1955–1966: early performances and songwriting In 1955, when the Gibb family moved back to their hometown of
Manchester, the brothers formed the
skiffle group the Rattlesnakes, consisting of Barry on vocals, lead and slide guitar, Robin and Maurice on vocals and acoustic guitar and friends/neighbours Paul Frost and Kenny Horrocks also providing vocals. By 1957, the Rattlesnakes played songs by
Cliff Richard,
Paul Anka,
Buddy Holly and
the Everly Brothers. Gibb said the first song they played was Paul Anka's "I Love You, Baby"; however, in 1968, he remembered it as the Everly Brothers' "
Wake Up Little Susie". The Rattlesnakes' first professional gig took place on 28 December 1957 in the Gaumont Cinema. Around 1958, Gibb's guitar was accidentally broken by Frost, who described the guitar as "broken in the middle". The group later made a new group called the
Bee Gees. In 1959, the brothers began singing between races at the Redcliffe Speedway to earn money. Their vocal talent brought them to the attention of Bill Gates, a radio deejay. Gates was also interested in Gibb's original material, including "Let Me Love You" and "(Underneath the) Starlight of Love". After hearing those songs, Gates asked Gibb for more original material. Gibb quit school in September 1961, and the Gibbs moved to
Surfers Paradise. The brothers spent the summers of 1961 and 1962 performing at hotels and clubs in the
Gold Coast area. By September 1962, Gibb managed to audition songs to
Col Joye. The Gibb family moved to
Sydney at the start of 1963. Around the same time, the Bee Gees were signed to
Festival, but they were assigned to
Leedon. Their first single, "
The Battle of the Blue and the Grey", was written by Gibb. Gibb wrote all of the Bee Gees' singles from 1963 to 1966. In July 1963,
Lonnie Lee, one of Australia's top recording stars of the time, recorded what is said to be the first rock and roll recording of a Barry Gibb song. Recorded on Leedon Records and named "I'd Like To Leave If I May", radio preferred the flip side. Also between 1963 and 1966, Gibb's songs were recorded by numerous other Australian recording artists including
Trevor Gordon,
Noeleen Batley,
Anne Shelton,
April Byron,
Ronnie Burns and
Lori Balmer. One of them is his composition "One Road" which hit No. 2 in Australia New South Wales Chart and No. 32 on the
Kent Music Report charts for
Jimmy Little in 1964. Another of his compositions, "I Just Don't Like to Be Alone" by
Bryan Davies, reached No. 25 on the New South Wales chart in 1964. In 1966, Gibb won the annual Radio 5KA award for the best composition of the year, "I Was a Lover, A Leader of Men".
1967–1970: return to UK, commercial break-out and worldwide popularity '' The Bee Gees returned to the United Kingdom in early 1967. On 24 February, the group passed a live audition with
Robert Stigwood and later signed to Robert Stigwood Organization, also the same day that "Spicks and Specks" was released by Polydor as a single in the United Kingdom. Stigwood became the manager of the Bee Gees.
Colin Petersen, drummer, and
Vince Melouney, lead guitarist, later joined the group. The result was their first international LP, ''
Bee Gees' 1st''. The second single from the album, "
To Love Somebody", on which Gibb provided the lead vocal, has become a standard covered by hundreds of artists consistently throughout the years since. Around the same time, the Gibb brothers contributed backing vocals on the track "
Cowman, Milk Your Cow", a song written by Gibb and Robin and sung by the singer
Adam Faith. In 1967, Gibb was in
The Speakeasy Club, a nightclub in London, where he was introduced by
Pete Townshend to
John Lennon. Lennon was still wearing his outfit for the ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' photo shoot earlier that day on 30 March 1967; after a couple of scotch and cokes, Townshend said to Gibb, "Do you want to meet John?" and he led Gibb across to a room where Lennon was holding court and Townshend said, "John. This is Barry Gibb, from the group the Bee Gees" to which Lennon replied, "Howyadoin'"."So I met John Lennon's back", Gibb said with a laugh, "I didn't meet his front." Gibb earlier said in 2010 about the meeting, "It was virtually a closed club and you went downstairs and there was a coffin and if you were someone they knew and you were supposed to go in, the wall would turn around ... and in you would go. There would be The Rolling Stones|[Rolling] Stones lying around all over the place. It was one of those days when I met John Lennon – from the back. It was Pete Townshend who introduced me ... [Lennon said] 'Pleased to meet you', and he carried on talking to his guest." After many stresses on their personal and professional lives, both Barry and Robin collapsed from nervous exhaustion on a flight from Australia to Turkey in 1967. On 23 December 1967, Barry and Robin left England for Australia. As Gibb explained: "But due to time difference we arrived on Christmas Day, we missed Christmas Eve altogether!" The pair celebrated Christmas with their manager
Robert Stigwood's family as Gibb said: "We went on to Sydney." The group later filmed a TV special,
Frankie Howerd Meets the Bee Gees, with
Frankie Howerd. In 1969, the Bee Gees released "
First of May" as the A-side, with the flip side being "Lamplight" on which Robin sang the lead. Robert Stigwood chose "First of May" to be the A-side. No other songs were released from the album
Odessa. Shortly after Robin announced his solo plans, the Bee Gees released their first single without him, "
Tomorrow Tomorrow". Barry also worked with
Samantha Sang, co-writing and producing two songs "The Love of a Woman" and the B-side "Don't Let It Happen Again" released on
Parlophone. He also produced songs for
P.P. Arnold including "
Bury Me Down By the River" (released as a single) which were originally recorded by the Bee Gees for their 1970 album. In the summer of 1969, Petersen left the group which now only featured Barry and Maurice as the Bee Gees.
Pentangle drummer
Terry Cox replaced Petersen to complete another 12 songs, but only five songs were released in the album. The film
Cucumber Castle, featuring only two Bee Gees after originally including Petersen, aired on BBC2 on 26 December 1970. When the group announced that they had split at the start of December 1969, Gibb spent January 1970 writing songs to record the following month.
1970: debut as a solo artist In February 1970, he started to record his first solo album, ''
The Kid's No Good''; he released his first solo single, "
I'll Kiss Your Memory", but the rest of the songs that were supposed to be on the album were never released and only appeared in bootlegs. "I'll Kiss Your Memory" did not chart in either the U.K. or U.S. but reached No. 16 in Netherlands in five weeks. Another country ballad, "This Time", was chosen as the B-side. Bruce Eder of
AllMusic stated that the songs on ''The Kid's No Good'' were of
country and sentimental numbers. In April 1970 the album
Cucumber Castle was released four months after the break-up, featuring only Barry and Maurice, as Robin was working on his solo career. It was distributed to radio stations in Canada and elsewhere, but it was decided to focus on the Bee Gees' reunion single, "
Lonely Days", released around August.
1970–1974: Bee Gees' reunion In August 1970, the Bee Gees reunited and recorded together again, writing "Lonely Days" and "
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" at their first reunion session. In 1971, the group released "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart", which was their first American No. 1 hit. In October 1971, Gibb recorded three songs for the
Barry Gibb Fan Club. One of the songs, "
King Kathy", was released as a single on Lyntone Records. Gibb had remained a constant creative force for the group and, by 1972, had set aside the idea of a parallel solo career and was ready to devote full attention to the band.
To Whom It May Concern was the last album recorded fully at IBC Studios and their last album arranged by Bill Shepherd who had worked with the group since 1964. Also in 1972, Gibb moved to Los Angeles to record in the
Record Plant studio. In 1973, the Bee Gees moved to Robert Stigwood's
RSO Records and released their first singles for Stigwood, "
Saw a New Morning" and "
Life in a Tin Can". Stigwood was not ready to give up on the group, but he did not believe in the musical direction they were taking. At the suggestion of
Jerry Wexler and
Ahmet Ertegun of
Atlantic Records, Stigwood sent them to work with Atlantic producer and arranger
Arif Mardin who produced the next Bee Gees album in 1974. After a United States tour early in 1974, the group started to perform at small clubs in England.
