Spirits Having Flown

Spirits Having Flown is the fifteenth album released by the Bee Gees. It was the group's first album after their collaboration on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The album's first three tracks were released as singles and all reached No. 1 in the US, giving the Bee Gees an unbroken run of six US chart-toppers in a one-year period and equaling a feat shared by Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles. It was the first Bee Gees album to make the UK top 40 in ten years (not counting the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever), as well as being their first and only UK No. 1 album. Spirits Having Flown also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and the US. The album has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.^[9][10]

Spirits Having Flown
Studio album by the Bee Gees
Released	5 February 1979^[1]
Recorded	March – November 1978
Studio	Criteria Studios, Miami
Genre	Disco^[2] soul^[2] pop^[2]
Length	45:53
Label	RSO Reprise (remastered)
Producer	Bee Gees Albhy Galuten Karl Richardson
The Bee Gees chronology
Saturday Night Fever (1977) Spirits Having Flown (1979) Greatest (1979)
Singles from Spirits Having Flown
"Too Much Heaven" Released: November 1978 "Tragedy" Released: February 1979 "Love You Inside Out" Released: April 1979

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[3]
Christgau's Record Guide	B−^[4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	^[5]
The Great Rock Discography	6/10^[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	^[7]
Smash Hits	3/10^[8]

Spirits Having Flown marked the end of the band's most successful era, prior to a severe downturn in the early 1980s when they were subject to a near-total radio blackout (particularly in America) that Robin Gibb would refer to as "censorship" and "evil" in interviews.

Reprise Records remastered and re-released the album on CD in 2006, although it did not include any additional bonus tracks, demos or outtakes.

Background

At the start of 1978, Barry Gibb produced the album Shadow Dancing by Andy Gibb. In February, Barry wrote the title song for the film Grease performed by Frankie Valli; also in February, another Barry Gibb composition from 1977 "Ain't Nothing Gonna Keep Me From You" was recorded by Teri DeSario. By March, the Bee Gees had started to record this album.^[11]

Recording

 

"Love You Inside Out", by The Bee Gees

The Bee Gees' ninth US number one single. It topped the Billboard Top 200 chart in June 1979.

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Co-producer Albhy Galuten recalls Spirits Having Flown as being created primarily by Barry Gibb, Karl Richardson and himself putting in long days and nights at Criteria Studios. Blue Weaver recalls others being involved. Both agree that Robin Gibb was active behind the scenes in songwriting and offering feedback to the recording process, but Maurice Gibb contributed probably the least he did on any Bee Gees album. Not only was his alcoholism sapping his creativity, but he was having back pains finally diagnosed in 1980 as caused by a bad disk.^[11] He said that he would be doing bass work and without his knowledge, Barry and Robin would hire in someone else to play parts that he was supposed to be playing; however, he said that whilst he played fine, neither Barry nor Robin could rely on him.^[12]

In the recording phase, Robin and Maurice now mainly played the role of backing and harmony vocalists, and even in that capacity Barry did many of the vocal dubs himself as he went over and over the recorded work. Robin contributed one solo lead vocal ("Living Together") which was sung in falsetto with Barry providing alternating lead vocals in his normal register. This was Robin's least amount of lead vocals on any Bee Gees album with the exception of 1970's Cucumber Castle, for which he was not part of the group at that time. As with the last four Bee Gees albums, Maurice did not have any solo lead vocals. While Barry is the most prominent lead vocalist on "Too Much Heaven," it features a mix of more than 20 vocal parts, including 6 tracks featuring Barry alone (3 on falsetto and 3 in chest voice) plus another 3 of Barry, Robin, and Maurice singing lead in chest voice together; while Barry is the most prominent.^[13]

