Solving the musical cold case: yep, that’s what we’re on about here.
You see, even to this day, there are still those who insist that Paul McCartney, he of Beatles’ fame, was somehow replaced right in full view of the public, and no one noticed until many years later.
Phooey. And that’s all I have to say about that. That’s just a red herring to divert us from looking into the much more important question: How did a perfectly good album like Bees Gees’ 1st (released in the summer of 1967) disappear from the public consciousness?
Let’s see where the evidence leads us.
SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1967): Over the last few years, this release has been celebrated in many different ways; still, it always bothered me that “Strawberry Fields Forever,” the best song from those sessions, wasn’t actually included on the album. “A Day in the Life, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” and maybe a couple of others are great songs as well, but the rest often sounds like filler: musically clever, but filler nonetheless. And, hard to believe as it is, there were no singles taken from this album. (The posthumous and dismal 1978 charting of “A Little Help From My Friends” doesn’t count.)
On the other hand, Bee Gees’ 1st contains one of the great singles of its era by any band: “To Love Somebody.” “New York Mining Disaster 1941” and “Holiday” were also successful in the 45 RPM format. Other deep tracks such as the spooky, yet poppy “Every Christian Lion-Hearted Man Will Show You,” or straight-ahead pop grooves like “In My Own Time” show versatility without having to resort to roving too far from a solid rock and pop base.
But at the time, what did I know? “To Love Somebody” was on a K-Tel compilation from around that era, and the Beatles were frowned upon in my household for assorted politico-religious reasons. Sometimes it’s hard to count on the memories of witnesses, even if they fit the requirements of time and place.
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977): A few years later, “Disco Sucks!” became the rallying cry for rockers of my generation, and suddenly the Bee Gees’ disco hits totally eclipsed those great previously mentioned tunes from the 1960s. No, they did not invent disco; but in the minds of many, they were found guilty by association with the dance craze/night-clubbing phenomenon. And the late-’70s arrival of punk and new wave didn’t help their musical credibility.
SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND SOUNDTRACK (1978): At this point, the Bee Gees were probably getting tired of being called Beatle imitators, or inventing disco, or any other imagined musical crimes against humanity, so they did what the Beatles themselves did many years ago: They pretended to be another band. So, for the movie they (along with Peter Frampton) became the Sgt. Pepper Band, which is a meta-concept in itself – either that or else a possible case of identity theft. I saw this movie on an oldies’ channel a few months back, and it was truly as cringeworthy as most people remember it.
So, why does Bees Gees’ 1st continue to be passed over for parole and sentenced to obscurity in the shadows of arguably lesser quality albums? In the end, sometimes it takes the paper trail and the forensic accounting to make it all clear. I won’t bother you with the details, but the numbers show that the total sales figures of Bees Gees’ 1st are dwarfed by the combined totals of the other albums.
And that’s too bad, but I suppose there’s only so much justice to be had in the court of public opinion.
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