1975–1980: big success for disco works At the start of 1975, the group moved to Miami at the suggestion of
Eric Clapton to work on their new album with
R&B producer
Arif Mardin in
Criteria Studios. The first song featuring Gibb's falsetto was 1975's "
Nights on Broadway". In 1976, Gibb wrote "
I Just Want to Be Your Everything", his brother
Andy Gibb's first US No. 1, and provided backup vocals. During 1976, Gibb met with Vince Melouney and wrote two songs, "Let It Ride" and "Morning Rain", that were never recorded. In November 1977, the film
Saturday Night Fever was released and its
soundtrack became the best-selling soundtrack of all time. During 1977, Gibb co-wrote "
Emotion", which remains Samantha Sang's best-known hit. Gibb and Galuten wrote "
Save Me, Save Me" originally recorded by the group Network and later covered by
Frankie Valli,
Dusty Springfield,
Rare Earth, and
Teri DeSario. The film ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'', featuring Gibb as Mark Henderson was shown in July 1978. Between December 1977 and September 1978, seven songs Barry wrote would reach No. 1 in United States. Andy's third single, "
Shadow Dancing", which was credited to all four Gibb brothers, was also a US No. 1 single. In 1978, Gibb wrote a
title song to order for their manager Robert Stigwood's film and stage musical
Grease and was later recorded by singer
Frankie Valli and reached No. 1 in the US. The song contains guitar work by
Peter Frampton. In February 1978, he provided background vocals for his composition "
Ain't Nothing Gonna Keep Me From You" which featured
Teri DeSario on vocals. After the Bee Gees' successful
1979 Spirits Having Flown Tour to promote the
album of the same name, he wrote, produced and sang on almost all of the songs on Andy Gibb's final album,
After Dark, released at the start of 1980.
1980–1983: producer for other artists In September 1980, Gibb produced the three new songs on Andy Gibb's first compilation album, ''
Andy Gibb's Greatest Hits''. In October 1980,
Barbra Streisand's
Guilty was released, produced by the
Gibb-Galuten-Richardson team. the lead off single, Woman In Love was released in August and within 5 weeks was No. 1 on the US charts. The two songs of which were vocal duets between Streisand and Gibb are "
Guilty" a U.S. Top 5, and "
What Kind of Fool" also reached the Top 10 in the U.S. and reached No. 1 on the
US Adult contemporary chart. In 1981, the Bee Gees released
Living Eyes. Songs from the album were not
disco and the album was not a commercial success. In 1982,
Clive Davis asked Gibb to write for
Dionne Warwick, who was on his
Arista label. Barry produced Warwick's
Heartbreaker. The songs were all written by Gibb except "
Our Day Will Come". In August 1983, after Gibb met
Kenny Rogers who asked for some songs, Gibb recorded his first demo for Rogers entitled "
Eyes That See in the Dark". At that time, Robin was working on his
How Old Are You? album with Maurice playing instruments. The other songs intended for Kenny Rogers were written in late 1982, then at the start of 1983, Barry continued to record the demos until April 1983, while also recording songs with the Bee Gees for the film
Staying Alive. In August 1983, he produced Rogers' new album
Eyes That See in the Dark, which includes the song "
Islands in the Stream" by Rogers and
Dolly Parton which became one of the best-selling singles in
country music.
1983–1986: break from the Bee Gees and switch to solo projects In August 1983, Irving Azoff signed Gibb to the MCA Records for North America. Gibb was signed for a few million dollars to a multi-album deal. Polydor still had rights to Gibb's songs outside North America. In September 1984, his album
Now Voyager was released. Two singles from the album included "
Shine, Shine", a US Top 40 single that reached the Top 10 in their
Adult contemporary charts, and "
Fine Line" which was less successful, only reaching No. 50 on the dance charts. The film
Now Voyager starring Gibb was directed by Storm Thorgerson, in which Gibb is the protagonist, with actor
Michael Hordern as his guide through a confusing world between life and death. The film includes a music video on most of the songs on
Now Voyager. A video for "Fine Line" featuring Gibb without his trademark beard and was filmed in black and white. In 1985, Gibb started to record demos for
Diana Ross, for her album
Eaten Alive. In the same year, he co-wrote most of the songs on Robin Gibb's album
Walls Have Eyes. In late 1985 and early 1986, he wrote new songs for his next album, though his third album
Moonlight Madness was not released and most of the songs on that album was later released in 1988. Producer
Randy Jackson plays bass on all of the tracks. Gibb co-wrote three songs for Swedish singer
Carola on her album
Runaway. Also in 1985, he joined the short-lived supergroup the Bunburys with David English.
