The Bee Gees with Chuck Berry - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 10-12-1973

Here's yet another album from the Bee Gees on the "Midnight Special" TV show. They hosted the show four times in 1973 and one time in 1975, and I've made albums of each of those episodes. This is the last one I'm posting from them. What makes this one stand out is they performed with one of the show's guests, Chuck Berry.

By the early 1970s, it seemed Berry's hit-making years were over, he had tons of hits from 1955 to 1964, but none since. But then, in 1972, he had a novelty hit called "My Ding-a-Ling" that didn't just do a little well - it went all the way to Number One on the U.S. and British singles charts. That made it the biggest hit of his career. As a result, his career was revived for a while, leading to TV appearances like this one, as well as a one-hour long concert on BBC TV. Luckily, he didn't actually play "My Ding-a-Ling" - it's a long song that gets old fast. Instead, he played some of his classics. And for two of those, he sang with the Bee Gees. 

However, more of the songs were performed by the Bee Gees on their own. They played some rather unexpected songs. For instance, "Lay It on Me" appeared on a 1970 album, but it wasn't a hit. And "Bye Bye Blackbird" is a cover of a song from 1926 that they never officially released in any form. 

In case you're curious, these are the other guests on the episode they hosted: Lee Michaels, King Crimson, Apple & Appleberry, and Barbara Mason.

The music here is unreleased, and the song quality is excellent. As usual with Midnight Special shows, I did a lot of extra editing, for instance adding applause to smooth over transitions between songs. I cut out some talking from the talking bits, for instance when performers for future episodes were discusssed, which is why some of those have "[Edit]" in their names. 

This album is 32 minutes long. 

01 talk by Wolfman Jack [Edit] (Bee Gees)
02 Massachusetts (Bee Gees)
03 talk [Edit] (Bee Gees)
04 Maybellene (Chuck Berry)
05 Reelin' and Rockin' (Chuck Berry with the Bee Gees)
06 Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry with the Bee Gees)
07 talk (Bee Gees)
08 Lay It on Me (Bee Gees)
09 Alive (Bee Gees)
10 Sweet Little Sixteen (Chuck Berry)
11 Bye Bye Blackbird (Bee Gees)
12 talk [Edit] (Bee Gees)
13 Alone Again (Bee Gees) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FnNCArhA

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/uzK6mlV3KT5U1Sh/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It's rather blurry, but at least it shows all the main figures from this concert. From left to right: Robin Gibb, Chuck Berry, Maurice Gibb, and Barry Gibb.

The Bee Gees with Wilson Pickett - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 6-22-1973

Here's another album of the Bee Gees performing for the "Midnight Special" TV show. The Bee Gees hosted the show a remarkable four times in 1973, plus another time in 1975. Each time, they performed a song with a special guest. This time, the guest is soul singer Wilson Pickett.

Often when I put these Midnight Special albums together, I draw in material from other episodes. But for this one, everything comes from the episode that aired on June 22, 1973. The Bee Gees mostly performed their hits, but they also performed an unexpected cover of "Alexander's Ragtime Band," a song written by Irving Berlin all the way back in 1911. They never officially released a version of this, and it was one of the very few times they performed it, it seems. The only other instance I could find of them performing it dates back to 1963, when they were just starting out.

There's also an excellent version of the Beatles classic "Hey Jude," done in an interesting duet between Wilson Pickett and mostly Barry Gibb. This is another song the Bee Gees never officially released in any form. However, Pickett had a hit with it in 1968 that turned it into a soul song. This version closely followed that version.

As for Pickett, his career was on the decline in 1973. He'd had a long run of hits from 1963 to 1972. But then he made the mistake of changing record companies, and his new company, RCA, gave him poorer material. One of the two songs he did on his own here, "Mr. Magic Man," was the first single for this new record company. It was a decent hit on the R&B singles chart, but tanked on the regular singles chart. However, as can be seen and heard in this episode, Pickett was still a very talented and charismatic singer who deserved better songs to sing.

In case you're curious, here are the other musical acts on this episode: the Steve Miller Band, John Kay, Jimmie Spheeris, Maxine Weldon, and the Muledeer and Moondoog Medicine Show. (The last one being a comedy act.) 

This album is 32 minutes long. 

01 talk by Wolfman Jack (Bee Gees)
02 I Gotta Get a Message to You (Bee Gees)
03 talk (Bee Gees)
04 In the Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett)
05 Alexander's Ragtime Band (Bee Gees)
06 talk (Bee Gees & Wilson Pickett)
07 Hey Jude (Bee Gees & Wilson Pickett)
08 Run to Me (Bee Gees)
09 Mr. Magic Man (Wilson Pickett)
10 Morning of My Life (Bee Gees)
11 Holiday (Bee Gees)
12 Let There Be Love (Bee Gees)
13 My World (Bee Gees)
14 Wouldn't I Be Someone (Bee Gees)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/on3DH93r

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/77olOJ36crKm7Ov/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from a video of this exact concert. From right to left: Wilson Pickett, Maurice Gibb, and Barry Gibb.

The Bee Gees with Jerry Lee Lewis - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 4-6-1973

Here's another episode of the Bee Gees performing for the "Midnight Special" TV show. Each time they were on, they did a duet with another star. This time, that other star is 1950s rocker Jerry Lee Lewis.

The Bee Gees had a down year in 1973, compared to their usual hit-making ways in the late 1960s and all through the 1970s. They did have one song, "Saw a New Morning," just barely scrape the bottom of the Top 100 in the U.S. singles chart. It's a nice song though, and they performed it here.

I beefed up the Bee Gees performance by adding two songs they did for a different episode of the show. "Bad Bad Dreams" and "Don't Wanna Be the One" are from a November 23, 1973 episode.

