{"id":117393,"date":"2025-11-05T21:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/117393\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T21:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:03:08","slug":"rare-clip-of-the-bee-gees-singing-how-deep-is-your-love-a-cappella-somehow-tops-the-original","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/117393\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare clip of the Bee Gees singing ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ a cappella somehow tops the original"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not all live performances are created equal, but when the circumstances and the talent are just right, they can far surpass studio recordings. In 1998, the Bee Gees<\/a>, brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, stopped by ITV\u2019s \u201cDes O’Connor Tonight\u201d with acoustic guitars<\/a> in hand to promote their recent release, \u201cOne Night Only,\u201d<\/a> an album and live concert DVD featuring many of the band\u2019s biggest hits.<\/a><\/p>\n

The highlight of the performance was when Barry got ready to strum his guitar for a performance of \u201cHow Deep Is Your Love,\u201d the 1977 megahit from the \u201cSaturday Night Fever Soundtrack,\u201d but instead chose to sing the song a cappella.<\/a><\/p>\n

Barry starts the song solo in his beautiful falsetto, but then, when his brothers join him, they create a wonderful harmony that only brothers can make. The show\u2019s host, Des O\u2019Connor, a notable singer himself, even joins in for a few bars.<\/p>\n

– YouTube youtu.be<\/a> <\/p>\n

Earlier in the performance, the brothers played their version of \u201cIslands in the Stream,\u201d a song made famous by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers<\/a> in 1983 that was written by the Bee Gees. In 1998, the song was enjoying a resurgence as its melody was used in the song \u201cGhetto Supastar\u201d by Pras of The Fugees.<\/p>\n

Robin Gibb later admitted that the song was initially written<\/a> for Marvin Gaye to sing, but he was tragically murdered in 1984 by his father.<\/a> The band also had Diana Ross in mind while composing the tune.<\/p>\n

During the appearance, the band also sang \u201cGuilty,\u201d a song that the Bee Gees wrote for Barbara Streisand and Barry produced in 1980.<\/p>\n

You can watch the entire performance here:<\/p>\n

– YouTube youtu.be<\/a> <\/p>\n

The Gibb brothers started making music together when they were children, and after their first public appearance together at a local movie theater in 1956, they were hooked on performing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the feeling of standing in front of an audience that was so amazing,” said Barry.<\/a> “We\u2019d never seen anything like it. We were very young, but it made an enormous impression. We didn\u2019t want to do anything else but make music.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the family moved to Australia in 1958, Barry, Maurice, and Robin were “discovered”<\/a> at the Redcliffe Speedway, where they had asked to perform between races. Even over the tinny PA system, their harmonies made an impression. Speedway manager Bill Goode introduced the trio to DJ Bill Gates, who set them up with a recording session. <\/p>\n

\"the Stayin Alive GIF by Bee Gees Giphy<\/a> <\/p>\n

If you’ve ever wondered how the Bee Gees got their name, that was it: Bill Goode, Bill Gates, Barry Gibb, and the brothers’ mother<\/a> Barbara Gibb all had the initials B.G. After a strong reception on the airwaves in Brisbane, Gates forwarded the brothers’ recordings to a Sydney radio station. They got a lot of airtime there as well, and the band had a run of success performing in Australia, but it wasn’t until their return to England in 1967 that they became the international sensation we all know today. <\/p>\n

Manager Robert Stigwood had received tapes from the Gibbs brothers and called them up within weeks of their arrival in the U.K.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved their composing,\u201d Stigwood told Rolling Stone in 1977<\/a>. \u201cI also loved their harmony singing. It was unique, the sound they made; I suppose it was a sound only brothers could make.\u201d<\/p>\n

– YouTube www.youtube.com<\/a> <\/p>\n

And, as they say, the rest is history. The award-winning 2020 HBO documentary<\/a>, “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” tells the story of the band with loads of footage from throughout their 40-year career, which includes not only their disco-era fame, but the various phases of their musical journey and the countless songs they wrote for other artists. <\/p>\n

As one commenter wrote, “People that call the Bee Gees a ‘disco group’ don’t have a clue. They had 10 albums out before they ventured into ‘disco.’ Their song catalogue is amazing and some of their very best songs were written long before Saturday Night Fever. Those ‘disco’ songs are classics as well. It is nice to see they are finally getting the recognition they deserve.”<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not all live performances are created equal, but when the circumstances and the talent are just right, they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[75318,75310,75305,75312,75308,75314,75315,75317,75316,146,75309,85,46,75306,409,75307,75313,75303,75304,75311],"class_list":{"0":"post-117393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-70s-music","9":"tag-a-capella-singing","10":"tag-barry-gibb","11":"tag-bee-gees-harmony","12":"tag-bee-gees-live","13":"tag-brothers-barry-robin-maurice","14":"tag-disco","15":"tag-disco-era","16":"tag-disco-music","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-how-deep-is-your-love","19":"tag-il","20":"tag-israel","21":"tag-maurice-gibb","22":"tag-music","23":"tag-robin-gibb","24":"tag-saturday-night-fever","25":"tag-the-bee-gees","26":"tag-the-brothers-gibb","27":"tag-vocal-harmonies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}