1987–2002: later activity In early 1987, the Bee Gees started to record their first album in six years. In June and July 1987, Gibb and Maurice produced Andy Gibb's four new songs; one of them, "
Arrow Through the Heart", was released in 2010. In 1987, Gibb co-wrote "Up the Revolution" by
Elton John. And in 1988, Gibb recorded two new songs for the
Hawks film. In September 1988, the
film soundtrack of the film was released by Polydor only in the U.K. The songs were all performed by Gibb except "
Chain Reaction" (Diana Ross). The single from the soundtrack, "
Childhood Days", reached only No. 60 in Germany. Around 1990, the Bee Gees recorded
High Civilization. In September 1990, Gibb played guitar and produced "Born to Be Loved by You" by Kelli Wolfe, which was released as an unreleased B-side in August 1993. Around 1992, Gibb played guitar on
Lulu's "Let Me Wake Up in Your Arms", released in 1993. In 1993, the Bee Gees recorded and released ''
Size Isn't Everything. In 1994, the Bee Gees and Polydor planned a tour to promote Size Isn't Everything'', but it was off in February, due to Gibb's trouble with arthritis in the back, right hand and right knee. Gibb co-wrote "I Will Be There", which was recorded as a demo for
Tina Turner and released on Turner's album
Twenty Four Seven. In 2001, Gibb co-wrote "I Cannot Give You My Love" with Ashley Gibb, which was intended for
Cliff Richard. In September 2001, the Bee Gees re-recorded "
Islands in the Stream". However, this session featured only Robin and Maurice; Barry did not participate in the session, held at Middle Ear Studios in Miami Beach, Florida. In 2002, Gibb and
Michael Jackson recorded "
All in Your Name". Also in 2002, Gibb sings background vocals on
Michael Bublé's version of the 1971 song "
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart".
2003–2012: Maurice's death and semi-retirement of the Bee Gees Maurice died suddenly on 12 January 2003. Ten months later, in November of that year, Gibb produced and contributed backing vocals and guitar to two songs performed by Cliff Richard, "I Cannot Give You My Love" and "How Many Sleeps?"; Maurice's keyboard work from a 2001 demo version was included in this 2003 version. On 2 May 2004, Barry and Robin Gibb received the
CBE award at
Buckingham Palace; their nephew Adam accepted his father Maurice's posthumous award. Also in 2004, Gibb co-wrote and sang backing vocals on his son
Steve Gibb's solo single "Living in the Rain". In January 2005, along with many artists, Gibb and his brother Robin recorded vocal parts for the charity single "Grief Never Grows Old" on behalf of victims of the
tsunami in the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004. In April and May 2005, Barbra Streisand recorded songs for her new album produced by Gibb. In August 2006, two Gibb singles, "Doctor Mann" and "Underworld", were released on
iTunes. "Underworld" was featured on the film soundtrack of
Arctic Tale but not in the film. On 7 December 2006, Gibb joined 4,500 other musicians in a full-page advertisement in the
Financial Times newspaper, calling for the
British Government to extend the existing 50-year copyright protection of sound recordings in the United Kingdom. The
fair play for musicians advertisement proposed that the copyright be extended to the American standard of 95 years and was a direct response to the
Gowers Review (published by the British Government on 6 December 2006), which recommended the retention of the 50-year protection for sound recordings. In 2007, "
Drown On the River" was released as a single on
iTunes. The song later appeared on the soundtrack of
Deal. Also in the same year, Gibb sang background vocals on Jamie Jo's song "U Turn Me On" and wrote the theme music for
ITV's
Grease Is the Word. Gibb also appeared as a mentor in season six of
American Idol. On 14 March 2009, Gibb teamed with
Olivia Newton-John to present the one-hour finale performance at a star-studded 12-hour live concert at Sydney's
Sydney Cricket Ground, part of
Sound Relief, a fundraiser to aid victims of the February 2009
Victorian Bushfires that devastated large tracts of heavily wooded and populated south-eastern Australia, where the Gibb family once lived. The concert was televised live nationally across Australia on the
Max TV cable network. On 10 July 2009, Gibb was made a Freeman of the Borough of Douglas (Isle of Man). The award was also bestowed upon his brother Robin and posthumously upon his brother Maurice. In late 2009, Barry and Robin announced plans to record and perform together once again as the Bee Gees. In 2010, Gibb withdrew from a planned appearance on the
Gorillaz album
Plastic Beach which was released in March. In December 2011, his two songs, "Grey Ghost" and "Daddy's Little Girl" were released. On 21 February 2012, Gibb performed his first solo concert in the U.S. at the Seminole
Hard Rock Cafe in Florida. He sang "
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" with Maurice's daughter, Samantha Gibb, who is a singer in her own band. Barry's son Steve was also on stage as lead guitarist and sang a Maurice composition, "
On Time". On 20 May 2012, Robin Gibb died, making Barry the sole surviving Gibb brother.
