Best of Bee Gees

Best of Bee Gees
Greatest hits album by Bee Gees
Released	June 1969 (US) October 1969 (UK)
Recorded	March 7, 1967 - December 1968
Genre	Pop
Length	37:34
Label	Polydor (UK) Atco Records (US)
Producer	Bee Gees & Robert Stigwood
Bee Gees chronology
Odessa (March 1969) Best of Bee Gees (June 1969) Cucumber Castle (April 1970)

Best of Bee Gees is the first compilation album of international hits by the Bee Gees. Brother Robin Gibb had left the group after the completion of the previous release, Odessa, and the timing was right for a compilation while the remaining brothers worked towards their next original album, Cucumber Castle.

The original 1969 vinyl release included the Bee Gees' 1966 Australian top ten hit "Spicks and Specks", but due to licensing issues with Festival Records in Australia, the group's 1969 hit "Tomorrow, Tomorrow" was substituted on the Polydor CD release.

The album is noted by fans for its bad stereo mix of the song "Words", which increased the vocals so much that the percussion was lost in the background. This is the only album/CD with this mix. All future compilations have the proper stereo mix which is more balanced.

Vince Melouney, although playing guitar on most of the tracks, is not pictured on the front or back cover as he had departed the group a year earlier.

With the release of Their Greatest Hits: The Record in 2001, this CD went out of print for several years until Rhino reissued it in November 2008 with the same tracks as the Polydor CD. Three of the thirteen tracks from the combined vinyl/CD Best of Bee Gees do not appear amongst the forty seven tracks on Their Greatest Hits: The Record: "I Can't See Nobody" and "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You" had only actually been the B-sides of other hits on Best of Bee Gees, while "Tomorrow, Tomorrow" had charted but had never reached the top 20 in the charts of the UK, USA nor Australia. In October 2010, it was listed at No. 16 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.

Track listing

1. "Holiday" (Barry & Robin Gibb)
2. "I've Gotta Get a Message to You"
3. "I Can't See Nobody" (Barry & Robin Gibb)
4. "Words"
5. "I Started a Joke"
6. (Original vinyl LP only) "Spicks and Specks" (Barry Gibb) / (Original CD only) "Tomorrow, Tomorrow" (Barry & Maurice Gibb)
7. "First of May"
8. "World"
9. "Massachusetts"
10. "To Love Somebody" (Barry & Robin Gibb)
11. "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You"
12. "New York Mining Disaster 1941" (Barry & Robin Gibb)

Except where stated all songs written by Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb