached No.&nbsp;3 in the US, and "[[Boogie Child]]" reached US No.&nbsp;12 in January 1977.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beegees/77.html |title=Gibb Songs: 1977 |last=Brennan |first=Joseph |access-date=1 December 2014}}</ref> The album peaked at No.&nbsp;8 in the US.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beegees/76.html |title=Gibb Songs: 1976 |last=Brennan |first=Joseph |access-date=1 December 2014}}</ref>

====''Saturday Night Fever'' and ''Spirits Having Flown''====
Following a successful live album, ''[[Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live]]'', the Bee Gees agreed with Stigwood to participate in the creation of the [[Saturday Night Fever (soundtrack)|''Saturday Night Fever'' soundtrack]]. It was a turning point in their career. The cultural impact of both the film and the soundtrack was significant throughout the world, and epitomized the [[disco]] phenomenon on both sides of the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Sullivan|first=James|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/01/14/DD113470.DTL&hw=appreciate&sn=223&sc=222 |title=APPRECIATION / Contributor to a sound that went beyond disco |website=sfgate.com|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle |date=14 January 2003 |access-date=27 December 2021}}</ref>

The band's involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As [[John Travolta]] asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning&nbsp;... I was dancing to [[Stevie Wonder]] and [[Boz Scaggs]]."<ref name="Kashner">Sam Kashner, "Fever Pitch", ''Movies Rock'' (Supplement to ''The New Yorker''), Fall 2007, unnumbered page.</ref> Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/how-can-you-mend-a-broken-group-the-bee-gees-did-it-with-disco-20120520 |title=How Can You Mend a Broken Group? The Bee Gees Did It With Disco |date=14 July 1977 |magazine=Rolling Stone |last=Rose |first=Frank |access-date=18 February 2015}}</ref> The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at [[Château d'Hérouville|Château d'Hérouville studio]] in France.<ref name="Kashner" /> Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:

{{blockquote|They flipped out and said these will be great. We still had no concept of the movie, except some kind of rough script that they'd brought with them.&nbsp;... You've got to remember, we were fairly dead in the water at that point, 1975, somewhere in that zone—the Bee Gees' sound was basically tired. We needed something new. We hadn't had a hit record in about three years. So we felt, Oh Jeez, that's it. That's our life span, like most groups in the late '60s. So, we had to find something. We didn't know what was going to happen.<ref name="Kashner" />}}

Bill Oakes, who supervised the soundtrack, asserts that ''[[Saturday Night Fever]]'' did not begin the disco craze but rather prolonged it: "Disco had run its course. These days, ''Fever'' is credited with kicking off the whole disco thing—it really didn't. Truth is, it breathed new life into a genre that was actually dying."<ref name="Kashner" />

Three Bee Gees singles—"[[How Deep Is Your Love (Bee Gees song)|How Deep Is Your Love]]" (US No.&nbsp;1, UK No.&nbsp;3), "[[Stayin' Alive]]" (US No.&nbsp;1, UK No.&nbsp;4) and "[[Night Fever]]" (US No.&nbsp;1, UK No.&nbsp;1)—charted high in many countries around the world, launching the most popular period of the disco era.<ref name="Charts"/> They also penned the song "[[If I Can't Have You (Bee Gees song)|If I Can't Have You]]", which became a US No.&nbsp;1 hit for [[Yvonne Elliman]], while the Bee Gees' own version was the B-side of "Stayin' Alive". Such was the popularity of ''Saturday Night Fever'' that two different versions of the song "[[More Than a Woman (Bee Gees song)|More Than a Woman]]" received airplay, one by the Bee Gees, which was relegated to an album track, and another by [[Tavares (group)|Tavares]], which was the hit.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.smoothradio.com/artists/bee-gees/more-than-a-woman-which-version-is-best/|title=More Than A Woman - Which Version Is Best?|work=[[Smooth Radio (2014)|Smooth Radio]]|access-date=22 January 2024|publisher=[[Global Media & Entertainment|Global]]|date=2 December 2014|archive-date=19 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240119193842/https://www.smoothradio.com/artists/bee-gees/more-than-a-woman-which-version-is-best/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

