Best known for his 1966 hit “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted,” Ruffin was blessed with a gorgeous voice and a winning personality, but he never really fit in with the clique at Motown, operating as more of a solo act both onstage and off. Already a working singer when he was invited to join The Temptations, he recommended his younger brother David, who became a member of the successful act. Jimmy Ruffin was called ‘Motown’s underrated soul singer’ in an ABC News obituary at his death in 2014. Robin, who maintained a solid solo career as well as his work with the Bee Gees, also did some writing and production work that stands out, one of the most striking being Jimmy Ruffin’s Sunrise (1980). ![]() Barry Gibb, in particular, was involved in working with other artists in recording songs he and his brothers had written. In addition, they were recognized as simply being good songs, well constructed, and having already been a hit or only needing the right performance to become one. The Bee Gees wrote many songs that cried out for interpretation in soul, gospel, and R&B styles. Of course, artists like Fleetwood Mac or Electric Light Orchestra were initially inspired to use the studio as another instrument by the experiments of The Beatles and The Beach Boys, but as the seventies progressed, the palette of sounds that became available was widened considerably by Black music that was being widely heard on records and the radio. The sounds that emerged from Detroit, Philadelphia, and Muscle Shoals set the standard in many ways for the rock/pop music of the seventies. The public’s appetite for danceable music with a warm sound and pop production was such that as disco emerged and then began to wane as a genre of its own, many Black singers, musicians, and producers had an opportunity to make records with the resources generally available to popular white rock bands. Plus Bee Gees produced and written tracks by Barbara Streisand, Dionne Warwick. As a final note, the European version of this collection includes two songs which were annoyingly left off the American version: "Jumbo" and "My World.Other covers you can hear on this YouTube playlist include Raul Malo (“Run To Me”), Al Green (“How Can You Mend A Broken Heart”), John Frusciante (“How Deep Is Your Love”), Conway Twitty (“Rest Your Love On Me”), Pet Shop Boys (“I Started A Joke”) and more. A wonderful, stellar collection through and through from one of the rock era's biggest, brightest, most influential, and most exciting acts. These include "Emotion," which was popularized by Samantha Sang and later Destiny's Child "Heartbreaker," which was a comeback smash for Dionne Warwick the chart-topping "Islands in the Stream," which was a hit for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton and "Immortality," a European hit for Celine Dion. Disc two continues the formula, beginning with the cultural phenomenon that was "Stayin' Alive" and continuing with "How Deep Is Your Love," "Night Fever," "Too Much Heaven," "Tragedy," and "Love You Inside and Out." Disc two also includes Barry Gibb's hit duet with Barbra Streisand, "Guilty," as well as major European hits such as "You Win Again" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and later American hits such as "One," "Alone," and their superb 2001 single "This Is Where I Came In." As a bonus treat, the album includes four newly recorded versions of Bee Gees songs which became hits for other artists. Disc one includes their major '60s and early-'70s hits, up to "You Should Be Dancing." Included are their major American hits, such as "New York Mining Disaster 1941," "Massachusetts," "To Love Somebody," "Lonely Days," "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," "Jive Talkin'," "Nights on Broadway," and "Words," as well as major European hits, such as "World" and the gorgeous "Don't Forget to Remember." Also included on disc one is the former B-side "If I Can't Have You" (popularized, of course, by Yvonne Elliman). ![]() ![]() Their Greatest Hits: The Record stands as the best Bee Gees hits package available, assembling both vital European and American hits from their early-'60s period all the way through to 2001.
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