Twenty songs about love, by the band who do it best of all. It doesn't get better than this.

Relationships have begun and ended to it. It's been the understated soundtrack to countless romantic evenings. But familiarity hasn't diminished To Love Somebody's capacity to touch the heart with its crushed-velvet harmonies and yearning lyric. The oldest song on this album (written while the Gibb brothers were still teenagers, and in 1967 became their second single), it sets a daunting standard for the 19 songs that follow. But every one meets that standard - not just the classic hits, but a few you may know better as cover versions by other artists, and a few that just got away. The problem, really, has been what to leave out.

Although the Gibbs are masters of genres from rock to R&B, the unadorned love ballad has never been far from their hearts. In early songs such as Words (which has been covered no fewer than 32 times) and the stark, piano-led Lonely Days, they found the perfect outlet for their lush melodies and instinctive romanticism. By 1971, and How Can You Mend a Broken Heart - an American number one - their style had matured to feature the complex harmonies that became their trademark. But the lyrical style was still the same simple celebration of love, in all its joy and awfulness.

An example of their talent as wordsmiths is How Deep is Your Love, famous as the closing music to the much-loved disco film Saturday Night Fever - it vividly sums up the bliss of new love with "I know your eyes in the morning sun/ I feel you touch me in the pouring rain." Emotion, a US hit as a cover version by Samantha Sang, and More Than a Woman, covered by disco kings Tavares, used the same kind of direct, deeply touching language.

Robin's 1983 solo single, Juliet, is here as a taste of one of the Gibb voices on its own, in a happy, upbeat rocker. And there are more surprises. Check out the funky new take on Islands in the Stream, which includes a playful reference to Pras Michel's retitled rap version, Ghetto Superstar. Others will focus on Closer Than Close and I Could Not Love You More, both from the 1997 Still Waters album and never released as singles. A song that perhaps should have been a single - for its graceful depiction of mature love that has lasted the course - is the 2001 track Wedding Day. Finally, in 1999, Barry, Robin and Maurice teamed up with Ronan Keating for the lilting Lovers And Friends, unavailable until now.

 

BEE GEES - LOVE SONGS

1. To Love Somebody
2. Words
3. First Of May
4. Lonely Days
5. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart
6. How Deep Is Your Love
7. More Than A Woman
8. (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away
9. Emotion
10. Too Much Heaven
11. Heartbreaker
12. Islands In The Stream
13. Juliet
14. Secret Love
15. For Whom The Bell Tolls
16. Heart Like Mine *
17. Closer Than Close
18. I Could Not Love You More
19. Wedding Day
20. Lovers And Friends - featuring Ronan Keating *

*UK BONUS TRACKS

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