During a nine-month period beginning in the Christmas season of 1977, [[List of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of 1978|seven songs]] written by the brothers held the No.&nbsp;1 position on the US charts for 27 of 37 consecutive weeks: three of their own releases, two for brother [[Andy Gibb]], the [[Yvonne Elliman]] single, and "[[Grease (song)|Grease]]", performed by [[Frankie Valli]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beegees/78.html|title=Gibb Songs: 1978|publisher=Columbia University|access-date=4 December 2023}}</ref>

Fuelled by the film's success, the soundtrack broke multiple industry records, becoming the highest-selling album in recording history to that point. With more than 40&nbsp;million copies sold, ''Saturday Night Fever'' is among music's top five best selling soundtrack albums. {{as of|2010}}, it is calculated as the [[List of best-selling albums|fourth highest-selling album]] worldwide.<ref name="Everyhit records">{{cite web|url=http://www.everyhit.com/recordalb.html|title=Record-Breakers and Trivia—Albums|publisher=Every hit |access-date=28 November 2011}}</ref>

In March 1978, the Bee Gees held the top two positions on the US charts with "Night Fever" and "Stayin' Alive", the first time this had happened since the Beatles. On the US [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] chart for 25&nbsp;March 1978, five songs written by the Gibbs were in the US top 10 at the same time: "Night Fever", "Stayin' Alive", "If I Can't Have You", "Emotion" and "Love Is Thicker Than Water". Such chart dominance had not been seen since April 1964, when the Beatles had all five of the top five American singles. Barry Gibb became the only songwriter to have four consecutive number-one hits in the US, breaking the [[John Lennon]] and [[Paul McCartney]] 1964 record. These songs were "Stayin' Alive", "Love Is Thicker Than Water", "Night Fever" and "If I Can't Have You".<ref>{{cite web|last=Brownfield|first=Troy|title=Beating the Beatles: Can Anyone Take the Top Five Again?|url=https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2019/04/beating-the-beatles-can-anyone-take-the-top-five-again/|website=saturdayeveningpost.com|publisher=Saturday Evening Post|date=4 April 2019|access-date=27 December 2021}}</ref>

The Bee Gees won five [[Grammy Awards]] for ''Saturday Night Fever'' over two years: [[Grammy Award for Album of the Year|Album of the Year]], [[Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical|Producer of the Year]] (with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson), two awards for [[Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals|Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals]] (one in 1978 for "How Deep Is Your Love" and one in 1979 for "Stayin' Alive"), and [[Grammy Award for Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices|Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices]] for "Stayin' Alive".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/02/16/grammy-awards-billy-joels-ballad-upsets-bees-gees-anthem/c898e39c-34f5-4825-9d98-714d869a6668/|newspaper=[[Washington Post]]|title= Billy Joel's Ballad Upsets Bees Gees' Anthem|first1=Joseph|last1=McLellan|first2=Eve|last2=Zibart|access-date=22 January 2024|date=16 February 1979}}</ref>

During this era, Barry and Robin also wrote "[[Emotion (Samantha Sang song)|Emotion]]" for an old friend, Australian vocalist [[Samantha Sang]], who made it a top 10 hit, with the Bee Gees singing backing vocals. Barry also wrote the title song to the film version of the Broadway musical ''[[Grease (musical)|Grease]]'' for [[Frankie Valli]] to perform, which went to No.&nbsp;1.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-didnt-barry-gibb-sing-the-grease-theme-song/|access-date=22 January 2024|first=Tyler|last=Golsen|title=Why didn't Barry Gibb sing the 'Grease' theme song?|date=17 September 2023|magazine=[[Far Out Magazine]]}}</ref>

The Bee Gees also co-starred with [[Peter Frampton]] in Robert Stigwood's film ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (film)|Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' (1978), loosely inspired by the classic 1967 album by the Beatles. The movie had been heavily promoted prior to release and was expected to enjoy great commercial success. However, it was savaged by film critics as a disjointed mess and ignored by the public. The soundtrack charted top five in the U.S., but only top 38 in Britain. The single "[[Oh! Darling]]", credited to Robin Gibb, reached No.&nbsp;15 in the US.<ref>{{Cite magazine|title=Robin Gibb|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/robin-gibb/chart-history/hsi/|access-date=27 October 2021|magazine=Billboard}}</ref>

The Bee Gees' follow-up to ''Saturday Night Fever'' was the ''[[Spirits Having Flown]]'' album. It yielded three more hits: "[[Too Much Heaven]]" (US No.&nbsp;1, UK No.&nbsp;3), "[[Tragedy (Bee Gees song)|Tragedy]]" (US No.&nbsp;1, UK No.&nbsp;1), and "[[Love You Inside Out]]" (US No.&nbsp;1, UK No.&nbsp;13).<ref name="Charts" /> This gave the act six consecutive No.&nbsp;1 singles in the US within a year and a half, equalling the Beatles and surpassed only by [[Whitney Houston]].<ref name="singles">{{cite journal| title=Jet |journal=Jet |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WLADAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA54|date=2 May 1988|publisher=Johnson Publishing Company|page=54|issn=0021-5996}}</ref>

In January 1979, the Bee Gees performed "Too Much Heaven" as their contribution to the [[Music for UNICEF Concert]] at the [[United Nations General Assembly]].<ref>Fred Bronson, "Too Much Heaven", in ''The Billboard Book of Number One Hits'' (Los Angeles: Billboard Books, 2003), 496. {{ISBN|0823076776}}, 9780823076772</ref> During the summer of 1979, the Bee Gees embarked on their largest concert tour covering the US and Canada. The [[Spirits Having Flown Tour|Spirits Having Flown tour]] capitalised on Bee Gees fever that was sweeping the nation, with sold-out concerts in 38 cities. The Bee Gees produced a video for the title track "[[Too Much Heaven]]", directed by Miami-based filmmaker Martin Pitts and produced by Charles Allen. With this video, Pitts and Allen began a long association with the brothers.<ref>On Pitts, see https://imvdb.com/n/martin-pitts</ref>

The Bee Gees even had a country hit in 1979 with "[[Rest Your Love on Me]]", the flip side of their pop hit "Too Much Heaven", which made the top 40 on the country charts. It was also a 1981 hit for [[Conway Twitty]], topping the [[country music]] charts.<ref>{{cite book |title= The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944–2006, Second edition|last=Whitburn |first=Joel |author-link=Joel Whitburn |year=2004 |publisher=Record Research |page=360}}</ref>

The Bee Gees' success rose and fell with the disco bubble. By the end of 1979, disco was rapidly declining in popularity, and the backlash against disco put the Bee Gees' American career in a tailspin. Encouraged by [[Steve Dahl]]'s [[Disco Demolition Night]], radio stations around the US began promoting "Bee Gee-Free Weekends". Following their remarkable run from 1975 to 1979, the act had only one more top 10 single in the US, and that did not come until the single "'''One'''" reached number 7 in 1989.<ref name="rank">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/487819/bee-gees-rank-third-among-groups-for-most-hot-100-no-1s-in-history|title=Bee Gees Rank Third Among Groups for Most Hot 100 No. 1s in History|magazine=Billboard| access-date =9 November 2019|date=21 May 2012|first=Keith|last=Caulfield}}</ref>

Barry Gibb considered the success of the ''Saturday Night Fever'' soundtrack both a blessing and a curse:

{{blockquote|''Fever'' was No. 1 every week&nbsp;... It wasn't just like a hit album. It was No.&nbsp;1 every single week for 25 weeks. It was just an amazing, crazy, extraordinary time. I remember not being able to answer the phone, and I remember people climbing over my walls. I was quite grateful when it stopped. It was too unreal. In the long run, your life is better if it's not like that on a constant basis. Nice though it was.<ref name="Kashner" />}}