Andy Gibb - Andy Gibb - Greatest Hits Collection

andy gibb:behind the music

andy gibb had three #1 hits in the late '70s. those hits were i just want to be your everything,(love is) thicker than water, and shadow dancing. his other hits were an everlasting love,(our love) don;t throw it all away,desire,i can't help it (with olivia newton-john),and after dark. all of those songs are on this album. there is also an unreleased song called man on fire,that you sould hear. ed wilson July 20, 2007

All of Andy Gibb's hits in one CD

This really is a great CD. I'd recommend it for all Andy Gibb fans. August 17, 2006

A Well Rounded Collection from One of the 70's Best Balladeers

I have always had a "guilty pleasure" soft spot for the music of Andy Gibb. I cannot readily express why...perhaps it is owing to my being a mere 6-9 years old at the time of his musical prime. It is probable that, through the oftimes over-idealized perspective of a young child, his music seemed to be a good accompanying muse.

In any event, I admit that now almost 30 years later as an adult in my 30's I still appreciate a good number of Andy Gibb's material. There is something both wistful and longing in his delivery despite the bright sheen of the production that reaches through and impresses. And the tragic untimely demise he met at just barely the age of 30 only adds further to his legacy.

Now onto the music itself. I won't assert that there's anything particulary sophisticated or unique about his output. On the surface of things, it sounds like typical late 70's pop fare rife with strings, synths, and guitars. But give some of the tunes a more cursory listen and you too may be privvy to some of the underlying currents and flourishes Andy Gibb was infusing his music with.

Laregly in the 'shadow' of his older brothers, The Bee Gees, Andy Gibb managed to plot a trajectory of his own making. His most successful tunes, "Shadow Dancing", "(Love Is)Thicker Than Water", and "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" are pleasant enough and decent examples of pop from that era.

But in my opinion, he really shines on the gorgeous "An Everlasting Love" - a song on the surface full of bounce, bubbly effervescence, and springtime zephyr but simultaneoulsy tinged with melancholy and plaintive longing. When Andy Gibb sings the poetic "I was yours before the stars were born and you were mine" and intones in the chorus: "And an everlasting love will never die..", I feel every nuance.

Another song of his I enjoy is "(Our Love)Don't Throw It All Away" - again on the surface a seemingly conventional pop ballad. But there are underlying shadows throughout that Andy Gibb manages to project which creates quite an atmosphere that is both gripping and soulful. I could go on about the rest of his offerings but these tunes really have lingered in my musical consciousness for a duration with seeming good reason.

I won't elevate Andy Gibb to the same plateau of say, The Beatles but I do make the case that he has contributed a fair number of decent pop classics to the rock era echelon. Some may call his stuff discofied glossy pop or maudlin but I dare say that there are a number of redeeming gems to be unearthed if given an unbiased listen. February 21, 2006

What I'm Praying For

Andy Gibb's meteoric rise in the charts was a great blaze of glory. His 3 #1 singles are all here. "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" is a delightfully romantic track and is both a great arrangement and record as well as an excellent song penned by Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees. Also a #1 smash, "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" is the track that blows out of the speakers at me currently with its unique melodic line and Gibb's vocal, "Well, I need her more than she needs you, that's what I'm praying for." "Shadow Dancing" also reached the top of the charts written by Andy with his brothers, the Bee Gees. It's a great record with Andy's airy vocals and his brothers' glorious background vocals, "Can I hold you when you ain't even mine? Only you can see me though; I'll leave it up to you." Other tracks like "Everlasting Love" also shine brightly on this excellent collection! Enjoy! July 8, 2005

