Songoftheday 10/18/20 - I was a midnight rider on a cloud of smoke, I could make a woman hang on every single stroke...

 

 

"Alone" - Bee Gees

from the album Still Waters (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 9

 

Today's song of the day comes from the Bee Gees, who had finally overcome the stigma of being the biggest act in the then-vilified disco era by reaching the American pop top ten in fall of 1989 with "One". However that success didn't last long, with their next record High Civilization in 1991 being completely ignored in the U.S., despite returning to the British top-5 with the Motown throwback "Secret Love" (basically a rewrite of "Chain Reaction", which they wrote over a decade before for Diana Ross). Leaving Warner Brothers, which released One, the brothers went back to Polydor, which their early 1970s work was on, and came back with Size Isn't Everything, which did minimally better here, with lead single "Paying The Price Of Love" popping onto the Hot 100 in America at #75 in 1993, while another cut from the set, the ballad "For Whom The Bell Tolls", reached the top ten in the UK (#4) and Ireland (#6). (The two songs also made the Billboard magazine Adult Contemporary radio chart at #35 and #29 respectively.) 

In 1997, the trio of Barry, Robin, and Maurice reemerged with their 21st studio effort Still Waters. With a myriad of studio help including producer David Foster and members of Toto, the record saw them finally coming to terms with their advanced years and not trying to chase the latest trends, which was what made "One" so endearing. The lead single from the album was "Alone", written by the brothers, who produced the track with Russ Titleman. A competent slice of adult-pop about coming to terms with single life in later years, the song was earnest and straightforward enough to again connect with their (older) fanbase in America, and they landed the last big success. In fact, the production isn't too far from Springsteen's work from that period, but Barry and Robin's trademark falsettos were unmistakable...

"Alone" became the Bee Gees' 30th and final top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in June of 1997. The song also climbed to #8 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart. Internationally, the single again landed in the top ten in UK at #5, as well as in their native Australia (#7), New Zealand (#2), France (#4), Austria (#4), Ireland (#5), the Czech Republic (#5), Germany (#6), Belgium (#6W/#31F), Hungary (#6), and Switzerland (#8). It also peaked in Sweden at #15 and in Canada at #20. The Still Waters album just missed the top ten on the Billboard 200 sales chart in the U.S. at #11 (their best showing since 1979's #1 Spirits Having Flown), while making the runner-up spot on the British albums list at #2. 

The follow-up single was the David Foster-produced "I Could Not Love You More", which went to #14 in the UK but was ignored everywhere else. But a third release, title track "Still Waters (Run Deep)", did marginally better, reaching the American pop Hot 100 at #57 and #29 on the Adult Contemporary tally, while scoring a third top-20 hit in Britain from the set at #18. A year later, after their One Night Only tour, they backed up Celine Dion on the Gibb-written "Immortality" from her Let's Talk About Love album, and the single went to #5 in the UK.

The Brothers Gibb came back in 2001 with their final album together, This Is Where I Came In. The lead single "This Is Where I Came In" placed on the Adult Contemporary radio chart in America at #23, while landing their final British top-40 hit at #18. The album came in at a respectable #16 in the U.S.

 

Tragically, Maurice died in 2003 from a heart attack waiting for surgery, ending the group as it was, only a month before they were given the Grammy Legend Award. Barry and Robin each recorded solo material, with Barry reuniting with Barbra Streisand for their Guilty Pleasures collaboration (a reprise to their classic album Guilty), which went top ten in the US (#5) and the UK (#3). Meanwhile Robin's Magnet album gave him a British top-40 hit in 2003 with "Please".  He also came back to #1 on the British singles chart in 2009 with the Comic Relief charity record "(Barry) Islands In The Stream", a spoof on the Gibb-written Kenny Rogers hit, which Robin sang on with Tom Jones and actors Ruth Jones and Robert Brydon of the British sitcom Gavin and Stacey. Robin passed on in 2011 after battling cancer, leaving Barry the remaining Gibb. In 2016, he released In The Now, which got to #2 in the UK while reaching the top half of the American albums chart at #63. 

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Here's the Bee Gees performing "Alone" live on their One Night Only concert in Vegas in 1997...

Up tomorrow: A cable channel claims a top-40 pop hit. For real.