Ultimate Bee Gees (Reprise Records DVD/CD set)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Music/Music Videos: B

 

 

Hard to believe, but The Bee Gees have been around for 50 Years (though they were actually a family act that started performing even earlier) and though Maurice Gibb left us a few years ago under medical circumstances we will not go into, the vocal group remains one of the most commercially and critically successful British Invasion acts of all time, despite not always being considered a Rock act and often (in a short-sighted way) identified only as a Disco act.  Ultimate Bee Gees is an attempt to be a sort of successor to the big-selling hits set Bee Gees Greatest, which we reviewed the latest CD set of at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6047/Saturday+Night+Fever+%E2%80%93

 

 

This set loses (Our Love) Don’t Throw It All Away and the remixes, but adds many older hits from their Atco Records years and up to their last hits with Maurice that had more success overseas than in the U.S. market.  Oddly, the biggest later hits are saved for the DVD, but this is a rather comprehensive collection.  Also, some live performances of hits they made for others are here live by them like Heartbreaker (Dionne Warwick), Islands In The Stream (Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton) and Guilty (Barry Gibb’s duet with Barbra Streisand).

 

Unfortunately, the PCM 16/44.1 2.0 Stereo on the CDs seem to have some detail the previous CD set lacked, yet also seems compressed and muddy.  But odder still is the DVD’s PCM 24/48 2.0 Stereo is a mixed bag.  Some tracks sound good, but other sound like they are from a secondary source, even when the audio is the footage synched to the hit record that survives better.  I expected better audio (why is the Dolby Digital logo on the case when it is nowhere to be found on the DVD?) and once again, the Brother Gibb do not get the superior audiophile sound treatment they are long overdue.

 

This was also an issue with the best sound mix on the recent Blu-ray release of Saturday Night Fever, which you can read more about at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8529/Grease+(1978/Blu-ray)+++Saturday

 

 

The DVD serves as a Music Video compilation, but noticeably missing are any clips from the Staying Alive soundtrack or Robin singing I Started A Joke, but many classic clips are here.  Most of the clips are filmed at 1.33 X 1 and the few videotaped clips are as well, while a couple of the last clips are letterboxed 1.78 X 1.  The image in all cases is not bad, but a little soft and some of the film footage is sourced from older analog video transfers.  For the inevitable Blu-ray set, someone is going to need to dig up those on film (16mm or otherwise) and restore them eventually.  Plus, much more film of a band this successful must be out there, so the Gibbs should start working on that immediately and do upgraded multi-channel sound to get this right once and for all.

 

The songs (all 1.33 X 1 unless otherwise noted) on the DVD include:

 

1)     Spicks & Specks (from Bandstand Australia 1966, filmed/black & white)

2)     New York Mining Disaster 1941 (filmed/color)

3)     Massachusetts (from Top Of The Pops U.K. 1967/taped/black & white)

4)     I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You (from Idea TV Special 1968/filmed/color)

5)     Tomorrow Tomorrow (filmed/color)

6)     Lonely Days (filmed/color)

7)     How Can You Mend A Broken Heart (from Whitaker’s World Of Music 1971/taped/color)

8)     Run To Me (from Session (U.S. TV 1973)/taped/color)

9)     Jive Talkin’ (filmed/color)

10)  Night Fever (shot on videotape in Las Vegas/color)

11)  Stayin’ Alive (Bruce Gowers, filmed/color)

12)  How Deep Is Your Love (Bruce Gowers, filmed/color)

13)  Too Much Heaven (Martin Pitts, filmed/color)

14)  For Whom The Bell Tolls (Greg Masuak/letterboxed 1.78 X 1)

15)  Alone (Nick Egan/film and tape/black & white and color)

16)  Still Waters (Run Deep) (letterboxed 1.78 X 1/color)

17)  You Win Again (Leslie Libman/filmed/black & white and color)

18)  One

 

 

The set never includes the name of the directors and since some may be unknown, they may not have tried.  However, some are from unidentified TV shows so the directors are the ones for the show and we added directors where we could find them as of posting time.  These are very interesting, especially the ones prior to MTV, which received a good amount of airplay when they became the biggest act in the business when they peaked in 1978.  The DVD is the #1 reason to get this set.

 

Too bad the clips do not come with any audio commentary.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo