Bee Gees Greatest Hits: 14 Top Tunes, Ranked

Family, or blood, harmonies are a richly revered vocal gift that’s quite powerful and unforgettable. Of course, creating family harmonies relies on a sibling act to create it. Enter the Brothers Gibb, aka The Bee Gees, who had a unique sound all their own. Thanks to the distinctive vocals of Barry, Robin and Maurice, the world got some of the Bee Gees greatest hits.

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“Their singing style began to incorporate falsetto singing as a playful accompaniment to Robin Gibb’s deeper, more quavery lead vocals, or falsetto harmonies to cap off melodies that spiraled ever upwards,” the New York Times noted, and the brothers capitalized on their captivating sound for several decades, peaking in the 70s, of course, as they rode the disco wave of Saturday Night Fever. “It was something we had never heard before,” longtime fan and onetime collaborator, Celine Dion told Access Hollywood of the Bee Gees greatest hits from that hit 1977 film. “We were all freaking out. And today we hear it, and we’re still freaking out!”

Though Robin, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 62, put out a few solo projects, Barry shared with Classic Pop magazine that he only released one half-hearted solo effort in 1984. “My brothers didn’t want me to, there was a lot of discouragement to go solo because of the Bee Gees,” he noted. “That’s what you deal with if you are brothers, being in the family bad books, so I didn’t really try.”

It wasn’t until 2016 that he released his second solo effort, though he noted how sticking with his brothers was never a big regret. “We grew up together, and although we have a desire to be individually recognized, it’s not that enjoyable if you are not actually together. We were 45 years as a group so stepping away from that has never been easy and even today it wouldn’t be any easier if we were all together,” he added, having lost Maurice as well in 2003 at the age of 53. (Youngest brother Andy tragically passed at the age of 30 in 1988.)

Barry, now 77, even recalled Robin commenting on his solo projects, saying, “it’s not that much fun if you are on your own.” And the BeeGees certainly were a lot more fun when they were together, hitting those high notes and packing the dance floors. Their slow jams were just as killer, with Rolling Stone calling the group “three brothers with heavenly voices,” while the Hollywood Reporter noted that they “seamlessly blended three-part harmonies into some of the most gorgeous ballads of the era, spanning the bridge between folk and pop.”

It’s recently been announced that director Ridley Scott (Gladiator, The Martian, Thelma & Louise) is in talks to helm a biopic picture about the Australian brothers, who went on to sell 220 million records and become one of the biggest-selling groups of all time. While we wait to see if that deal and biopic progresses, let’s put on our dance shoes, fire up our multicolored, flashing dance floors, and take a rhythmic stroll down memory lane to celebrate the Bee Gees greatest hits!

14. “One” (1989): Bee Gees greatest hits

Who could resist this track after the lusciously coiffed Barry Gibb sings “I feel my heart beat when you run your fingers through my hair” on its opening line? With a vibe and groove that’s slightly reminiscent of “Jive Talkin’,” this late 80s hit marked the final time the brothers would hit the top 10 here in the U.S. “Just as my life fades to darkness, you make me see the light,” Barry delivers, surrounded by those trademark harmonies from brothers Maurice and Robin. It’s a great, fresh sound and a romantic message that’s sure to put any listener into a great mood.

13. “Lonely Days” (1970)

“A manager we had…heard ‘Lonely Days’ in a restaurant and he said to a friend, ‘That’s one of my favorite Beatles songs.’ And he was managing us!” Barry Gibb recalled of this brilliant ballad, as noted in The Bee Gees: Tales of the Brothers Gibbs. Released a year after Abbey Road, the Beatles influence is clear (contrasting piano and strings, a distortion on parts of the vocals), and it remains enormously engaging throughout its slow start and steady build.

12. “To Love Somebody” (1967): Bee Gees greatest hits

Need proof of how great this song is? Take a look (and listen) to who’s covered it: Nina Simone, Janis Joplin, Roberta Flack, Lulu, Michael Bublé, and Jimmy Somerville, just to name a few. And its chorus, “You don't know what it’s like to love somebody…the way I love you,” is just as heart-melting as it is simple. The song was actually written for Otis Redding to record, but the soul singer died in a tragic plane crash at age 26 before he could do so.

11. “Too Much Heaven” (1978)

When Goldmine magazine asked the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, a musical genius, to name a “goosebump” song, he cited this No. 1 tune that stands as one of the Bee Gees greatest hits. And we’d have to agree. “I really loved and was impressed with the harmonies they achieved on that record,” Wilson shared. “I’m very very proud of those guys. They’re exceptionally good at harmony. They’re a very heavy duty harmony group.”

