Bee Gees

One of the most enduring pop acts of the century, the Bee Gees are best known for their bevy of disco hits in the late '70s. The band, comprised primarily of three Gibb brothers from an English family of five, began performing in various incarnations in the late '50s after the family moved to Australia. Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb returned to England in the mid '60s and signed with Polydor Records, which issued the single "New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Have You Seen My Wife, Mr. Jones)," a No. 14 entry on the Billboard pop singles chart.

The single "Massachusetts" earned the group its first U.K. No. 1, and "Horizontal," the album from which it was drawn, reached No. 12 in the U.S. The group began to pen songs for other artists, scoring a top 10 hit for the Marbles with the track "Only One Woman." Later in its career, the group wrote hits for Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross and the duet "Islands in the Stream" for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton.

Despite internal turmoil and a declining European following, the Bee Gees struck paydirt in the U.S. in 1970 with the singles "Lonely Days" (No. 3) and "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," which hit No. 1. In 1974, band manager Robert Stigwood signed the group to his RSO label and hired producer Arif Mardin to transform the Bee Gees into a slick dance group, marked by falsetto vocal harmonies and urban beats. "Jive Talkin," the first single to feature the new sound, rocketed to No. 1. Three top 10 singles followed, priming the group for the pinnacle of its commercial success.

Few would have expected the film "Saturday Night Fever" to have the impact it did, but largely on the strength of the Bee Gees-dominated soundtrack, the movie totally revitalized the sagging American disco scene. The soundtrack hit No. 1 on the Billboard album chart in January 1978, and the Bee Gees rattled off three No. 1 singles from the record with "Stayin' Alive," "Night Fever," and "How Deep Is Your Love." The latter song has been recorded by an astounding 400 different artists.

Two more No. 1 albums followed, but the death of disco led to a lengthy creative hiatus for the group. During the '80s, the Bee Gees laid low until reappearing in 1987 with the album "E-S-P." The single "One," from the 1989 album of the same name, returned the Bee Gees to the chart when it hit No. 7. Maurice Gibb died suddenly in January 2003 at the age of 53, after which his brothers vowed to retire the Bee Gees name.

"What you have here are three brothers known for writing songs -- that's what we do," Barry Gibb told Billboard in 2001. "We're not a pop group that falls out of fashion and comes back again -- we're a songwriting team. Why avoid the fact that that's what we really do?"

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