The Christmas of 1979 was a very good one for young HERC's music collection. After he nearly trampled his beloved little sister trying to get down the stairs (good times), he was elated to find several albums under the tree: RSO Chart Busters (read about that one HERE), Donna Summer's On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II and another RSO Chart Buster of sorts: Bee Gees Greatest, a double album of their hits on RSO from 1975-1979 in a deluxe tri-fold[!] cover with customized inner sleeves and labels. This surely had to be one of the most expensive albums to manufacture at the time.
Putting aside the fact that the collection as titled did not live up to its name, ignoring the nearly two dozen singles (a few of them are featured in the clip above) the group released from 1967-1974 including #1 hit "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart", Greatest does feature the eight other Number One hits they scored in five short years.
"Jive Talkin'" kicks off Side One of the album which is made up of four other dance floor-proven tracks. In fact, all five songs were chart-toppers. Side Two starts with another Number One hit "How Deep Is Your Love" and continues the slow jams with four more Top 3 singles, including three that ended up as #1s. To review, eight of the first ten tracks on this album were certifiable smash hit singles that spent a total of 23 weeks atop the Hot 100.
HERC never played the other two sides of the album all that much. "Nights On Broadway" is the first track on Side Four and one of HERC's favorite songs but he had it on 45 so there was really no need to play that side of the album. Side Three was made up of songs covered by other artists and, at the time, HERC preferred the "original" versions to the Bee Gees versions though in recent years he's come to appreciate the songs of Side Three. There was an included "fan club" insert, too.
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