The Bee Gees had been effectively typecast as a disco group after Saturday Night Fever, and in a 1978 interview Barry remarked "People think we're just about disco now. Of course that's not true. If you look at the SNF soundtrack, there's some dance music, but we also have ballads like 'More Than a Woman'." In an attempt to counter this typecasting, the first single from Spirits Having Flown was the ballad "Too Much Heaven". The horn section from Chicago (James Pankow, Walt Parazaider and Lee Loughnane) made a guest appearance on this album. At the time, they were next door working on the Chicago album Hot Streets. Thus the Bee Gees would return the favour as they appeared on Chicago's song "Little Miss Lovin'" and their keyboardist Blue Weaver appeared on "No Tell Lover". The Bee Gees also recorded "Desire" for the album but it was rejected and instead released as a solo single by their brother Andy.

Release

Spirits Having Flown was released on January 24, 1979; it was rushed two weeks early due to American radio leaks. The album was released a few weeks later in New Zealand and South American countries.^[14] In the U.S. the album was supported by full page ads in Billboard and Rolling Stone, which gave the album a lengthy and positive review. It topped the album charts in several countries, including both the US and UK. Its three singles "Tragedy", "Too Much Heaven" and "Love You Inside Out" all topped the charts in the US. The title track was also released as a single in the UK and a few other countries in December 1979 to promote the Bee Gees Greatest compilation.

Sales

The album sold more than 20 million copies worldwide as of 1997.^[15] In 2003 the BBC even gave a figure of 30 million worldwide sales.^[16] The RIAA lists the album as having been certified "platinum" (1,000,000 sold), but RSO never had the album re-certified. Many articles and websites cite the album as having sold as many as 6,000,000 copies in the U.S. alone, but these results are unofficial, which is why the album does not appear on many 'best selling' lists, including Wikipedia's list of best-selling albums.

Awards

Spirits Having Flown was voted Best Pop/Rock Album of 1979 at the 1980 American Music Awards ceremony.

Track listing

All tracks written by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb.

Side one

No.	Title	Lead vocal(s)	Length
1.	"Tragedy"	Barry	5:03
2.	"Too Much Heaven"	Barry (with Robin and Maurice)^[13]	4:55
3.	"Love You Inside Out"	Barry	4:11
4.	"Reaching Out"	Barry	4:05
5.	"Spirits (Having Flown)"	Barry	5:19

Side two

No.	Title	Lead vocal(s)	Length
1.	"Search, Find"	Barry	4:13
2.	"Stop (Think Again)"	Barry	6:40
3.	"Living Together"	Robin and Barry	4:21
4.	"I'm Satisfied"	Barry	3:55
5.	"Until"	Barry	2:27

1979 North American tour

Main article: Spirits Having Flown Tour

Personnel

Credits adapted from AllMusic and Joseph Brennan.^[17][13]

Bee Gees

• Barry Gibb – lead, harmony and backing vocals, rhythm guitar
• Robin Gibb – harmony and backing vocals, lead vocals on “Too Much Heaven” and “Living Together”
• Maurice Gibb – harmony and backing vocals, bass guitar, keyboard, lead vocals on “Too Much Heaven”

Backing band

• Alan Kendall – lead guitar
• Dennis Bryon – drums
• Blue Weaver – synthesiser, piano, keyboards, vibraphone, Arp

Additional personnel

• Neal Bonsanti – horn
• Gary Brown – saxophone
• Harold Cowart – bass
• Ken Faulk, Peter Graves, Bill Purse, Whit Sidener, Stan Webb – horn
• Albhy Galuten – synthesiser, bass, conductor
• Joe Lala, Daniel Ben Zubulon – percussion, conga
• Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, Walter Parazaider – horn on “Too Much Heaven” and “Stop (Think Again)”
• Herbie Mann – flute on “Spirits (Having Flown)”
• George Terry – guitar
• Dennis Hetzendorfer. John Blanche – assistant engineer
• Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound, NYC

