5 September 1969
Not, unfortunately, the theme from that ’90s US high school sitcom: this ‘Saved By The Bell’ is a solo Bee Gees joint. I gather Robin briefly left the group after a disagreement with his brothers, perhaps on how exactly to make their records sound so gloopy and nauseous, then re-joined after a year or so, but in that time dropped his own album and this hit single.
I don’t think I know this Robin Gibb solo number one. So, as is the way here, I will listen to it for the first time LIVE as I write this. Expectations? Well, it’s not called ‘My Brothers Are Shite’ or the like, so I doubt it’s a diss track, and going to number one suggests that it’s pretty much Continuity Bee Gees. I’m expecting it to be bad too, of course.
[One listen later]
Jesus! This is dreadful! Yes, it’s similar to your usual Bee Gees late-’60s fare: over-orchestrated maudlin balladry, chamber pop meets chamber pot. The song is a miserable trudge of boil-in-the-bag heartache. What makes this worse than your usual Bee Gees record is Robin’s tissue-thin high-pitched voice trembling like a James Blunt for the Age of Aquarius – or, if you remember your Saved By The Bell, Screech!