Jerry Lee Lewis was one of a few artists who were big in the 1950s who kept having hits in the 1970s. His trick was switching from being a rock and roll star to being a country star. However, for this episode, he stuck solely to his 1950s rock and roll style, probably figuring, correctly, the show was more targeted towards rock music. 

A highlight of this album is Jerry Lee Lewis dueting with the Bee Gees on the Motown classic "Money (That's What I Want)." You can see them performing it together in the cover art.

A big thanks to GMan. He helped cut up the episode into mp3 files, and named them. Then I did some advanced work, adding applause at the ends of songs that got abruptly cut off for commercial breaks and such (which was most of them). I also edited some of the talk tracks. For instance, for the first track, I removed the theme song music and replace it with applause. And by the way, if anyone else wants to volunteer to help, I could get more of these episodes posted faster. There are dozens still to come.

In case you're curious, the other musical acts in this episode were Gladys Knight and the Pips, Frank Welker (doing comedy), Johnny Nash, Jim Weatherly, and Skeeter Davis. I've already posted the Gladys Knight songs elsewhere.

This album is 39 minutes long.

01 talk [Edit] (Wolfman Jack)
02 To Love Somebody (Bee Gees)
03 talk (Bee Gees)
04 Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (Jerry Lee Lewis)
05 Lonely Days (Bee Gees)
06 talk [Edit] (Bee Gees)
07 Money [That's What I Want] (Jerry Lee Lewis & Bee Gees)
08 Good Golly, Miss Molly - Jenny Jenny - Tutti Frutti - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On (Jerry Lee Lewis)
09 Saw a New Morning (Bee Gees)
10 New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Bee Gees)
11 I Started a Joke - Massachusetts (Bee Gees)
12 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Bee Gees)
13 Bad Bad Dreams (Bee Gees)
14 Don't Wanna Be the One (Bee Gees)
15 talk [Edit] (Bee Gees) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AmxKkWmC

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xDqHC6coPq2edqc/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

The Bee Gees with Helen Reddy - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 9-12-1975

Here's another episode of the Bee Gees hosting the "Midnight Special" TV show. They were joined by Helen Reddy, who is originally Australian, just like the Bee Gees are.

The Bee Gees sure were on the Midnight Special show a lot. I am in the process of posting no less than five albums from them. Four of those are from 1973. I've already posted one of those. Then, after skipping the show in 1974, they were on it enough in 1975 to justify making this album. Unfortunately, they would not appear on the show again after that. In 1977, they would be the main stars on the "Saturday Night Fever" albums, which would go on to sell 40 million copies (the best selling album of all time until Michael Jackson's "Thriller") and turn them into global superstars. So, at that point, I think they became too big to appear on a mere very late night TV show like the Midnight Special. 

The Bee Gees managed to have at least one hit single every year since becoming stars in 1967, but 1973 and 1974 were relative down years for them. However, they came back in a very big way in 1975. Their 1975 album "Main Course" contained two big hits, "Jive Talkin'" and "Nights on Broadway." "Jive Talkin'" in particular went all the way to Number One in the U.S. singles chart. More importantly, it gave the band a new musical direction, after they had mainly been known for ballads. Here's what the Wikipedia entry for the album says: "This album marked a great change for the Bee Gees as it was their first album to include mostly R&B, soul, disco and funk-influenced songs, and created the model for their output through the rest of the 1970s. It rejuvenated the group's career and public image, particularly in the US, after the commercial disappointment of their preceding albums."

This album has them in transition. It includes versions of "Jive Talkin'," "Nights on Broadway," and "Winds of Change" from their latest "Main Course" album. But pretty much everything else are versions of hits from their earlier style.

The reason Helen Reddy was included is because she did a duet with the Bee Gees on their song "To Love Somebody." For some reason I can't figure out, she was the host of the Midnight Special a remarkable number of times, including a majority of the 1975 shows. This is a combination of two episodes, both of them hosted by Reddy. The first nine tracks are from September 12, 1975, as mentioned in the title of this album, and the rest are from October 10, 1975. 

This includes all the songs done by both the Bee Gees and Reddy from those two shows. The Bee Gees performed more of the music in these two episodes combined, 29 minutes, compared to 23 minutes for Reddy, despite the fact that Reddy was the host of both shows. That's because Reddy was more of a nominal host in 1975, since she was hosting practically every single show that year.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. As typical with this show, I did a lot of editing, smoothing transitions between songs by adding applause to hide commercial breaks.

This album is 47 minutes long. 

01 talk (Helen Reddy)
02 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)
03 talk (Bee Gees)
04 Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady (Helen Reddy)
05 talk (Helen Reddy)
06 To Love Somebody (Bee Gees & Helen Reddy)
07 Mama (Helen Reddy)
08 Nights on Broadway (Bee Gees)
09 I Am Woman (Helen Reddy)
10 This Must Be Wrong (Helen Reddy)
11 New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Bee Gees)
12 Run to Me - World (Bee Gees)
13 Holiday (Bee Gees)
14 I Can't See Nobody (Bee Gees)
15 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Bee Gees)
16 You're My Home (Helen Reddy)
17 Wind of Change (Bee Gees)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KLiLaPo5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/NM6zH66arcKtBgS/file

The cover image is a screenshot of Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and Helen Reddy, taken from this exact concert. I used Photoshop to move them closer together. I also used Krea AI to improve the image detail.

The Bee Gees & Friends - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 8-10-1973

Here's a full episode of the "Midnight Special" TV show. It was a rare episode with a theme, with the theme being a focus on British Invasion bands that were big around 1964. The Bee Gees were the hosts, but their role was less than usual, since there also were performances from Herman's Hermits, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders, the Hollies, the Searchers, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas.

For some reason, the Midnight Special TV show really liked the Bee Gees in 1973, even though their popularity was near a relative low point around that time. They hosted the show four times that year, and made additional appearances on top of that! I plan on turning that into four albums, with this one being the first to get posted. 