2012–present Gibb made his debut performance at the
Grand Ole Opry on 27 July 2012, performing three songs with
Ricky Skaggs. Skaggs later recorded "Soldier's Son" on which Gibb added vocals for Skaggs' album
Music to My Ears released in 2012. He commenced a world tour in 2013 in Australia called
Mythology Tour, featuring the Bee Gees anthology set
album of the same name. He was joined on stage by his son Steve and Maurice's daughter Samantha. On that tour, for the first time on stage, Gibb performed "
Playdown" (1966), "
Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You" (1967), "
I Started a Joke" (1969) and "With the Sun in My Eyes" (1968). Also, for the first time, the music video of the Bee Gees' 2001 song "Technicolor Dreams", written by Gibb, was shown before the show began. This short tour inspired
Festival Records to release a box set of the Bee Gees' three Australian albums,
The Festival Albums Collection, 1965–1967, and a 'best of' compilation of the group's Australian era songs titled
Morning of My Life. On 27 October 2013, Gibb appeared at the
Country Music Hall of Fame with Kenny Rogers and
Bobby Bare; Gibb performed "Islands in the Stream" with Kelly Lang. In October, Gibb performed at the Grand Ole Opry for the second time with Ricky Skaggs. On 21 December 2013, Barry Gibb made a surprise appearance on the US television show
Saturday Night Live at the end of the "
Barry Gibb Talk Show" skit with
Jimmy Fallon,
Justin Timberlake and
Madonna. Also appearing that night was Sir
Paul McCartney who shared the stage with Gibb during the closing credits where they embraced each other. On 27 January 2014, Gibb appeared on the American television show
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to announce the start of his first solo tour of the US. He performed "You Should Be Dancing" with help from Fallon's backing band,
the Roots. Gibb and Fallon sang some Everly Brothers songs, including "
Bye Bye Love" and "
Wake Up Little Susie". Gibb also sang "
To Love Somebody" as a bonus online performance. On 28 January, Gibb was interviewed by CNN about his brothers and, in that same interview, Gibb talked about
Justin Bieber, saying he is "heading for a brick wall". In a
Mirror interview with Gibb on 11 July 2014 he said he was still mourning following the death of Robin and credits his wife Linda and Paul McCartney for helping him to recover. Gibb's friend, country singer
TG Sheppard, said in an interview with Gary James that Gibb just moved to Nashville and was going into country music. On 8 February 2015 at the
57th Annual Grammy Awards, Gibb, along with the group
Pentatonix, presented the category of
Best Pop Vocal Album. On 26 March 2015, Gibb was one of the headlining acts on a music festival called the Hard Rock Rising Miami Beach Global Music Festival alongside
Andrea Bocelli,
Gloria Estefan,
Flo Rida,
Jon Secada and
Wyclef Jean. On 26 June 2016, Gibb was scheduled to perform the "legend" spot at the
Glastonbury Festival in England, but pulled out due to a family illness. He did, however, appear with
Coldplay as a guest performer singing "
To Love Somebody" and "
Stayin' Alive". On 28 June 2016, it was announced that Gibb had signed to
Columbia Records and would release his second solo album,
In the Now, on 7 October 2016. The album was Gibb's first album with all new material since the Bee Gees' final studio album,
This Is Where I Came In (2001).
In the Now was co-written by his sons
Stephen and Ashley and produced with John Merchant. On 25 June 2017, Gibb performed the "legend" spot at the
Glastonbury Festival in England. He had joined Coldplay on stage during the same festival in 2016. On 6 November 2020, Gibb announced his latest album entitled
Greenfields which is a duets album featuring country artists
Dolly Parton,
Little Big Town,
Alison Krauss and others. The album contains 11 Bee Gees tracks and one unreleased Gibb track, re-imagined as country songs. The song "Words of a Fool" featuring
Jason Isbell was released the same day as a preview. The song was originally written by Gibb in 1986 for an unreleased album. Barry was honoured at the 46th Annual Kennedy Center Honors in December 2023. In 2024, Gibb focused his attention on pre-production of the planned Bee Gees bio pic, serving as executive producer. ==Personal life==