Thursday, October 8, 2015

40 Year Itch: Standing in the Dark


Bee Gees : Nights on Broadway


Bee Gees drummer Dennis Byron witnessed the beginning of The Helium Years during the recording of the Main Course track "Nights On Broadway". The brothers Gibb liked singing around the same mic .

  Whenever they were together -- especially around a mic--it was like comedy central. They were good at impersonations and could pretty much do anybody. As they were rehearsing the vocals on "Nights on Broadway", they broke into a mad five minutes.  They started singing in strange voices and making strange faces. It was hilarious; everybody in the control room was in stiches.


   Suddenly Arif (Marden, producer) stopped the tape. "Barry, I have an idea. Try singing the chorus in falsetto."
   Karl rewound the tape and Barry started singing in that high voice: "Blaming it all". Robin and Maurice joined in, and we all had chills. Barry was reluctant to change his style of singing at first, but Arif encouraged him. "Experiment with your voice, take it places it's never been."
  When we got home that night we played the rough mix of "Nights On Broadway" into the early hours. This was a hit.


"Nights On Broadway" peaked at #7 in the US. Candi Staton's 1977 cover reached No. 6 in the UK.

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