What makes The Bee Gees’ Barry Gibbs is one of the greatest songwriters in history?

Sir Barry Gibb is a British Musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer who is famously known as a member of the Bee Gees, one of the most successful British-Australian pop rock bands that embodied the disco era of the 70s.

Barry Alan Crompton Gibbs was born on the 1st of September 1946 in Douglas, on the Isle of Man. When Gibb was born, his father was working as a musician at hotels in Douglas and certainly would have been an inspiration in later life when Gibb started to realize he had a desire for music.

Gib had an older sister, Lesley Evans, and two younger twin brothers, Robin and Maurice. They all grew up together in Manchester, and in 1955, Gibb formed his first band, The Rattlesnakes, with his younger twin brothers joining him on the vocals alongside friends Paul Frost and Kenny Horrocks.

The Rattlesnakes would eventually morph into the world-renowned Bee Gees after the brothers moved to Australia in 1960. The brothers spent 1961 and 1962 performing at clubs and hotels around the Gold Coast area, and by 1963 they were signed to Festival.

Their first single, “The Battle of the Blue and Grey,” was written by Gibb. He wrote all of the Bee Gees singles from 1963 to 1966, and “One Road” made it to number 2 on the Australian New South Wales charts.

Barry Gibb and his brothers returned to the UK in early 1967, where they would go on to sign to Robert Stigwood’s organization, with Stigwood becoming the manager. This led to their first international LP, Bee Gees 1st, and would be the beginning of their worldwide fame.

The Bee Gees would split up in 1969, and Barry Gibb would go on to start his solo career. He recorded his first solo album, The Kids no Good, yet most of the songs were never released. He rejoined Maurice in April 1970 and released an album titled Cucumber Castle.

A few months later, the Bee Gees reunited, and by 1971 they had released How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, which became their first American number 1 hit. This would prompt them to eventually move to America in 1975, at the suggestion of Eric Clapton.

In 1976 Gibb wrote I Just Want to be Your Everything, which became his brother Andy’s first US no 1. In 1977, the Bee Gees released the track, Staying Alive, which would go on to become one of their most recognised tracks worldwide.

Gibbs’s career is considered one of the greatest in the music industry, spanning over 60 years. He has written or co-written sixteen Billboard 100 number 1s and is the second most successful songwriter in history, behind Paul McCartney.

In 1997, Barry Gibb and the Bee Gees were introduced into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the Brit Award for outstanding music contributions. Gibb was appointed as CBE in 2002 and then knighted in 2018 for his services to music.