Generally speaking with these Midnight Special albums, I cut them down to just the host act and maybe one more, because I want them to stay musically consistent. But if the show has a musical theme, like this one does, I have no problem posting the whole thing. That's what I did here. However, there still are some cuts. For instance, I removed a section where the musical acts on the next episode are all named. I also did a lot of editing to get rid of the commercial breaks, usually smoothing them over with extra applause. 

This must have been one of the first mass media instances of a British Invasion revival, since it had been less than ten years since the "Invasion" actually happened. Unfortunately, show business is an unforgiving business, and most of the acts on this show were far from the singles charts in 1973. The only exceptions were the Bee Gees, though as mentioned above 1973 was a slow year for them, and the Hollies, who'd had a big hit with "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)" in 1972, and Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, who had some success with a solo career in the early 1970s. 

By the way, note that "Long Cool Woman" was co-written by Allan Clarke of the Hollies, who also was the lead singer on it. He left the Hollies in 1971, and rejoined in July 1973. But the lead singer seen and heard in this episode is band member Terry Sylvester. So this episode must have been filmed shortly before Clarke rejoined the Hollies. (Unfortunately, for virtually all the Midnight Special episodes, I only know the broadcast date, not the actual recording date, which I always prefer.)

Performing for this show must have been a bit strange for most of the musical acts here. It hadn't been that many years since they had been big stars, and they basically looked and sounded the same as before. But other than rare short appearances like this show, most of them must have been touring supper clubs, on an oldies circuit. But kudos to this show for giving them a national TV platform like this, when their probably wasn't a big call for it.

Musically, I think the highlight has to be a long medley of Beatles songs performed by the Bee Gees in the middle of the show: "If I Fell," "I Need You," "I'll Be Back," "This Boy," and "She Loves You." If you're a Bee Gees fan, it's worth getting this just for that medley. They never put any such medley on an album. 

This album is an hour and two minutes long. 

01 talk by Wolfman Jack (Bee Gees)
02 New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Bee Gees)
03 talk (Bee Gees)
04 I'm Henry the VIII I Am (Herman's Hermits)
05 talk (Bee Gees)
06 How Do You Do It (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
07 I Like It (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
08 talk (Bee Gees)
09 The Game of Love (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
10 talk (Bee Gees)
11 Long Cool Woman [In a Black Dress] (Hollies)
12 talk (Bee Gees)
13 Needles and Pins (Searchers)
14 talk (Bee Gees)
15 If I Fell - I Need You (Bee Gees)
16 I'll Be Back (Bee Gees)
17 This Boy - She Loves You (Bee Gees)
18 talk (Bee Gees)
19 Little Children (Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas)
20 Ferry Cross the Mersey (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
21 talk (Bee Gees & Peter Noone)
22 Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter (Herman's Hermits)
23 A Groovy Kind of Love (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
24 He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (Hollies)
25 Turn of the Century (Bee Gees)
26 Sweets for My Sweet (Searchers)
27 There's a Kind of Hush (Herman's Hermits)
28 Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
29 I Can't See Nobody (Bee Gees)
30 Love Potion No. 9 (Searchers)
31 talk (Bee Gees)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/rCWB1ARe

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/a5Qh8RSzKdG23Zd/file 

The cover of the Bee Gees is a screenshot taken from this exact concert, during their Beatles medley.

The Bee Gees with Yvonne Elliman - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 7-11-1975

This episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show features the Bee Gees, along with special guest Yvonne Elliman.

The Bee Gees were quite popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But they had a fallow time commercially in 1973 and 1974, with no hits in the U.S. and Britain. Then they surprised everyone with their 1975 album "Main Course," which drastically changed their image and sound. Instead of being mainly known for ballads, they embraced dance music, especially the newly emerging style of disco. They also switched to having Barry Gibb sing many of their songs entirely in a falsetto voice. This resulted in a Number One song in the U.S., "Jive Talkin'," as well as another big hit, "Nights on Broadway." Over the next couple of years, they would briefly become the most popular musical act on the planet with the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack and much more.

So this concert captured them right on the cusp of their new musical style. But while it does include "Jive Talkin'" and "Nights on Broadway," the vast majority of the concert still consisted of their earlier hits, usually in their ballad style.

Many Soundstage episodes have a special guest (or guests). It's not surprising that the Bee Gees chose Yvonne Elliman, because they heavily assisted her music career. She first found fame as one of the leads in the "Jesus Christ Superstar" musical in 1971. She began putting out solo albums around that time, but didn't have much success. So she also worked as a backing singer for Eric Clapton on his tours. She usually would get to sing lead on one song in each concert, and she often sang "Can't Find My Way Home." This was a classic song that was first done by Blind Faith, a band Clapton was a member of. But the song was written and sung by Steve Winwood, and the lead vocal was out of Clapton's range, which is why Clapton had Elliman sing it. She sang it during this concert as well. She also helped sing "To Love Somebody," a classic Bee Gees original from 1969. Furthermore, she sang "Steady as You Go," a song she wrote from her 1975 album "Rising Sun."

At the time of this concert, Elliman was still struggling with her solo career, with only one hit from her "Jesus Christ Superstar" time back in 1971. But for her next album, she'd have a hit with "Love Me" a Bee Gees song that they also put on their next album. Then, in 1977, she'd have her biggest success by far with "If I Can't Have You," another song written by the Bee Gees and first released by her on the "Saturday Night Fever" movie soundtrack. It would go all the way to Number One in the U.S. So one could argue that most of her commercial success was due to help by the Bee Gees. 

Generally speaking, the Bee Gees sang their own songs in this concert. However, they had a section in the middle when they sang short versions of cover songs. Basically, the Bee Gees were formed back in 1958, before the three brothers in the band were teenagers. They struggled for years while mostly playing covers before getting their first big hit in 1966. So the three cover songs done in a row in this concert - "Lollipop," "Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen," and "Bye Bye Love" - are from that time period.

