"Jive Talkin'," the Bee Gees
Roger Chapman - the former lead singer of Family and in 1975 the lead singer for his and Charlie Whitney's successor band, Streetwalkers - was sitting in London club one evening in 1975 when a brand new record came on the speakers. The lyrics, set to a funky beat with some peppy blue-eyed soul vocal stylings, revolved around the song's title - "Jive Talkin'." Chapman, intrigued at the sound, asked someone who the artiste was. Told it was the Bee Gees, he smiled wryly and said, "You're kidding me, right?"
A lot of folks shared the same sense of surprise Chappo had shown that night. The Bee Gees had been known for a sound that recalled the lighter, more pop-oriented side of the Beatles. It had been four years since their first - and so far only - number one U.S. hit, "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart." They had sunk so low that they were playing supper clubs in England in the time since. All of that changed when, fifty years ago around this time, they released Main Course, their thirteenth studio album, in 1975, and for them 13 was a lucky number.
The Bee Gees had worked with producer Arif Mardin on their 1974 album Mr. Natural, which, while not a hit, showed hints of R&B in their sound that they had never sufficiently explored before. Mardin decided he could have that bud of soul blossom into a full-fledged sound. "Jive Talkin'" was a perfect distillation of their new sound.
The Bee Gees repaired to Criterion Studios in Miami at the recommendation of Eric Clapton, with whom they shared Robert Stigwood as a manager. Clapton had recorded Layla with Derek and the Dominos and his own comeback album 461 Ocean Boulevard at Criterion and thought that the studio would be a good place for the Bee Gees to work. While staying in Miami, which would become their permanent home, the Bee Gees regularly commuted from their abodes to the studio over a causeway bridge that would rattle out a punchy rhythm when a vehicle traveled over it at exactly 35 miles per hour. Barry Gibb found himself singing an improvised lyric to the rhythm - "Jive talkin', you dance with your eyes" - and so began the development of the song.
Barry and his brothers Robin and Maurice were thinking of the dance known as jive when they began writing it, but they got stuck. They played what they had for Mardin, who informed them that "jive talking" or "jiving" meant "lying" in black American slang, and so the lyric "You dance with your eyes" became "You're telling me lies" . . . and the Gibb brothers wrote the song about a lying woman who's "so good at treating me so cruel" with "fancy lies, leaving me looking like a dumbstruck fool."
Such is the way a number one record is made, as "Jive Talkin'" topped the Billboard charts for the two weeks ending August 9 and August 16 in 1975. This clip, my Music Video Of the Week, is the promotional video for "Jive Talkin.'" Enjoy.
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