It’s no exaggeration to counsel that the Bee Gees’ basic tune “Jive Talkin’” reworked the band’s profession. The lead single from 1975’s Arif Mardin-produced Essential Course, the tune topped the U.S. Billboard 100 and made the U.Ok. High 5 – and its soul, R&B and funk stylings paved the best way for hits like “Stayin’ Alive” and “Night Fever” that turned Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb into megastars throughout the latter half of the 70s.
With hindsight, “Jive Talkin’” got here alongside at simply the best second for The Bee Gees. The sibling trio chalked up U.S. High 20 albums together with Concept and Odessa within the late Nineteen Sixties and scored a U.S. No. 1 single with 1971’s “How Do You Mend A Broken Heart,” however with glam-rock in vogue, the Gibbs’ immaculately-crafted pop on 1973’s Life In A Tin Can and ‘74’s Mr. Pure made little impression on the charts.
Nevertheless, the Bee Gees’ fortunes modified dramatically once they selected the U.S. as an alternative of the U.Ok. as a base to report Essential Course. This determination was prompted by the band’s RSO label mate Eric Clapton, who had lately decamped to Miami’s Standards Studios to report his best-selling 461 Ocean Boulevard. The legendary guitarist instructed the Bee Gees additionally make the change and, as Barry Gibb later advised M Journal, “We did – and we never looked back!”
The Gibb brothers liked Miami’s vibrant nightlife and town actually influenced the sound of the Bee Gees’ new music – most particularly on “Jive Talkin’.” The tune’s musical backdrop was impressed by the sound of the Julia Tuttle Causeway Bridge the band traversed throughout their each day commute to the studio.
“Every night, we were going back and forth to Criteria Studios from Biscayne Bay,” Barry Gibb advised M Journal. “The bridge made a clicket-y clacket-y sound. It stayed in my head and one night, I just started singing this thing over the top of the rhythm.”
Reflecting this rhythm, Barry’s percussive guitar half additionally melded with keyboardist Blue Weaver’s pioneering, Stevie Surprise-esque synthesizer bass taking part in to create the infectious backdrop for “Jive Talkin’.” The ultimate piece of the puzzle was the title: The unique model was “Drive Talking” till Arif Mardin defined that the phrase “jive talking” was hip black vernacular for mendacity. Liking the phrase, the band rewrote the tune’s lyric and “Jive Talkin’” was born.
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Initially, neither band nor producer realized they’d created a dancefloor-friendly hit (“We were making dance music? We didn’t even know,” Arif Mardin advised Gentle Millennium in 2001) however after Atlantic Information’ Ahmet Ertegun and the Bee Gees’ supervisor Robert Stigwood assured them simply how danceable the tune was, “Jive Talkin’” was chosen because the lead single from 1975’s Essential Course.
First launched in Could that yr, the tune steadily made its method up the charts and made it to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Sizzling 100 in August 1975. Its success duly reintroduced the Bee Gees to the mainstream – and its subtle, club-friendly sound supplied a template for the Gibbs and Arif Mardin to create an additional collection of hits over the following 5 years.
“I loved working with the Bee Gees for their Main Course album, and recording “Jive Talkin’,” Mardin stated in a 2005 Songwriter Universe interview. “[The song] has a soft spot in my heart, because the production and arrangements were so modern and avant-garde, using the latest technology.”