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 I Gotta Get a Message to You [Edit] (Bee Gees)
02 talk (Bee Gees)
03 Edge of the Universe (Bee Gees)
04 New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Bee Gees)
05 Run to Me - World (Bee Gees)
06 Holiday (Bee Gees)
07 I Can't See Nobody (Bee Gees)
08 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Bee Gees)
10 Lollipop (Bee Gees)
11 Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen (Bee Gees)
12 Bye Bye Love (Bee Gees)
13 Nights on Broadway (Bee Gees)
14 To Love Somebody (Bee Gees & Yvonne Elliman)
15 Steady as You Go (Bee Gees & Yvonne Elliman)
16 Can't Find My Way Home (Bee Gees & Yvonne Elliman)
17 Road to Alaska (Bee Gees)
18 Lonely Days (Bee Gees)
19 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2ZCCtxQv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/5pb7scMdtxwh0Rz/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. I used Krea AI to sharpen the image some. 

The Bee Gees - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: In Concert, BBC Radio Theatre, London, Britain, 3-22-2001

Here's the sixth and last BBC album by the Bee Gees. This time, it's another concert, though a rather short one.

The concert took place a couple of weeks before the release of the band's twenty-second studio album, "This Is Where I Came In." It also turned out to be their last, as one of the three brothers of the band, Maurice Gibb, died two years later.

Naturally, the band played some songs from their latest album. I didn't have high expectations for an album this late in their career, but all the songs sounded pretty good to me.

The album remains unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)
02 This Is Where I Came In (Bee Gees)
03 talk (Bee Gees)
04 She Keeps On Coming (Bee Gees)
05 To Love Somebody (Bee Gees)
06 talk (Bee Gees)
07 Sacred Trust (Bee Gees)
08 talk (Bee Gees)
09 Wedding Day (Bee Gees)
10 Massachusetts (Bee Gees)
11 I Started a Joke (Bee Gees)
12 How Deep Is Your Love (Bee Gees)
13 talk (Bee Gees)
14 Man in the Middle (Bee Gees)
15 You Win Again (Bee Gees)
16 You Should Be Dancing (Bee Gees)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NcLpa862

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/jANUQMl2tX4Zf7V/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom, in New York City, on April 27, 2001.

The Bee Gees - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: In Concert, Wembley Arena, London, Britain, 7-7-1991

At first, I wasn't going to post this, because I had already posted a BBC concert by the Bee Gees from 1989, just two years earlier. But I figure it's better to err on the side of posting more music, not less. Besides, on closer inspection I realized there actually is a pretty different set list here, helped by the fact that this is a considerably longer concert, about half an hour longer than the 1989 one. So here you are.

In March 1991, the Bee Gees released the studio album "High Civilization." So naturally this concert was to help promote that. The album was criticized for its dense production. The Wikipedia entry on the album says its "hard, loud percussion ensured that the drums and beats are loud in the mix, pushing the Bee Gees' vocal harmonies further back. The album favors a dance style with electronic instruments and studio effects, such as programmed drums and synthesizers..." One newspaper review at the time said the vocals were "mixed into oblivion." So this concert is a good chance to hear those songs with less of those trendy production techniques, if only because they're hard to reproduce in concert.

This album is unreleased. Apparently, the concert was broadcast not just in Britain as typical for the BBC, but to many other countries, according to the between-song banter. So the group must have given it their all. A big chunk of the middle of it was largely performed in acoustic mode.

I know of one more BBC concert after this, from 2001, so I plan on posting that soon.

This album is an hour and 44 minutes long.

01 Tragedy (Bee Gees)
02 You Win Again (Bee Gees)
03 I've Gotta Get a Message to You (Bee Gees)
04 talk (Bee Gees)
05 Juliet (Bee Gees)
06 House of Shame (Bee Gees)
07 talk (Bee Gees)
08 The Only Love (Bee Gees)
09 When He's Gone (Bee Gees)
10 talk (Bee Gees)
11 To Love Somebody (Bee Gees)
12 Ghost Train (Bee Gees)
13 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Bee Gees)
14 One (Bee Gees)
15 High Civilization (Bee Gees)
16 Words (Bee Gees)
17 Stayin' Alive (Bee Gees)
18 talk (Bee Gees)
19 Morning of My Life (Bee Gees)
20 And the Sun Will Shine (Bee Gees)
21 World (Bee Gees)
22 Too Much Heaven (Bee Gees)
23 Heartbreaker (Bee Gees)
24 Holiday (Bee Gees)
25 Saved by the Bell (Bee Gees)
26 Run to Me (Bee Gees)
27 New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Bee Gees)
28 Lonely Days (Bee Gees)
29 Dimension (Bee Gees)
30 I Started a Joke (Bee Gees)
31 Massachusetts (Bee Gees)
32 Secret Love (Bee Gees)
33 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KdoX3NqQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/QOb7Taf08725Lyu/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Wembley in 1991. But I don't know if it's from this one or a different one, since the band played there multiple times that year.

Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary - Madison Square Garden, New York City, 5-14-1988, Part 4: The Manhattan Transfer, Genesis, Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Bee Gees, & The Rascals

Here's the fourth part of a six-hour long version of the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert. 

Atlantic Records put out a lot of records by jazz artists. But since jazz music isn't a big seller, most of those artists didn't get invited to this concert. Two who did, Herbie Mann and Bobby Short, got cut out of the TV broadcast versions, so I don't have their performances. That just leaves the Manhattan Transfer to represent jazz, since they had some hits and wider commercial success in the 1970s and 80s.

Genesis is a band was only intermittently together in the 1980s. Phil Collins split his time between being in Genesis and having a hugely popular solo career. Mike Rutherford also carved out a successful solo career as the leader of Mike + the Mechanics. Genesis had last put out an album in 1986, "Invisible Touch," then toured to support it into 1987. However, this was the only concert they reunited for in 1988. Their twenty-minute long set was essentially one gigantic medley, although I've broken it into four tracks so I could get all the song names in.

As I mentioned previously, Crosby Stills and Nash sang the song "Southern Cross" to start this concert, but I don't have that recording. Then they returned for their own twenty-minute-long set. Most bootlegs of this concert have "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" earlier in the show, because the song order was scrambled up a bit on some TV broadcasts. But you can tell they did it here with the songs "Wooden Ships" and "Teach Your Children" because actor Michael Douglas referred to all three songs when he introduced them.

The Bee Gees played a relatively short set. In addition to "Lonely Days" and "Jive Talkin'" presented here, they also performed "To Love Somebody." However, I couldn't find a recording on that one. I found mention of it being posted on YouTube and then taken down, so it must be out there. If anyone has it, please let me know. Personally, I think the Bee Gees deserved another song or two, since they've one of the best selling acts of all time, but probably in the late 1980s they were still suffering from the backlash of their disco era overexposure.

The final musical act in this part is the Rascals. They broke up in 1972. This concert was their first reunion since then, going back to the original line-up that ended in 1970. After this concert, they would go on a short tour for a few months. After that, there were further one-off reunions in 1997 and 2010, and another tour in 2012 and 2013.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long.

069 talk (Manhattan Transfer)
070 Mack the Knife (Manhattan Transfer)
071 Birdland (Manhattan Transfer)
072 Turn It On Again - Land of Confusion - Misunderstanding (Genesis)
073 Throwing It All Away (Genesis)
074 That's All - Tonight Tonight Tonight - Invisible Touch - Turn It On Again [Reprise] (Genesis)
075 You Can't Hurry Love - Shortcut to Somewhere - All I Need Is a Miracle (Genesis)
076 talk (Michael Douglas)
077 Wooden Ships (Crosby Stills & Nash)
078 talk (Crosby Stills & Nash)
079 Our House (Crosby Stills & Nash)
080 Suite- Judy Blue Eyes (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
081 talk (Bee Gees)
082 Lonely Days (Bee Gees)
083 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)
084 talk (Dan Aykroyd & Bill Murray)
085 Good Lovin' (Rascals)
086 Groovin' (Rascals)
087 People Got to Be Free (Rascals)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/t2DmMTS8

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/3pBToJ89aaas4tj/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Mike Rutherford on guitar and Phil Collins singing.

The Bee Gees - VH-1 Storytellers, Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables, FL, 11-25-1996

Next for the "VH-1 Storytellers" series is an episode featuring the Bee Gees.

The Bee Gees are musical legends, having sold over 120 million albums worldwide. However, they were so massively popular during the 1970s disco era that the U.S. public burned out on them. While they continued to be popular in Europe and elsewhere, none of their new studio albums from the end of the 1970s until the time of this concert even reached the Gold status of selling 500,000 copies.

In early 1997, they would release the new album "Still Waters." It would give them the most success they had in the U.S. in decades, selling over a million copies. This was largely due to the hit song "Alone." While that is not included here, two other singles from that album are: "Still Waters (Run Deep)" and "I Could Not Love You More." The rest are generally big hits they wrote for themselves and others in earlier decades.

Generally speaking, the assumption with these Storytellers albums is that all of the performances are unreleased. But in this case, "How Deep Is Your Love" was released on a various artists compilation of Storytellers highlights.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 I Gotta Get a Message to You (Bee Gees)
02 talk (Bee Gees)
03 To Love Somebody (Bee Gees)
04 talk (Bee Gees)
05 I Started a Joke (Bee Gees)
06 talk (Bee Gees)
07 Lonely Days (Bee Gees)
08 talk (Bee Gees)
09 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Bee Gees)
10 talk (Bee Gees)
11 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)
12 talk (Bee Gees)
13 How Deep Is Your Love (Bee Gees)
14 talk (Bee Gees)
15 Islands in the Stream (Bee Gees)
16 talk (Bee Gees)
17 Heartbreaker (Bee Gees)
18 talk (Bee Gees)
19 Stayin' Alive (Bee Gees)
20 talk (Bee Gees)
21 Still Waters (Bee Gees)
22 talk (Bee Gees)
23 I Could Not Love You More (Bee Gees)
24 talk (Bee Gees)
25 Words (Bee Gees)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17176452/TBEEGS1996StrytllrsBltmorHtelCralGblesFL__11-25-1996_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UrbmEbQa

The cover photo is from a concert at Wembley Stadium, in London, in September 1998.

Various Artists - Prince's Trust Rock Gala, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 6-5-1988

The Prince's Trust is a charity founded by then Prince Charles, the British crown prince. (He is now King Charles III) as I write this in 2024.) There have been a bunch of benefit concerts for the charity, each with many stars participating. Here's another one.

These Prince's Trust concerts have happened in a very irregular pace. I've already posted benefit concerts from 1982, 1986, and 1987. This one is from 1988. There were more from 1989 and 1990, so it started to seem like an annual thing. However, I think the next one after that took place in 1996. There have been at least five more since then, although I may well be missing some.

This one was similar to the previous two in similar ways. The concert started with some newer acts, like T'Pau and Wet Wet Wet, and they played more songs than one might expect, given the stature of the other acts in the concert. Both T'Pau and Wet Wet Wet actually played four songs each, according to setlists, but I only have two from T'Pau and three from Wet Wet Wet. I can't say I'm lamenting the missing songs, since I don't think one could compare them with nearly all of the acts that came later. Rick Astley and Black were a couple other acts that appeared early, and played the one big hit each of them was known for.

After that, there were many of the same "usual suspects" who played in previous Prince's Trust concerts, such as Phil Collins, Elton John, Howard Jones, Mark Knoplfer, and Eric Clapton. But there were some first timers too, like Leonard Cohen, the Bee Gees, Peter Gabriel, and Joe Cocker. It's frustrating to me that you have someone like Peter Gabriel, whose most recent album at the time, "So," had sold five million copies in the U.S. alone, only getting to play one song. But it is what it is, I guess.

I don't know the exact details, but I believe that many of the big stars backed each other towards the end of the concert, as was the case in previous years. Because people pay extra close attention to Eric Clapton's guitar playing, I was able to find out that once he took the stage with track 26 ("Behind the Mask"), he stayed on stage for the rest of the concert, including playing guitar on songs sung by Knoplfer, John, and Cocker.

Similarly, I was able to determine that Brian May of Queen didn't sing lead vocals on any songs, but he played lead guitar on a bunch of them: tracks 6, 8, 10, 16, 19, 24, 26, and 35. John Deacon, the bassist for Queen, also apparently played on some songs.

Currently, I'm only able to find a few songs from the 1989 and 1990 concerts. If anyone has the full concerts, please let me know. I may try to post the 1996 concert, but I'm probably missing about half of that one.

This album is two hours and two minutes long.

01 Heart and Soul (T'Pau)
02 China in Your Hand (T'Pau)
03 talk (Wet Wet Wet)
04 Wishing I Was Lucky (Wet Wet Wet)
05 Sweet Little Mystery - Twist and Shout (Wet Wet Wet)
06 Dancing with Tears in My Eyes (Midge Ure)
07 talk (Midge Ure & Rick Astley)
08 Never Gonna Give You Up (Rick Astley)
09 talk (Rick Astley & Black)
10 Wonderful Life (Black)
11 talk (Black & Leonard Cohen)
12 Tower of Song (Leonard Cohen)
13 talk (Phil Collins)
14 Doesn't Anyone Stay Together Anymore (Phil Collins)
15 talk (Phil Collins & the Bee Gees)
16 You Win Again (Bee Gees)
17 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)
18 talk (Bee Gees & Peter Gabriel)
19 Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel)
20 talk (Peter Gabriel & Howard Jones)
21 What Is Love (Howard Jones)
22 talk (Phil Collins)
23 I Missed Again (Phil Collins)
24 You Can't Hurry Love (Phil Collins)
25 talk (Phil Collins & Joe Cocker)
26 The Letter (Joe Cocker)
27 talk (Eric Clapton)
28 Behind the Mask (Eric Clapton)
29 Cocaine (Eric Clapton)
30 talk (Eric Clapton & Mark Knopfler)
31 Money for Nothing (Mark Knopfler)
32 talk (Elton John)
33 I Don't Wanna Go On with You like That (Elton John)
34 Layla (Eric Clapton)
35 With a Little Help from My Friends (Joe Cocker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cbyrisBH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/jJV74b5uh8a36UP/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/gP7SW

Just like previous years, there was a group photo taken of the performers. Here are all their names.
Back row: Rick Astley, Howard Jones, Peter Gabriel, Joe Cocker, Phil Collins, Midge Ure
Middle row: Mark Knopfler, Brian May, Elton John, Eric Clapton
Front row: The Bee Gees, Robin, Barry and Maurice Gibb

The Bee Gees - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Wembley Arena, London, Britain, 6-2-1989

I've posted three albums of BBC studio sessions by the Bee Gees, all from the late 1960s and early 1970s. I thought I was done with the Bee Gees at the BBC. But it turns out they did some concerts that were broadcast by the BBC over 15 years later. Here's the first such concert, which is unreleased.

Things changed drastically for the Bee Gees between their last BBC session in 1973 and this concert in 1989. They seemed to be fading into obscurity, but then found new life with disco music, and briefly became one of the biggest musical acts on the planet. Then disco went out of fashion, and suddenly it seemed everyone was sick of them. But they slowly clawed their way back into the charts in the 1980s. They never again were massively popular in the US, but by the time of this concert they restored much of their popularity in Britain and the rest of the world.

As you'd expect, this concert hits the high points from all the different phases of their career. Unfortunately, this is not the full concert though, as the BBC edited it down. According to the setlist.fm database, they also played "Giving Up the Ghost," "One," Tokyo Nights," "Juliet," "Run to Me," "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," "House of Shame," "Stayin' Alive," and "You Win Again." 

When I saw that list of missed songs, my first thought was "No 'Stayin' Alive?! Are you kidding me?! That's one of the biggest hits of all time. Whoever edited that down for the BBC really blew it." So I decided that had to be added back in. I couldn't find this BBC version, but I found a concert they did in 1989 in Tokyo, Japan that was broadcasted on the radio and thus had similarly excellent sound to this BBC recording. It was pretty short and didn't have most of the other missing songs, but I did find "One" and "You Win Again" as well, so I've added those three to the end.

The Bee Gees have only released two official live albums, one in 1977 and the other in 1998. However, they've released several DVDs of live shows. One of them, "One for All Tour," features this 1989 tour, so you can find a more complete concert from this tour with that video.

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long. If you don't include the three non-BBC performances at the end, it's an hour long.

01 Ordinary People (Bee Gees)
02 talk (Bee Gees)
03 To Love Somebody (Bee Gees)
04 I Gotta Get a Message to You (Bee Gees)
05 Words (Bee Gees)
06 Lonely Days (Bee Gees)
07 talk (Bee Gees)
08 New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Bee Gees)
09 Holiday (Bee Gees)
10 Too Much Heaven (Bee Gees)
11 talk (Bee Gees)
12 Hearbreaker - Islands in the Stream (Bee Gees)
13 Saved by the Bell (Bee Gees)
14 World (Bee Gees)
15 talk (Bee Gees)
16 How Deep Is Your Love (Bee Gees)
17 It's My Neighbourhood (Bee Gees)
18 I Started a Joke (Bee Gees)
19 Massachusetts (Bee Gees)
20 Nights on Broadway (Bee Gees)
21 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)
22 You Should Be Dancing (Bee Gees)
23 One (Bee Gees)
24 You Win Again (Bee Gees)
25 Stayin' Alive (Bee Gees)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15236124/TBeeGs_1989_BBSessionsVolum4InConcrtWmbleyArenaLondnBritain__6-2-1989_atse.zip.html

The cover photo actually comes from the right venue, Wembley Arena in London, and from the right year, 1989. But I'm not sure if it's from this exact concert because they played there several times that year.

The Bee Gees - Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia, 7-15-1971

I have some Bee Gees concerts I've been planning on posting, including a couple of BBC ones from later in their career, so here's one. Unfortunately, there's very little in the way of concert recordings from them from the 1960s. This is the very earliest concert that has truly excellent sound. That's because it was both broadcast on the radio at the time as well as shown in black and white on TV.

The Bees Gees grew up in Australia. But they left the country in 1966 to pursue bigger opportunities after having their first big hit, "Spicks and Specks." 1971 was the first time they returned to tour their home country. The tour was a big success, with sold out shows everywhere. They brought with them a small band and a 16-piece orchestra.

In case you're only familiar with the band's late 1970s disco hits like "Stayin' Alive," this is a drastically different band. But they were very commercially successful in this earlier era too. And they played just about all of their big hits. In fact, their song "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" was a Number One hit, and Number Two in Australia, a couple of months before this concert.

This bootleg can be found in many Internet spots where bootlegs are traded. However, the encore, "Spicks and Specks" is almost always left out. So I'm glad to have it included here. It was a very appropriate song to finish on, harkening back to their time in Australia in 1966 with that hit song.

This album is exactly an hour long. It could be that some more of the concert is not included here, especially banter between songs. For instance, the last song starts with the audience already very excited.

01 New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Bee Gees)
02 To Love Somebody (Bee Gees)
03 talk (Bee Gees)
04 Really and Seriously (Bee Gees)
05 talk (Bee Gees)
06 Every Second, Every Minute (Bee Gees)
07 talk (Bee Gees)
08 Lay It on Me (Bee Gees)
09 talk (Bee Gees)
10 Jingle Jangle (Bee Gees)
11 In the Morning [Morning of My Life] (Bee Gees)
12 talk (Bee Gees)
13 Holiday (Bee Gees)
14 I Can't See Nobody (Bee Gees)
15 talk (Bee Gees)
16 Words (Bee Gees)
17 talk (Bee Gees)
18 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Bee Gees)
19 I Started a Joke (Bee Gees)
20 I've Gotta Get a Message to You (Bee Gees)
21 Massachusetts (Bee Gees)
22 Lonely Days (Bee Gees)
23 Spicks and Specks (Bee Gees)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15278206/TBeeGs_1971_FestivlHallMelbourneAustralia__7-15-1971_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is actually from November 1972. But I couldn't find any really good ones of them in concert in 1971. Plus, I think this is a fitting one because you can see the orchestra in the background.

The Bee Gees - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1971-1973

Here's the third and final album of the Bee Gees performing at the BBC in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Of the three volumes, this is the one I'm the proudest to present. Their late 1960s BBC sessions have been frequently bootlegged, and sometimes released as "grey market" albums in Europe (meaning it's technically legal there but the artist didn't authorize it and doesn't get any money from it). However, their early 1970s BBC sessions are much more obscure, to the point that it took me a long time to even confirm that they existed. I couldn't find any of the BBC performances on this album until musical associate Marley came along and shared what he had direct from BBC transcription discs. That means despite their obscurity, these versions sound great. So a big thanks to Marley.

As I mentioned in the previous volumes, I wanted to make this kind of an alternate best of collection for this time period, so if any big hits weren't included, I tried to find them from other TV or radio shows. For this album, five of the songs come from such sources. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" and "In the Morning (Morning of My Life)" come from different British TV shows. It's especially surprising that "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" was never performed for the BBC, since that was a number one song in Britain in 1971. But the band didn't do any BBC sessions in 1971.

"Living in Chicago," "Massachusetts," and "Saw a New Morning" are from Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show." I'd included "Massachusetts" on Volume 1 in this series, but this is a significantly different acoustic version. "Living in Chicago" and "Saw a New Morning" weren't hits, but I found these sources with excellent sound quality, so I figured I'd throw them in.

Everything here is officially unreleased. The remaining seven songs come from three different BBC studio sessions. In the early 1970s, BBC policy started changing, and often the musical artists were allowed to just use the exact studio versions instead of doing unique versions for the BBC. Some of these are pretty similar to the recorded versions, but I checked closely and they're all different. In 1974, the Bee Gees just had their records played for a BBC session that year, so I didn't bother including that, or anything after, since that same situation persisted.

By the way, "I've Gotta Get a Message to You" was a number one hit in Britain in 1968, but the group didn't play it for the BBC around then. Instead, they did it in a 1973 session. Maybe they realized they'd missed it back then, so they made up for that years later.

This album is 41 minutes long.

01 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Bee Gees)
02 In the Morning [Morning of My Life] (Bee Gees)
03 Bad, Bad Dreams (Bee Gees)
04 Never Been Alone (Bee Gees)
05 Run to Me [Edit] (Bee Gees)
06 Living in Chicago (Bee Gees)
07 Alive (Bee Gees)
08 Sea of Smiling Faces (Bee Gees)
09 Massachusetts [Acoustic Version] (Bee Gees)
10 Saw a New Morning (Bee Gees)
11 I've Gotta Get a Message to You (Bee Gees)
12 Wouldn't I Be Someone (Bee Gees)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15278200/TBeeGs_1971-1973_BBSessionsVolume3_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken in a hotel room in Japan in 1972. Maurice Gibb was the joker of the group. He's joking around here, gripping the end of a guitar cable with his teeth.

