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With sales of over 120 million albums and 60 million singles to his credit, Barry Gibb (born on September 1, 1946) can rightfully claim to be one of the most commercially successful artists of all time, ranking alongside John Lennon and Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. After emigrating to Australia as a boy, he returned to the UK in the late 1960s with his brothers Maurice and Robin and began working with producer Robert Stigwood. This era was the first of two very successful songwriting periods for his band the Bee Gees. Many of the group's early hits such as “Words” and “I've Gotta Get a Message to You” feature excellent vocal harmonies and carefully crafted melodies, a trademark of the brothers' songwriting craft. In the early '70s, Gibb and his brothers re-invented themselves with a new sound which was to prove pivotal to their future success. Their song “Jive Talking,” with its pulsing, funky bass line demonstrated their songwriting had kept up with contemporary tastes and was the first of many hits. The follow-up single “Nights on Broadway” featured Barry Gibb's first attempt at singing falsetto - it proved to be a winning formula and the style of this and other hits written by Gibb and his brothers defined what became known as the disco era. The album Saturday Night Fever (1977), released at the height of the disco boom sold more than 40 million copies, making it the best-selling soundtrack album ever released. A solo album arrived in 1984 under the name Now Voyager, which produced the Top 10 hit “Shine, Shine” and featured a duet with Olivia Newton-John on the single “Face to Face.” In 2003, Maurice Gibb tragically died suddenly after suffering from a heart attack while awaiting surgery. Although initially intending to continue the Bee Gees name in honor of their brother, Barry and Robin decided to call it a day. In 2012, after contracting pneumonia in a hospital where he was receiving treatment for cancer, Robin passed away. The following year, Barry Gibb embarked on an Australian tour where he played Bee Gees music with his son Steve and Maurice's daughter Samantha. He continues to give special appearances including the Grammy Awards, the Country Music Hall of Fame and even performed at the 2016 Glastonbury Festival alongside Coldplay. That same year, Gibb delivered In the Now, his sophomore effort, which became his highest-charting solo album, reaching an impressive Number 2 in the UK. He followed up with Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook Vol. 1 (2021), a collection of Bee Gees tunes reimagined as country songs with the help of Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, and Little Big Town, and many more.
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