Robin Gibb — one-third of the Bee Gees — died Sunday after a long battle with cancer, the Los Angeles Times reports. He was 62 years old:
The Bee Gees –- Robin, Maurice and their older brother, Barry –- had a four-decade pop career that was a roller-coaster ride marked by huge successes, a devastating crash from popularity, and a couple rounds of reinvention. They began in Australia as young followers of the lush sounds of the Beatles in the 1960s, then flourished as champions of disco in the '70s, mixing those beats with their established three-part harmonies. A decade before 1977's “Saturday Night Fever,” which cemented their reputation forever, they had a string of huge hits worldwide, some of which featured Robin’s plaintive vocal style …
As a group, the Bee Gees is one of the biggest-selling acts of all time, having sold well more than 120 million records. The group has had 15 top 10 records in the United States, including six consecutive No. 1 singles in the late '70s, and won six Grammy Awards …
That influence continues. No matter how hard critics and the rock establishment tried to kill disco, after the Bee Gees’ peak success — shattered by the debacle that was their film version of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and too many cheesy Rod Stewart crossover songs — the music went back underground, rising from time to time as a reminder of its spirit. In 2012, the beat-driven genre is cited by artists as an influence just as often as punk rock, which supposedly “killed” disco.
It didn’t. The evidence lies within the grooves that Robin and his brothers created, as vital, life-affirming and human as ever.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.