The Bee Gees - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1968-1970

Here's the second of three volumes of the Bee Gees at the BBC. Like this first one, this contains all studio sessions.

All but one performance here comes from proper BBC sessions. I wanted to included all of the group's big hits from the time period. In this case, one key song was missing: "I Started a Joke." Although they never played the song for the BBC, they did play it live for the "This Is Tom Jones" show. As an unexpected bonus, they put it in a medley with "First of May," although they only played part of the latter song.

Also, all but one of the performances here are unreleased. The one exception is "Saved by the Bell." In 1969, the Bee Gees broke up for a while, and the three brothers started solo careers, before reuniting in 1970. "Saved by the Bell" was a big hit by Robin Gibb as a solo artist. It was released on a compilation of his solo material. Three of the songs here are from Barry Gibb's short solo career in that era, though those are still unreleased.

All of the songs here sound great, because they come from BBC transcription discs that perfectly preserved the original broadcasts. For some reason, the BBC performances from about 1967 to 1969 have been frequently bootlegged, but the ones from the early 1970s have not. Musical associate Marley provided the last few songs here for me (as well as most of the ones on the next volume).

The usual problem of BBC DJs talking over the music occurred here, and in a big way. Twelve out of the 14 BBC performances here had that. I applied the usual solution of using the X-Minus audio editing program to remove the talking while keeping the music.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Birdie Told Me (Bee Gees)
02 And the Sun Will Shine [Edit] (Bee Gees)
03 The Singer Sang His Song (Bee Gees)
04 I Started a Joke - First of May (Bee Gees)
05 Jumbo [Edit] (Bee Gees)
06 Tomorrow Tomorrow [Edit] (Bee Gees)
07 Don't Forget to Remember [Edit] (Bee Gees)
08 Saved by the Bell [Edit] (Robin Gibb)
09 Happiness [Edit] (Barry Gibb)
10 This Time [Edit] (Barry Gibb)
11 I'll Kiss Your Memory [Edit] (Barry Gibb)
12 Man for All Seasons [Edit] (Bee Gees)
13 Alone Again [Edit] (Bee Gees)
14 Lonely Days [Edit] (Bee Gees)
15 Every Second, Every Minute [Edit] (Bee Gees)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15277980/TBeeGs_1968-1970_BBSessionsVolume2_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from an appearance in a TV studio in 1970. I don't know which studio.

The Bee Gees - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1966-1968

Next up in my big BBC project is the Bee Gees. Everyone knows the Bee Gees were one of the leading lights of disco music, with songs like "Stayin' Alive," "Night Fever," and "Jive Talkin'" dominating pop radio for a few years. But fewer people know the very different sound of the Bee Gees in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That's the kind of group on display in this BBC series, because the Bee Gees only did studio sessions for the BBC from 1967 to 1973. This makes enough material for three albums, but it all predates their disco years.

The Bee Gees are one of the best selling musical acts of all time, selling somewhere between 120 and 200 million records. Personally, I recognize they created many great songs, while I sometimes have issue with them (such as what I consider the overuse of Robin Gibb's vibrato on ballads and the overuse of Barry Gibb's falsetto on their disco material). I don't think their BBC recordings are all that great, because they generally stuck to doing their hits, almost never doing unreleased covers or other rarities, and their performances tended to sound very similar to their record versions. 

However, all these versions are different from the record ones, and they did do them live in the BBC studios (often with a BBC orchestra helping out), so it's further proof of how talented they were. Also, there seem to be no concert recordings from the time period of this volume, aside from one 1968 bootleg recorded at a concert in Switzerland with only decent sound quality. So if you want to hear what they sounded like live early on, this is just about as close as you can get. Additionally, these BBC volumes make for a pretty good triple album "best of" for their early years.

Somewhat surprisingly, none of the group's BBC recordings have been officially released, as far as I know. All of them have excellent sound quality, since they all are sourced from BBC transcription discs that survived in top notch condition. I have added a few songs from other TV or radio appearances, usually in the rare cases in which big hits weren't done for the BBC.

The first two songs are examples of such additions. The Bee Gees got started in Australia, and they were sometimes on TV or radio in that country going way back to when they were a child act. I skipped most of that as being of interest only to die-hard fans. But I did include two songs done for Australian TV in late 1966, right before they left Australia to try to make it big in Britain (which, of course, they did). One song is "Spicks and Specks," their biggest hit while still in Australia. The other is a cover of the Rolling Stones hit "Out of Time." As far as I can tell, they never put a version of that song on record.

Everything else here comes from proper BBC studio sessions. They didn't get hit too bad with the problem of BBC DJs talking over the music. That only occurred for five of the songs here (the ones with "[Edit]" in the song titles). As usual, I used the X-Minus audio editing program to remove the talking while keeping the underlying music.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Spicks and Specks (Bee Gees)
02 Out of Time (Bee Gees)
03 New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Bee Gees)
04 One Minute Woman [Edit] (Bee Gees)
05 I Can't See Nobody [Edit] (Bee Gees)
06 To Love Somebody (Bee Gees)
07 Holiday (Bee Gees)
08 Massachusetts (Bee Gees)
09 In My Own Time (Bee Gees)
10 Mrs. Gillespie's Refrigerator (Bee Gees)
11 I Close My Eyes [Edit] (Bee Gees)
12 Cucumber Castle (Bee Gees)
13 World (Bee Gees)
14 Words (Bee Gees)
15 With the Sun in My Eyes [Edit] (Bee Gees)
16 The Earnest of Being George [Edit] (Bee Gees)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15277985/TBeeGs_1966-1968_BBSessionsVolume1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at the Top of the Pops BBC TV show in 1968. For the text, I used the same font and color as how their name was printed on one of their early albums.