Bee Gees' 1st

Drummer Colin Petersen and lead guitarist Vince Melouney, both Australians, were hired to make the Bee Gees into a full band. Both played on the first English recorded album and became official members of the group between its completion and release. Petersen had played with the Bee Gees at St. Clair studio in 1966 on the Spicks and Specks sessions and was officially added first, accounting for some early photos with him and not Melouney, such as the one later used on the cover of Best of Bee Gees. Melouney had worked with the Gibbs in 1966 in Australia when he recorded his first solo single "Mystery Train" as the brothers provided backing vocals on the song. He had been lead guitarist in top Australian band, Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs, later led his own group The Vince Melouney Sect and had most recently been in Melbourne-based outfit The Blue Jays.[2] Melouney, who had recently relocated to London heard that the Gibb brothers were in town and made contact. He was asked to join them, with Petersen, in the studio and after this album was completed, Melouney became the fifth official member of the band.[3][4]

Most of the band's recording for the next five years took place at IBC Studios. IBC had a four-track recording facility, the standard in Britain at the time. The Bee Gees also recorded at various other studios during this first year in England.[2]

Recording sessions began on 7 March, not long after the Gibb Brothers' return to England, with overdubbing a week later. Orchestral parts were then added to many of the songs. Most were arranged by Bill Shepherd (who for the next six years would act as the Bee Gees' arranger and conductor in the studio and on tour); four were done by Phil Dennys.[2]

Barry Gibb commented about the recording process: "We drive the producer and technicians mad. We have nothing knocked out. We sit about and think up a subject, then write a song on the spot. We did the whole of the LP like this. It's the really the only way we can work, spontaneously off the cuff."[5]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[8]

Maurice Gibb has sometimes been given writing credits for the songs "To Love Somebody" and "I Can't See Nobody" when the songs appeared on albums by other artists, but almost never on a Bee Gees album. Bee Gees Gold, Vol. 1 (1976) credited "I Can't See Nobody" to Barry, Maurice and Robin on both the album jacket back cover and on the record label. The brothers often spoke of their hits from Bee Gees 1st as having been written by all three rather than what was shown on the official writing credit which only credited Maurice on three tracks (see track listing below).

By the end of 1967, the album had been a top ten hit in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. Byrne never worked on another Bee Gees recording as IBC Studios engineer Damon Lyon Shaw explained:[9]

I did more stuff with Ossie Byrne without the Bee Gees than I did with the Bee Gees. Ossie had a knack of keeping quiet and letting people get on, and then he went adrift a bit and got some bands that weren't quite so good. I had a lot of time for Ossie, he was a nice chap… he didn't have much talent as a producer I have to say, but he had enough talent to see the band. He had this talent of keeping people together and making them productive.[9]

Shaw's colleague John Pantry agreed with Shaw's assessment:

Ossie was a nice guy. He didn't know a great deal technically and initially relied heavily on the engineers. It wasn't long before the Bee Gees knew as much as him and started doing sessions without him…[9]

After singer Adam Faith heard the songs, he asked the Gibbs to write a song for him. The brothers came out with "Cowman, Milk Your Cow".

According to music critic Bruce Eder of AllMusic:

In one fell swoop, they became competitors with the likes of veteran rock bands such as the Hollies and the Tremeloes, and this long-player, Bee Gees' 1st, is more of a rock album than the group usually got credit for generating. Parts of it do sound very much like the Beatles circa Revolver, but there was far more to their sound than that. The three hits off of Bee Gees' 1st, "To Love Somebody" "New York Mining Disaster 1941" and "Holiday" were gorgeous but relatively somber, thus giving Bee Gees' 1st a melancholy cast, but much of the rest is relatively upbeat psychedelic pop." In My Own Time" may echo elements of the Beatles' "Doctor Robert" and "Taxman" but it's difficult to dislike a song with such delicious rhythm guitars and a great beat, coupled with the trio's soaring harmonies; "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You" was close in spirit to the Moody Blues of this era, opening with a Gregorian chant backed by a Mellotron, before breaking into a strangely spaced-out, psychedelic main song body. Robin Gibb's lead vocals veered toward the melodramatic and poignant, and the orchestra did dress up some of the songs a little sweetly, yet overall the group presented themselves as a proficient rock ensemble who'd filled their debut album with a full set of solid, refreshingly original songs.[6]

In a c.1967 interview, Robin and Vince took as a compliment rumours that the Beatles sang on "In My Own Time" and "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You", but denied this, claiming that they had written the first song years earlier.[10]

According to music critic Bill Sherman:

Recently picked up the first of these releases, 1967's 1st, and I was surprised by how tunefully eclectic the darn thing was. In addition to its trio of Sensitive Guy hit singles (elegantly schlocky "Holiday," quiet desperation classic "New York Mining Disaster 1941" and the Motown-indebted "To Love Somebody" which would also be a British hit for Nina Simone), the album is a veritable fruit basket of sweet stuff: from the chamber psychedelia of "Red Chair, Fade Away" to the Moody Blues-driven chant-work of "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You" to a surprisingly garage-stained nugget like "In My Own Time" (check out that "Taxman"-driven guitar), plus several risible slips of veddy veddy swingin' sixties whimsy and the songs are "Craise Finton Kirk Royal Academy of Arts" "Turn of the Century". And for those who simply must have their unabashed Gibbian wimpiness, there's "One Minute Woman" which features Barry Gibb getting down on his knees for a fickle and ungrateful lass.[11]

Jim Miller at Rolling Stone said that this album, along with Horizontal and Idea, "can be easily considered as a group".[12] K. Kanitz described "Turn of the Century" as having "lush orchestration and classic vocals from the Brothers Gibb."[13]

Bee Gees

• Barry Gibb – lead, harmony and backing vocals; rhythm guitar
• Robin Gibb – lead, harmony and backing vocals; Hammond organ; pump organ
• Maurice Gibb – harmony and backing vocals; bass guitar; rhythm guitar; piano; Mellotron; Hammond organ; harpsichord
• Vince Melouney – lead guitar
• Colin Petersen – drums

Additional musicians and production

• Phil Dennys – orchestral arrangement on #3, 4 (side 1) and #1, 4 (side 2)
• Bill Shepherd – orchestral arrangement
• Mike Claydon – audio engineer
• Robert Stigwood, Ossie Byrne – producer
• Klaus Voormann – cover art

1979 reissue