10. “Jive Talkin’” (1975): Bee Gees greatest hits

Another No. 1 — trust us, this will become a theme! This winner helped inspire Lindsey Buckingham’s “Second Hand News” for Fleetwood Mac. “The track builds with a confident grace,” Stereogum notes, adding, “The craftsmanship is impeccable. The handclaps, the timbales, and the yelpy harmonies all arrive at the exact right moments.” Although “Jive Talkin’” appears on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the scene it appeared in was actually cut from the film.

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9. “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” (1971)

This beautiful ballad helped to elevate the Aussie boys stateside, and it became their first No. 1 here in America (staying there for four weeks). It also earned them their first Grammy nomination. Barry partnered with Sheryl Crow on an updated version in 2021 for Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1. The Tennessean hailed it, noting that it “reveals itself to be a classic country torch song – a close cousin to Skeeter Davis’ ‘The End of The World.’”

8. “Tragedy” (1979): Bee Gees greatest hits

Barry’s falsetto is sky-high and in peak form throughout this uptempo smash that went all the way to (you guessed it) No. 1. The song, which was written in the same afternoon as “Too Much Heaven,” needed an explosive sound effect, the brothers felt. The resulting studio shenanigans were caught on film and could be seen here. AllMusic raves that the song “fuses the dance rhythms they had become known for with aggressive rock & roll elements that give it an extra kick.”

7. “More Than a Woman” (1977)

Both the Bee Gees’ version as well as one by Tavares appear on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, and both versions are a knockout. A remix of the Bee Gees’ version started taking over TikTok in 2021 with its own dance challenge going viral and appearing in over 280,000 posts. As its lyrics say, “I know that in a thousand years, I’d fall in love with you again,” and with a song this good, it’s bound to keep popping up in pop culture for decades to come, just like it did on the video sharing app.

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6. “Nights on Broadway” (1975): Bee Gees greatest hits

Australia’s Rolling Stone noted that “the Gibbs roared back bigger than ever as dance-floor studs” with this track, which preceded their mega-success with Saturday Night Fever. As another review put it, it’s “a fantastic up-tempo pop track, with a ‘middle eight’ that will send a shiver down your spine.” The Main Course album it came off of was the first to really showcase Barry’s falsetto, and that went on to be a defining sound and calling card for the group.

5. “Love You Inside Out” (1979)

This No. 1, their final one in the U.S., performed so well it managed to nudge Queen of Disco Donna Summer’s sizzling “Hot Stuff” from the top position on the charts. Stereogum noted that the guys’ track “sounds like the Bee Gees just cruising, ragtop down, voluminous hair blowing in the wind, sun glinting off of unnaturally white teeth. It sounds like confidence.” And that slick, chill vibe is what makes this song one of the Bee Gees greatest hits.

4. “How Deep Is Your Love” (1977): Bee Gees greatest hits

The brothers won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Group thanks to this iconic hit, which spent three weeks in the No. 1 position and a total of 30 weeks on the Billboard charts. In an interview with that magazine, Barry Gibb went so far as to cite this as his all-time favorite song of his and his brothers. His love, like ours, is incredibly deep for this timeless treasure of a track.

3. “You Should Be Dancing” (1976)

You can bet your boogie shoes that this infectious, get-on-your-feet anthem hustled its way to No. 1 on the charts. “We were discovering more accurate rhythms, we were discovering Latin rhythms and, because we lived in Miami, that was all around us so it just happened that way,” Barry Gibb told music writer Tim Roxborogh about the recording of this track. “We were just having a great time with ‘You Should Be Dancing’because suddenly everyone was wanting to dance,” Barry added — and we still are!

2. “Stayin’ Alive” (1977): Bee Gees greatest hits

“The great thing about ‘Stayin’ Alive’ is that it had a great guitar hook to start with, which set up the theme, that pulsating beat,” famed Beatles producer Sir George Martin said about this monster hit, which spent four weeks at No. 1 and won the Bee Gees a Grammy for Best Arrangement for Voices. Martin also noted that “the disco beat…coincides [with] the heartbeat of your heart when you’re excited.” And while it sure excited fans, it’s also gone on to literally help people stay alive, as CPR training sites and studies have proven that matching the song’s 100-120 beats per minute is the ideal rate of chest compressions to administer during a medical emergency.

1. “Night Fever” (1978)

“Listen to the ground, there is movement all around. There is something goin’ down, and I can feel it.” The smooth groove of this song’s intro kicking into the harder edge of those first few lines makes people lose their minds (us included). As Pitchfork put it, it has “an urgency that makes dancin’ seem like a life-or-death imperative,” so if you’re standing on the edge of a dance floor when this comes on, you best move quickly or you’re likely to get hurt. This No. 1 smash spent a full eight weeks at the top of the charts. “The mission,” Barry Gibb told The New York Times, “is to keep [the Bee Gees’] music alive. Regardless of us, regardless of me. One day, like my brothers, I will no longer be around, and I want the music to last. So I’m going to play it no matter what.” This one, we promise, will certainly be at the top of our playlists.