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Gibb Songs version 2 by Joseph Brennan, copyright 2006,2007,2008

2008

Robin revealed in March that he had started recording new songs with Peter-John Vettese, the keyboard player, songwriter, and producer with whom he worked in 1999 on his songs for This Is Where I Came In. He hoped to have a set of tracks ready for release after the summer. Before this, Robin recorded backup vocals for Russian pop star Valeriya’s cover of ‘Stayin’ Alive’.

Barry scored the first release of a new Gibb song in 2008 with ‘The Heart Knows’, a duet with with Olivia Newton-John recorded for a charity disk in Australia. He said in an online chat in April that he won’t do an all-country album after all.

Will the reissue series stalled in 2006 resume? People at Warners and Rhino are not talking. In January all of the album cuts were made available as digital downloads, which might be a bad sign for any more CD packages. Optimistic rumors predict a standalone release of Odessa on three disks (stereo, mono, and extras), and a box of the next three Bee Gees albums, namely Cucumber Castle, 2 Years On, and Trafalgar, with two disks each. No one even tries to guess the fates of Robin’s Reign and the still-unreleased 1970 solo albums by each brother.

January marked the fifth anniversary of Maurice’s passing, with still no collection of his work made available.

songs

No titles are known yet, but Robin said in March that he had written a few songs late in 2007 and was continuing to write through the first half of this year. He recorded songs in April.

recording sessions

Valeriya

Valeriya — vocal
Robin Gibb — vocal
Hazel Kaniswaren — vocal
George De Angelis — keyboards
engineer: George De Angelis, Savvis Iosifides (Spirit Studio)
producer: George De Angelis
January 2008, Soniczoo, London, and Spirit Studio, London

STAYIN’ ALIVE
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1977)
undated, 19 January 2008
stereo, lead vocal Valeriya
Out of Control, March 2008

Valeriya, a top-selling recording artist in her native Russia, enlisted Robin as backup singer on a new recording of ‘Stayin’ Alive’ for her album Out of Control, released in March in Russia and scheduled for August 2008 in Britain. The song with video appeared on her MySpace page in April 2008.

Robin’s vocal was done January 19 at Spirit Studio. The rest was done previously at Soniczoo.

Olivia Newton-John and Barry Gibb

Olivia Newton-John — vocal
Barry Gibb — vocal
Stephen Gibb — guitar
Doug Emery — keyboard
Hal Roland — keyboard
Lee Levin — drums
engineer: Ethan Carlson
producer: Barry Gibb
probably January or February 2008, Crompton Songs Studios, Miami Beach

THE HEART KNOWS
Barry Gibb, Ashley Gibb, Stephen Gibb (2007)
undated 2008
stereo, lead vocal Olivia Newton-John, Barry Gibb
A Celebration in Song, May 2008

Olivia Newton-John recorded an album of duets with various singers to raise funds to create the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Barry sings on ‘The Heart Knows’, a new original song. Olivia also put together a charity event called the Great Walk to Beijing that took place throughout April.

Cliff Richard recorded a duet with Olivia for the same project at Barry’s studio Crompton Songs Studios in Miami Beach, but the song, ‘Find a Little Faith’ is by project producer Amy Sky.

Robin Gibb

Robin Gibb — vocal
Peter-John Vettese — guitar, keyboards, programming, vocal
others unknown
engineer: Mark ‘Tufty’ Evans
producer: Peter-John Vettese
April 2008, England

Robin said he spent most of April in the studio, and work continued. He told the press in July that he was preparing an album to be called 50 St Catherine’s Drive, the address of a house on the Isle of Man where the Gibb family lived in his childhood.

selected record releases

Robin sings backing vocals with Russian pop star Valeriya.

Deal is a film about poker players starring Burt Reynolds and Bret Harrison. The film was originally scheduled for release in September 2007, weeks after Barry released ‘Drown on the River’ on iTunes. Instead it was released direct to DVD in Europe around February 2008, and to ‘select theaters’ in the United States at the end of April, when the soundtrack CD also finally appeared.

Just over one minute of Barry’s song appears in a poker scene. The ‘river’ is the last card dealt in a hand, and to ‘drown in the river’ is to lose a hand because of that last card. In the scene, a losing player sees the last card come up an ace, as Barry sings the title line.

This album of duets with Olivia Newton-John, for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Center Appeal, includes Barry singing with her on a new song, ‘The Heart Knows’.

This was a digital-only album of songs by members of the British Academy including Cliff Richard, the Pretenders, Boy George, Peter Gabriel, and K T Tunstall. Robin’s song ‘Alan Freeman Days’ could also be purchased separately.

A rights problem to two songs (unrelated to Robin) held up worldwide release of this package and of Robin’s song. A solution has remained elusive at this writing (July).

These songs were recorded from 1998 to 2000 by Samantha Gibb, Laz Rodriguez, and Adam Gibb under the group names Luna Park and Skylla. Maurice produced and probably plays on them too, and John Merchant recorded. Laz plays guitar and Adam plays keyboard. Additional musicians (a drummer at least) are unknown.

By error, ‘Play It Up’ appears twice, under its own name and under the title ‘It’s Okay’.

‘Until You’, ‘Hummingbird Love’, and ‘How Was I to Know?’ are the eldest tracks here, from the beginning of 1998, followed by ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ from later in the year. Of these ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ and ‘How Was I to Know?’ were on a four-song Luna Park promo CD given out at the start of 1999.

‘Tomorrow’ (listed as ‘Tomorrow I’ll Be Gone’), ‘One by One’, and ‘Take a Deep Breath’ date from further Luna Park sessions in 1999. None appeared on a demo. (Samantha sang on Maurice’s ‘The Bridge’ and ‘Angel of Mercy’ around the same time as these songs.)

Renamed Skylla, the group recorded nine songs in 2000, of which eight were released on a second promo CD in 2001. Four (including the one not on the promo) appeared on the M E G CD in 2005, and three more appear here: ‘Dance with Me’, ‘Tell Me What You Like’, and ‘Play It Up’.

This leaves only ‘I Went Home’ unaccounted for.

Barry sings backing vocals.

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