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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Rhino Records
Salesrank: 387
Released: November 3, 2009 |
| Our Price: $12.38 |
| Used Price: $17.40 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Editorial Review:
THE ULTIMATE BEE GEES is a double-disc career retrospective featuring the group's many hits and chart-topping singles, performances of a selection of hit songs they wrote for others, and liner notes by Tim Rice.
Tim Rice's liner notes accompanying THE ULTIMATE BEE GEES puts the group's extravagant popularity into perspective. 'Within this package is a collection of performances and songs that very few practitioners of popular music of the past could match for quality, originality, and emotion. It's the singing, the harmonies, the arrangements, the sound, the rivalry, the love, the intelligence, the determination, but above all it's the songs.'
The Ultimate Bee Gees (2 CD) Reviews:
Rhino does it again! Brand new 2009 Bee Gee's anthology is the best ever issued. 
2009-11-11 - If you grew up in the 1970's you probably bought a lot of Bee Gees records. Just about everyone did. In fact, I could be wrong but as far as I can tell their string of 6 consecutive #1 hits in the late 70's is unprecedented. Elvis never did it. Neither did The Beatles, Elton John, Springsteen, Michael Jackson or for that matter Frank Sinatra. It was truly a remarkable run. If you grew up in the 1960's you also probably bought a lot of Bee Gees records. In those days they were a phenonenon on both sides of the Atlantic and in Australia as well. They have left us an incredible body of work. Now in 2009 America's premier reissue label Rhino offers the exciting 2 disc anthology "The Ultimate Bee Gees".
"The Ultimate Bee Gees" offers up a a total of 40 tracks featuring just about all of of the groups biggest hits from their debut 1966 Australian single "Spicks and Specks" (presented here "live") to the groups very final single release in 2001. Of course you will also find each and every one of the groups major chart hits including memorable tunes like "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart", "Night Fever", "Nights on Broadway" and oh so many more. Aside from their obvious vocal skills, Barry Robin and Maurice Gibb were also very gifted and prolific songwriters. In fact, for all practical purposes the group only sang songs they themselves wrote. In fact, as far as I can tell the brothers Gibb penned every one of the tunes on these discs. Amazing! I would also like to recommend a few of my personal favorites including "I Started A Joke", "Fanny (Be Tender WIth My Love)" and the groups last Top Ten hit "One" from 1989. Also featured are a number of "live" recordings of tunes the group wrote that were huge hits for other artists. Hear the boys' take on "More Than A Woman" (Tavares), "Heartbreaker" (Dionne Warwick) and "Islands In The Stream" (Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton).
"The Ultimate Bee Gees" comes complete with a nicely done 20 page booklet that includes rather extensive liner notes written by Tim Rice that recalls the origins and the glory days of this remarkable group. Also available for a few dollars more is the "Deluxe" editiion featuring 18 previously unreleased videos of the group performing some of their biggest and best. Sadly, we lost Maurice Gibb altogether too soon in 2003 at the age of 53. But "The Ultimate Bee Gees" will allow us to celebrate rhe music of the Bee Gees for many years to come. They had a sound all their own and their amazing harmonies remain a joy to listen to. This is clearly the finest Bee Gee's anthology to date! Very highly recommended!
The 50th Anniversary!
2009-11-10 - For having so many greatest hits packages, the first question is why another? 2009 is the 50th Anniversary of the Bee Gees and the first time they announced that they would, after all, reunite as the Bee Gees. When Maurice Gibb passed away in 2003, it was declared the Bee Gees were over and Barry and Robin went their separate ways. This is a celebration.
The sound is far superior to all previous releases (other than the videos), including Tales from the Brothers Gibb and Their Greatest Hits: The Record. Everything has been remastered to sound better than all previously releases. It appears that `most' of the songs chosen were all in the Top Twenty either in the USA or the UK. This makes for a nice Anniversary Edition, even if you already own most of these songs. The box is (as most are nowadays) a cardboard foldout with a slipcase. But the insert has a nice write-up from Sir Tim Rice with some photos of the group as they progressed over the last fifty years. Its not extensive, but gives enough information to sum up the Bee Gees career (so far).
If you are at all interested in the 18 videos, its worth getting that version of this collection. They range from 1967 to the late nineties. Some are fuzzy or grainy and others are excellent quality videos, giving a good visual and audial history of the group.
Below is a chart listing from The Bee Gees: Tales of the Brothers Gibb. All USA with the UK when noteworthy.
New York Mining Disaster 1941 #14
To Love Somebody #17
Holiday #16
Massachusetts #11 (#1 UK)
World - (#9 UK)
Words #15
I've Gotta Get A Message To You #8 (#1 UK)
I Started A Joke #6
First Of May #37
Tomorrow, Tomorrow #54
Don't Forget To Remember #73
Lonely Days #3
How Can You Mend A Broken Heart #1
My World #16
Run To Me #16
Jive Talkin' #1
Nights On Broadway #7
Fanny (Be Tender With My Love #12
You Should Be Dancing #1
Love So Right #3
Boogie Child #12
If I Can't Have You (Yvonne Elliman) #1
Emotion (Samantha Sang) #1
How Deep Is Your Love #1
Stayin' Alive #1
Night Fever #1
Too Much Heaven #1
Tragedy #1
Love You Inside Out #1
Spirits Having Flown - (#16 UK)
Islands In The Stream (Dolly & Kenny) #1
Guilty (Barbara Streisand/Barry Gibb) #3
Heartbreaker (Dionne Warwick/Barry Gibb)#10 (#2 UK)
You Win Again #75 (#1 UK)
One #7
Secret Love - (#5 UK)
For Whom The Bell Tolls - (#4 UK)
Alone #28
Still Waters Run Deep #57
This Is Where I Came In - (#18 UK)
'The Ultimate Bee Gees' Review 
2009-11-10 - I admittedly am not an uber-fan of the Bee Gees, thus my review of the 2 CD 'Ultimate Bee Gees' may be different from that of a person whose been following them for years. I enjoyed the 'Ultimate Bee Gees'. I've seen other reviews and comments that this collection is missing essential songs, or that the tracks featured on this have already been featured before on previous hits packages. Having not purchased any of them and being a Bee Gees newcomer, 'Ultimate Bee Gees' for me was more than satisfying. With 40 tracks, I felt this release covered the well-known standards like "Stayin' Alive" and "Jive Talkin'" but also did a great job of highlighting some lesser-known tracks. I've had some of these tracks from sources like the 'Saturday Night Fever' soundtrack but I must say that unlike many greatest hits packages, what's best about this release is that the tracks really pop and stand out because they sound as if they've been remastered and touched up quite a bit.
