If it’s astonishing to find that the Bee Gees’ worldwide report gross sales quantity to at the least 150 million, the stats surrounding the songs the band wrote for different artists are merely awe-inspiring. Estimates reveal they penned tracks for at round 2,500 artists and through their late 70s heyday, hits bearing the Gibb brothers’ stamp had been really ubiquitous. In truth, when Yvonne Elliman’s recording of “If I Can’t Have You” topped the Billboard Scorching 100 early in 1978, it proved to be the primary of 12 Gibb-penned songs to make the U.S Prime 40 in that 12 months alone.
Nonetheless one of the crucial chic readings of a Gibb brothers’ track, Elliman’s model of “If I Can’t Have You” grew to become the third of 4 U.S. chart-toppers taken from the multi-platinum Saturday Evening Fever soundtrack album. The Bee Gees additionally recorded a refined, dynamic model of the track, however that ended up on the flipside of their monster hit “Stayin’ Alive.” The band’s label boss, Robert Stigwood, favored the Bee Gees’ recording, however believed “If I Can’t Have You” was a greater automobile for Yvonne Elliman: the Hawaii-born singer who beforehand appeared in Jesus Christ Famous person along with working with Eric Clapton and scoring a U.S. Prime 10 hit with one other Barry and Robin Gibb-penned observe, 1976’s “Love Me.”
Regardless of its darkish lyric (“Don’t know why I’m surviving every lonely day/When there’s got to be no chance for me,”) Elliman’s passionate vocal and the widescreen sweep of the music ensured “If I Can’t Have You” had (and nonetheless has) a radio-friendly enchantment. It sounded on-trend circa Saturday Evening Fever, however Elliman believes it’ll all the time sound good as a result of it’s a very well-crafted pop track.
“I really loved “If I Can’t Have You,” however I favored it that the track wasn’t sometimes disco as I wasn’t an enormous disco fan,” she mentioned in a documentary made by NTR within the Netherlands in 2011. “The disco thing was fun, but it was glittery and I wasn’t into glitter. I was really into classic rock, my jeans and my guitar.”
Actually, “If I Can’t Have You” had a uncommon high quality and it nonetheless convinces in the present day. Yvonne Elliman’s take is maybe the track’s definitive recording, although the Bee Gees’ authentic reduce was rightly included of their best-selling compilation Their Best Hits: The Data in 2001, together with songs the Gibbs wrote for Dionne Warwick, Celine Dion and different huge names. It’s been described by American Songwriter as “one of the Bee Gees’ most notable works” and its reappearance within the U.Ok. Prime 20 when British singer Kim Wilde lined it in 1993 solely reemphasizes the assumption you could’t maintain a fantastic track down.
“My brother (and songwriter) Ricki’s wife suggested I cover the song and it worked,” Wilde mentioned, explaining her motive for overlaying “If I Can’t Have You” in an interview on her official fan website. “I’ve always liked it and I have good memories of it. I’d always thought it was one of the classier songs on Saturday Night Fever. It’s transcended it in many ways.”
Store the Bee Gees’s music on vinyl now.
