The Ultimate Bee Gees 2CD

Functioning as something of a replacement for the 2001 collection Their Greatest Hits: The Record, The Ultimate Bee Gees covers much of the same ground as that double-disc set, albeit in not quite so linear a fashion. The Record marched through its 40 tracks chronologically, opening with the stately baroque Beatlesque pop of the '60s and then winding through the '70s, whereas this opens with the bright, fabulous blast of "You Should Be Dancing" and remains in their late-'70s heyday for a while before fast-forwarding to such latter-day adult contemporary hits as "One." We don't get to "I've Gotta Get a Message to You" and "I Started a Joke" until halfway through the second disc, and this jumbled, almost haphazard sequencing is a little disconcerting since it appears to follow no true rhyme or reason. Nevertheless, scattershot is still plenty entertaining when the music is as good as this, and this does have all the Bee Gees' big hits, plus live versions of songs they gave to others, so it's a good, swift way to get all this stuff at once -- at least for those who don't already have The Record or some other Bee Gees hits collection. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tracklist

Disc 1
1. How Deep Is Your Love
2. To Love Somebody
3. Words
4. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart
5. Too Much Heaven
6. Emotion
7. Lonely Days
8. Run To Me
9. Love So Right
10. For Whom The Bell Tolls
11. I've Gotta Get A Message To You
12. New York Mining Disaster 1941
13. Massachusetts
14. I Started A Joke
15. World
16. First Of May
17. Holiday
18. Don't Forget To Remember
19. Islands In The Stream
20. Heartbreaker
21. Guilty

Disc 2
1. You Should Be Dancing
2. Stayin Alive
3. Jive Talkin'
4. Nights On Broadway
5. Tragedy
6. Night Fever
7. More Than A Woman
8. Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)
9. Spirits (Having Flown)
10. If I Can't Have You
11. Boogie Child
12. Love You Inside Out
13. You Win Again
14. One
15. Secret Love
16. Alone
17. Still Waters (Run Deep)
18. This Is Where I Came In
19. Spicks And Specks