Customer Reviews

Best of Bee Gees - Volume 2

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If you have to choose between Best of the Bee Gees Vol. 1 and 2, the obvious pick is volume one, but you would be missing out on some early Seventies Bee Gees classics. Surprisingly, it's volume two that contains the Bee Gees' first No. 1 ("How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"), which along with "Lonely Days" were their first two million-sellers.

Granted, the Bee Gees would not return to the top ten until they entered the disco phase of their career, but there are some wonderful songs here. "My World" and "Run To Me" hold up well against any of their Sixties classics. You also get minor hits like "I.O.I.O." (#94) and "Don't Wanna Live Inside Myself" (#53), as well as Robin Gibb's solo UK hit "Saved By the Bell" from 1969 during his two-year hiatus from the group.

If you enjoy the Beatles-influenced pop hits of the Sixties phase of the Bee Gees career, this second set is nearly as essential as volume one. RECOMMENDED

This is a perplexing combination of "best of" songs. Although not as strong in content as Volume 1, it surpasses that by having several mega-hits involved ("How Can You Mend A Broken Heart", "Lonely Days", "Run To Me"). Although "Man For All Season", "Melody Fair" and "Let There Be Love" are great songs culled from the 60's, there are some better songs missing. "Wouldn't I Be Someone" is not here, despite a 78 minute capability. Cult classic "Marley Purt Drive" was perported to be on this album when it was first released (along with "Jumbo"), but never made it! Still, there are some under-appreciated gems like "Alive" and "Morning of My Life" listed here. If "Saturday Night Fever" had not happened, can you imagine what songs would have been on Volume 3?

Never mind the mid 70's cover with the disco chest hair and open shirts.
THis is the Bee Gees circa 1969-72 way before that disco photo session on the cover of this CD. Inside their is some of the best pop music ever recorded in that era. Highlights are...
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? - Big hit and the comeback
Melody Fair - from the great red-felt Odessa
Saved by the Bell- Robin solo recorded after he quit the group during Odessa, #1 in the UK
Run to Me - the end of an era, BD before disco.

Best of Volume 2, while having a hideous cover, superbly collects the best of the Bee Gees mellow sound. 1973 was a down year for the Brothers. United, but almost artistically bankrupt, BV2 stretches back to 1968 for material.
Wouldn't I Be Someone leads off Side One and was the proposed single from the unreleased A Kick In The Head Is Worth Eight In The Pants. Indeed this is probably the best of that bunch, with Barry and Robin alternating this moody tune. And imagine when I discovered the lyrics inside this sleeve! Alone these sounds are so great to cry to, but when you also have the words to actually read along, everything takes on a whole poetic feel. The interlude sung by Robin `Midnight stars are shining on my shoeshine...' almost sounds like a child contemplating his sad fate. This combined with the instrumental arrangement is ingenious.

IOIO is the complete opposite of Someone It's such an upbeat reggae style song, yet they lyrics are actually very sad. You can be happy and sing along or be sad and sing along and nobody around would know the difference. My World was a previously unreleased cut that found its way here. Despite this odd mix of old and rare, there are several gems here. This is one of them. It's lyrics are plain and simple-mine, yours, ours, what else is there? Yet the three-part harmony is so smart and complex. Great juxtaposition.
Instead of sweeping their prior split under the rug, The Bee Gees embraced it. Saved By The Bell and Don't Forget To Remember are added here to represent Robin, then Barry and Maurice, respectively ;0). With Bell, Robin almost sounds like a bell. The rhyme scheme and orchestral mix showed he could hold his own. Again hearing this on record just sounds so 1970 it's cool. Don't Forget To Remember also has some great lines from Barry and Maurice that just belong on record. There isn't much Maurice on this compilation, which I would normally For Shame! However, the tone here is the one of crying alone in the dark, which who is better for that than Quaver Robin or Breathy Barry?

My word if ever a song was meant for the record player and the record player alone it has to be And The Sun Will Shine! The slight pops and hisses and slight flat tone of the record just put the mellow sound over the top. Never mind those lyrics of trees, skies, love, and life! The song starts off slow, almost with no music. It's almost as if Robin were right here whispering in your ear. Then you look at the vinyl spinning and it sends chills up your spine.
Oh Run To Me is just darling. The guitar and vocal work here is marvelous. The lyric of 'Run to me, whenever you're lonely' is just so fitting. You're feeling down and out, put on The Bee Gees to console you.
I hadn't heard Man For All Seasons before my first listen here. In fact, I need to look up what album it originally came from, but it's pretty good darn good. Again harmony and rhyme, can anybody do it better?

How Can You Mend A Broken Heart leads off Side Two with its monster self. Barry and Robin poured the feelings about their rift into this song and came out with one of life's two biggest questions. (The other being How Deep Is Your Love? 80)=) ) The Boys can't give you the answers, but they make the questions a bit easier to deal with. Like How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, Don't Want To Live Inside Myself is also from Trafalgar. Where Heart is more reflective and questioning, Don't Want To Live Inside Myself is almost dark, edgy, angry, yet soft somehow. You almost feel sorry for it, but love it at the same time. Barry's soul delivery and the rock hard music parallel this feeling.
I'm going to be in tears doing this review! Everyone needs a good cry! Melody Fair again moves you by reflecting its lyrics in the music. When Melody sees the rain, the music sounds like raindrops. Maurice's harmonizing here is awesome. It seems to also reflect the story of Melody and the issues she's hiding under the surface. %^&*$% good!

Although they had to stretch for material, 1968's Let There Be Love fits the track list here. The musical and vocal arrangement is very orchestral. When Barry's vocal crescendo comes, you wonder how he can possibly top it, but
Robin joins in and the song rises to a whole nother level. Yes why can't there be love? Let there be love!
Now, ahem, the one rocking testament on Best of Volume 2 is Lonely Days. Written on the same day as How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, the Boys speak of their wives being their only saving graces during the band's split. It's so raw and real, human nature at its high and low described perfectly in song.
Next is In The Morning, or rather as it's entitled here Morning of My Life. This seems to be the version used for the Melody soundtrack. I personally like the original version on the 63-66 compilations better, but the slower rhythm here is ubermellow. Where the original version is more quirky, here however, it feels just like you've stayed up all night. The sunrise and rainbow you see are so beautiful, but somehow bittersweet. Now, anybody who's ever done that and felt that way, did you ever think there would be a song to describe that feeling? I know The Bee Gees rock!

Alive starts out bittersweet like In The Morning, but it quickly picks up with its affirming beat and lyrics. As crazy as this album can make you, Alive turns everything around and tastefully flips the bird at the mellow sound. It's so what! lyrics almost prep the Brothers Gibb for the kick-ass that was to come.
The early seventies were a very slow and mellow period for the Bee Gees, almost too mellow. However, mellow can serve its purpose, and Best Of Volume 2 is indeed a collection of the best. Try and find it on record, then save it for a rainy day. My Mom calls it `tin-e', whatever that means.

This is an excellent compilation and and great follow-up to Greatest Hits Vol. 1. The album in CD format is the same as the original vinyl release except for some unknown reason, they left off Wouldn't I Be Someone, a very superb recording. However, it is found on the boxed set. I definately would recommend this to any Bee Gees fan.

This compilation includes the best of their music from mid-1969 to 1972. This period started with Saved by the bell (a Robin Gibb solo) and Don't forget to remember (perhaps my favorite Bee Gees song), both of which reached number two on the UK charts. They had little success for some time after that. In 1970, I O I O scraped into the top fifty, but Lonely days did better, making the top forty. In 1971, they didn't enter the UK charts at all. 1972 was better with My world making the top twenty and Run to me making the top ten. They had never really established themselves in America with their sixties pop-folk music and the songs from this collection didn't change that.

So this album may be seen by some as the best of a bad period in the careers of the Bee Gees. In fact, there are many good songs in this collection. I particularly like Melody fair and Morning of my life. Are the songs really weaker than those on the earlier volume, or is it just that people were tired of the style and wanted something different from the Bee Gees? It is probably a bit of both.

If you enjoy the earlier Best of Bee Gees, you are likely to also enjoy this - but not quite as much.

This great album demonstrates the Bee Gees' mastery of eclectic pop and their gift for the catchy melody. Different styles are represented here: the love ballad in their 1971 hit How Can You Mend A Broken Heart and in Don't Wanna Live Inside Myself, the choral pop song in I.O.I.O. and the superb sad harmony song in Melody Fair. The somber ballad Don't Forget To Remember is close to country while Saved By The Bell, one of my top favourites, is perfect moody pop. In this, their early phase, they were masters of the melodic popular song and nobody could have foreseen their later incarnation as prime purveyors of urban R&B. When considering the career of the Bee Gees, one is struck by the impressive diversity of their talents. Their vocal dexterity and ability to create wonderful arrangements stand out as the centerpiece of their successful career over more than four decades. This collection may not be as strong as Best Of Volume One but it's an amazing listening experience nonetheless and proof of just how good pop music used to be in the sixties and seventies.

This is a perplexing combination of great hits. While good songs like, "Man For All Season", "Melody Fair" and "Let There Be Love" are good songs, there are hits missing. "Wouldn't I Be Someone-long version" is missing as well as a cult popular song, "Marley Purt Drive". With a CD capability length of 78 minutes, it disappoints more are not on this CD. Should you buy it? Duh!? I THINK so!

This album gives us the Bee Gees at the absolute top of their game. The timing for the release of this album was perfect because after this it was all downhill music wise.

I won't say anything bad about Volume 1, It is an awesome album that gives us the foundation of songwriting that would evolve into the songs on this album. The songs here, lyrical as well as melodies, seem to me to be much more mature than the songs on Volume 1. To me, the hits and songs on this album, the Bee Gees are incredible.

The biggest difference between these songs and the songs on Volume 1 are that there are times in some of the songs on Volume 1 where they struggle to find words to rhyme with what they had written, and quite frankly, sounds a little hard pressed at times. The songs on Volume 2 have lyrics that go somewhere on every song.

The songs on this album show a maturity in the song writing that is missing in Volume 1

I do recommend both volumes. Between the two of them you get the VERY best of the Bee Gees before they starting recording trash.

The original 1973 LP has been resequenced, and drops the opening song " WOULDN'T I BE SOMEONE ", which at the time was a new song. Otherwise, this collection is a balance of a few big hits , like HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART , LONELY DAYS, RUN TO ME and MY WORLD, and some lesser known, but equally enthralling material that were both singles & album cuts. Overall, I'd describe most of this period of the Gibbs as moody & introspective. ALIVE is one of their great not as well known gems. MORNING OF MY LIFE is a rare song, not on any other album, & previously recorded by LULU on her " New Routes " album. I.O.I.O. is about the only upbeat song on here. It's very memorable & I've been humming it for decades since. LET THERE BE LOVE , AND THE SUN WILL SHINE and MELODY FAIR [ also cut by Lulu ] date back to the Bee Gee's late 60's material and they included Robin's solo hit in the UK, SAVED BY THE BELL , which isn't nearly as good as the group songs. This is a compilation of some excellent Gibb brothers songs, that focuses more on their sullen, sad yet sweet sound.