Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid Profile of a Great Artist from the 70s, November 2, 2004
When I look back to the decade of the 1970s and I pick an "Artist for the Decade", the band that immediately comes to mind is The Bee Gees. However, when I think of the Brothers Gibb, I also think of the fourth brother - Andy. Andy was not a member of the Bee Gees band. He was much younger than his Bee Gee siblings Barry, Robin, and Maurice. It is well known that Andy died at a very young age in 1988 at the age of 30, but had Andy lived, he probably would have been made a full-fledged member of the Bee Gees. We may never really know the true reason why Andy was not a member of the world famous band with his brothers - it could have been age, it could have been Andy's problems with drugs, it could have been that Andy just wanted to do things on his own, or a combination of these things. Whatever the reason, one can't deny that Andy was able to have a wave of success on his own. We may never know if this was a product of riding the Bee Gees coat tails, or whether he would hit it big on his own. But in a two year period from 1977 through 1979, Andy Gibb was a superstar in the music business. Considering the popularity of the Bee Gees, one thing that immediately surprises me is that Andy's "peak" period covered such as short time range. If you are looking to get a good cross-section of Andy's work for his career - the album "Andy Gibb" (Greatest Hits Collection) is a very good one.
Andy's body of work covered a period from 1977 through 1980. This basically was Andy's career. Andy's personal problems would take hold in the 1980s and as a result, his career would stall. Andy released three albums in this period. "Andy Gibb" covers three songs from each of these three albums: "Flowing Rivers" (featuring "I Just Want To Be Your Everything", "(Love is) Thicker than Water", "Flowing Rivers"); "Shadow Dancing" (featuring "Shadow Dancing", "An Everlasting Love", and (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away"); and "After Dark" ("Desire", "After Dark", and "I Can't Help It"). There are also three additional tracks - including two from 1980 ("Time is Time" and "Me (Without You") and an unreleased track "Man on Fire". Overall this collection does a good job at compiling Andy's career.
There is another greatest hits collection called "20 Century Masters: Millenium Collection". That collection features all of the songs on this collection except for "Flowing Rivers" and the unreleased track "Man on Fire", but it does feature the song "Will You Love Me Tommorow" (not included on this collection). I would say that this is a more complete collection and would advise this over "Millenium".
I prefer my Greatest Hits collections to be in the chronological order of the release of the songs. "Andy Gibb" (Greatest Hits Collection) follows this blueprint with one exception - the unreleased track "Man on Fire" is included as the first track. This was probably done for marketing purposes to promote the unreleased track, so it isn't the end of the world that this song is out of sequence. This song sounds a lot more like later Bee Gees work (i.e. the more "adult-contemporary" music from "ESP" and "One")
If you look at the selections that come from "Flowing Rivers" and "Shadow Dancing", these songs were the best selling songs commercially. These songs are more of the "Classic Andy Gibb" sound. You can make the argument that these are clear Bee Gees coat tail songs. To some extent this is probably true. The songs "I Just Want To Be Your Everything", "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water", "Shadow Dancing", "An Everlasting Love", and "(Our Love) Don't Throw It Away" sound a lot like the Bee Gees. These songs all had Barry as a co-writer, so that might explain a lot for why it sounds as it does. Andy would co-write "Thicker Than Water" and "Shadow Dancing" proving Andy had songwriting abilities as well. There was one song from the first album that was a song written by Andy alone - the title track from "Flowing Rivers". This song does not have a typical Bee Gees feel to it, but has a country-western flavor to it. This song gets forgotten about because it gets lost in the Bee Gees wave.
Andy's third album "After Dark" didn't do well as commercially. This might be because the Bee Gees wave of popularity was waning by 1980. This is the album where Andy really began to come out from his brothers shadows and show what he could do as an artist. This album has less of a Bee Gees feel to it than the other two. The tracks that are included from this album prove this point. The title track "After Dark" has an almost R&B feel to it. From this particular album, there is a very nice duet with Olivia Newton-John included called "I Can't Help It". I don't feel this is Olivia Newton-John at her best, but she still adds a nice touch to the song.
The liner notes are very thin for this collection. The songwriter and copyright credits are included for each song. There are no lyrics included for the songs. It would have also been nice if they listed the album that each of the songs appeared on when it was released. The studio musicians who participate in each of the songs are listed, but you don't know what songs they are credited for. For example, Joe Walsh is given a guitar credit - but for what song?? This collection is an excellent place to get Andy Gibb's best work. It is a great way to hear some of his classic songs as well as a way to get acquainted with his later works. I highly recommend this collection.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A True Record Breaker!, May 30, 2001
Andy Gibb had always felt like he was lurking in the shadows of his famous brothers, but his musical genious shines through on this collection. He was the first and only artist to have his first three hits ("I Just Wanna..."), ((Love Is) Thicker...)" and ("Shadow Dancing") go to number one on the charts. With only three studio albums, he maintained a high quality of craftmanship few artists know. Three other songs are top ten hits with three others in the top forty. Prime album cuts include, "Flowing Rivers" (a great country/rock song), "After Dark" (a funky lively number) and "Man On Fire" (a previously unreleased song). Missing from this collection is the orignal vinyl duet of, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" with Pat Arnold (an old Gibb associate) and mercifully, the tediously awful duet with Victoria Principal, "All I Have To Dream". On an upbeat note, this collection will bring back many memories of a talent that continues on in the hearts of fans.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A short music career ... that was about to be relaunched, February 28, 2003
You either liked his music or you didn't. Chances are, if you enjoyed the Bee Gees music, you did. The younger Gibb brother had a relatively short career which faded out in the early 80's. He then went on to host 'Solid Gold' but planned a comeback shortly before his untimely death in 1988. Even at that time, there had been talk of Andy joining his brother's band. This collection captures every hit single, a few album tracks and a song he recorded before his death titled "Man On Fire". Andy's songs had a hint of Bee Gees flavour probably because they were co-penned by his brothers - but that's what made them so special. This CD is currently difficult to get hold of, but if you can find it, you will be glad to own it. Worth having for "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" alone. There's also a great duet with Olivia titled "I Can't Help it". The album is a trip down memory lane you'll want to take over and over.
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~ Bee Gees
~ Shaun Cassidy
~ Michael Jackson
~ Olivia Newton-John
by Andy Gibb 