The Good: I'm wary of 'greatest hits' packages that only focus on the artist or groups' popular period or only feature the singles released during the group's hay day. That wasn't the case with this set. Though not all of the tracks struck me as hits, this gave a well-rounded view of the group and its music evolution. And for the price you're paying for it on Amazon, I feel 'The Ultimate Bee Gees' is well-worth purchasing considering you're getting 40 songs and that the set is career-spanning. The set even includes three live tracks which happen to be songs the group penned for other artists; hearing the group sing "Islands in the Stream" in classic Bee Gees style was almost worth the purchase alone. Though not every track included among the 40 were true 'hits' in my opinion, the set definitely is one of the better greatest hits or 'ultimate' packages on the market. In my case, as someone who has not been exposed to this groups music beyond 'Saturday Night Fever', I felt this collection gave me a better sense of the group and made me appreciate them more.
The Bad: As some fans have mentioned, there were some tracks that were missing that perhaps should have been included considering this was billed as 'The Ultimate Bee Gees'. As with many collection of this type, fans of the group will probably have more issues with this release than a casual fan will. As a newcomer to the disco/dance tracks definitely worked better than some of the slower-laid backed ones.
In all, is 'The Ultimate Bee Gees' truly ultimate and expansive? It depends on your level of exposure to the group. If you are a super fan, it probably won't live up to the title and will have noticeable flaws. To the casual fan, this is probably a good purchase and gives you more than a good serving - both of the popular and less known hits - of the group. In my opinion, worthy buying. It's a fun listen, gets you moving and still out paces a lot of what's considered popular music by today's standards.
Listen To These: "More Than a Woman", "Islands in the Stream", "This Is Where I Came In", "Jive Talkin'"
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM RHINO 
2009-11-08 - You can always tell when the Holidays are approaching. Yes, kiddies 'tis the season for compilations by acts that haven't seen the charts in decades. I guess they couldn't piece Mythology together in time for Christmas so this bunch of retread material will have to suffice for now. The sound quality is excellent but does not equal the work done on the 6 disc Studio Album set from a couple of years back. The price is right, too. How generous, since 10% of us are unemployed and all of us will soon be forced to carry health insurance that we either can't afford or don't want.
Good News! Reportedly, Barry and Robin are on speaking terms (again) and busy writing new material. Barry now looks like a bloated homeless person and Robin the poster boy for chemotherapy/AIDS/H1N1 research. Lotsa luck, guys! You'll need it.
Good compilation, but please don't use the same songs for Mythology
2009-11-05 - The Ultimate is a compilation of what could be considered the most representative songs of the Bee Gees in the 50th anniversary of the group. Rhino's remastering makes this compilation much better than those made by Polydor in his previous collections. In the last compilation by Polydor, The Bee Gees - Their Greatest Hits: The Record, the music actually sounds louder but not necessarily better. Rhino remastering of the songs make them sound more crystalline and without the loud volume used in The Record.
The collection itself is great for casual fans that want music in their collection of this band. And this band without any doubt is one of the most representative of the modern history of music worldwide, the song selection is very successful and when you finish playing the CD the listener is eager to hear more, which is a very good sign.
The biggest problem facing by this compilation will be their capacity to attract the usual fans of the band because the songs in this collection have appeared again and again in several previous compilations like Greatest, Number Ones, Love Songs, The Record, and so on. Everything indicates that the record label plans to re-edit over and over again these songs in different packaging in the best style of bands like Kiss, who make so many compilations than the fans have enough of it. Hopefully, the Gibb brothers do not follow this behavior since eventually ends up disappointing the fans.
Hopefully with Mythology Rhino reconsider the selection of songs and make major changes. Only regular fans of the band would purchase a set of 4 discs, but if those discs bring the same songs as always many of these fans will not buy Mythology. I think the song selection in Mythology of Maurice Gibb and Andy Gibb is appropriate since most of these songs are not acquired with ease and are available with the original sound, which is very poor. To hear Overnight or Wildflower among others, with good remastering is the strength of this compilation of Mythology which attracts regular followers.
But the disks representing Barry and Robin need important changes to include older songs that have not been remastered yet as Baby As You Turn Away or Country Lanes, for example or maybe solo songs like Shine Shine, My Eternal Love, Another Lonely Night In NY, Like a Fool, among others, and even better than that, unpublished material!
Gibb Brothers and Rhino have the final word; hopefully they realize what the usual fans want, rather than try to sell the same songs over and over again!