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (1979) Position Australian Kent Music Report^[18] 1 Austrian Albums Chart^[19] 2 Canadian Albums Chart^[20] 1 Dutch Albums Chart^[21] 3 Finnish Albums (Soumen Virallinen)^[22] 1 French Albums Chart^[23] 1 Japanese Albums Chart^[24] 2 New Zealand Albums Chart^[25] 1 Norwegian Albums Chart^[26] 1 Portuguese Albums (Musica & Som)^[27] 1 Swedish Top 60 Albums^[28] 1 UK Albums Chart^[29] 1 US Billboard 200^[30] 1 West German Albums Chart^[31] 1

Year-end charts Chart (1979) Position Australian Albums Chart^[18] 6 Austrian Albums Chart^[32] 4 Canadian Albums Chart^[33] 3 French Albums Chart^[34] 21 Japanese Albums Chart^[35] 25 UK Albums Chart^[36] 7 US Billboard 200^[37] 2 West German Albums Chart^[38] 10

Certifications and sales

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Argentina	—	60,000^[39]
Canada (Music Canada)^[40]	5× Platinum	500,000^^
Finland (Musiikkituottajat)^[41]	Gold	25,000^[41]
France (SNEP)^[42]	Gold	100,000^*
Greece	—	30,000^[43]
Hong Kong (IFPI Hong Kong)^[44]	Platinum	20,000^*
Japan (Oricon Charts)	—	259,000^[24]
Malaysia	—	4,000^[45]
New Zealand (RMNZ)^[46]	Platinum	15,000^^
Norway	—	115,000^[47]
United Kingdom (BPI)^[48]	Platinum	300,000^^
United States (RIAA)^[50]	Platinum	4,000,000^[49]
^* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

1. "Billboard" (PDF). Worldradiohistory.com. 17 February 1979. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
2. Rodriguez, Juan (27 December 1979). "Top Hits of 1979". The Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 3 April 2014. ...the perfect fusion of disco, soul and pop.
3. Eder, Bruce. "Allmusic review". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
4. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: B". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
5. Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music: Concise Edition (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. p. 1990.
6. Strong, Martin Charles (2002). "Bee Gees". The Great Rock Discography. The National Academies. ISBN 1-84195-312-1.
7. Sheffield, Rob; et al. (2004). Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 58. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
8. Starr, Red. "Albums". Smash Hits (22 February – 7 March 1979): 25.
9. https://www.nme.com/photos/the-50-best-selling-albums-ever-1419009
10. https://albumism.com/features/bee-gees-spirits-having-flown-turns-40-anniversary-retrospective
11. Brennan, Joseph. "Gibb Songs: 1978". Retrieved 13 January 2014.
12. Archived at Ghostarchive and the : "Maurice Gibb - Doc. "Fighting Back" (BBC)". YouTube.
13. Brennan, Joseph. "Gibb Songs: 1978". Columbia.edu. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
14. ("...being released world-wide tomorrow...") Green, Gavin (4 February 1979). "The Bee Gees Latest Album Less Feverish But A Goer". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 88. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
15. Timothy White: Bee Gees 'still' Taking Chances. Billboard, 15. February 1997, p.b3
16. Stephen Dowling: The five ages of the Bee Gees. BBC, 12 January 2003 (retrieved 3 July 2016)
17. "Spirits Having Flown - Bee Gees | Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
18. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
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20. . RPM. 31 (9). 26 May 1979. Archived from the original (PHP) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
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22. Nyman, Jake (2005). Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Tammi. p. 97. ISBN 951-31-2503-3.
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29. "The Official Charts Company – Bee Gees – Spirits Having Flown" (PHP). Official Charts Company. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
30. Allmusic – Bee Gees > Spirits Having Flown> Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums
31. (in German). Media Control. Archived from the original (ASP) on 2 December 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
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34. (in French). infodisc.fr. Archived from the original (PHP) on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
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36. . Archived from the original on 11 January 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
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38. "Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts" (ASP) (in German). Media Control. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
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44. . IFPI Hong Kong.
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