Solid Profile of a Great Artist from the 70s

When I look back to the decade of the 1970s and I pick an "Artist for the Decade", the band that immediately comes to mind is The Bee Gees. However, when I think of the Brothers Gibb, I also think of the fourth brother - Andy. Andy was not a member of the Bee Gees band. He was much younger than his Bee Gee siblings Barry, Robin, and Maurice. It is well known that Andy died at a very young age in 1988 at the age of 30, but had Andy lived, he probably would have been made a full-fledged member of the Bee Gees. We may never really know the true reason why Andy was not a member of the world famous band with his brothers - it could have been age, it could have been Andy's problems with drugs, it could have been that Andy just wanted to do things on his own, or a combination of these things. Whatever the reason, one can't deny that Andy was able to have a wave of success on his own. We may never know if this was a product of riding the Bee Gees coat tails, or whether he would hit it big on his own. But in a two year period from 1977 through 1979, Andy Gibb was a superstar in the music business. Considering the popularity of the Bee Gees, one thing that immediately surprises me is that Andy's "peak" period covered such as short time range. If you are looking to get a good cross-section of Andy's work for his career - the album "Andy Gibb" (Greatest Hits Collection) is a very good one.

Andy's body of work covered a period from 1977 through 1980. This basically was Andy's career. Andy's personal problems would take hold in the 1980s and as a result, his career would stall. Andy released three albums in this period. "Andy Gibb" covers three songs from each of these three albums: "Flowing Rivers" (featuring "I Just Want To Be Your Everything", "(Love is) Thicker than Water", "Flowing Rivers"); "Shadow Dancing" (featuring "Shadow Dancing", "An Everlasting Love", and (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away"); and "After Dark" ("Desire", "After Dark", and "I Can't Help It"). There are also three additional tracks - including two from 1980 ("Time is Time" and "Me (Without You") and an unreleased track "Man on Fire". Overall this collection does a good job at compiling Andy's career.

There is another greatest hits collection called "20 Century Masters: Millenium Collection". That collection features all of the songs on this collection except for "Flowing Rivers" and the unreleased track "Man on Fire", but it does feature the song "Will You Love Me Tommorow" (not included on this collection). I would say that this is a more complete collection and would advise this over "Millenium".

I prefer my Greatest Hits collections to be in the chronological order of the release of the songs. "Andy Gibb" (Greatest Hits Collection) follows this blueprint with one exception - the unreleased track "Man on Fire" is included as the first track. This was probably done for marketing purposes to promote the unreleased track, so it isn't the end of the world that this song is out of sequence. This song sounds a lot more like later Bee Gees work (i.e. the more "adult-contemporary" music from "ESP" and "One")

If you look at the selections that come from "Flowing Rivers" and "Shadow Dancing", these songs were the best selling songs commercially. These songs are more of the "Classic Andy Gibb" sound. You can make the argument that these are clear Bee Gees coat tail songs. To some extent this is probably true. The songs "I Just Want To Be Your Everything", "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water", "Shadow Dancing", "An Everlasting Love", and "(Our Love) Don't Throw It Away" sound a lot like the Bee Gees. These songs all had Barry as a co-writer, so that might explain a lot for why it sounds as it does. Andy would co-write "Thicker Than Water" and "Shadow Dancing" proving Andy had songwriting abilities as well. There was one song from the first album that was a song written by Andy alone - the title track from "Flowing Rivers". This song does not have a typical Bee Gees feel to it, but has a country-western flavor to it. This song gets forgotten about because it gets lost in the Bee Gees wave.

Andy's third album "After Dark" didn't do well as commercially. This might be because the Bee Gees wave of popularity was waning by 1980. This is the album where Andy really began to come out from his brothers shadows and show what he could do as an artist. This album has less of a Bee Gees feel to it than the other two. The tracks that are included from this album prove this point. The title track "After Dark" has an almost R&B feel to it. From this particular album, there is a very nice duet with Olivia Newton-John included called "I Can't Help It". I don't feel this is Olivia Newton-John at her best, but she still adds a nice touch to the song.

The liner notes are very thin for this collection. The songwriter and copyright credits are included for each song. There are no lyrics included for the songs. It would have also been nice if they listed the album that each of the songs appeared on when it was released. The studio musicians who participate in each of the songs are listed, but you don't know what songs they are credited for. For example, Joe Walsh is given a guitar credit - but for what song?? This collection is an excellent place to get Andy Gibb's best work. It is a great way to hear some of his classic songs as well as a way to get acquainted with his later works. I highly recommend this collection. November 2, 2004

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