(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Bee Gees - "Jive Talkin'"
Hit Number 1: August 9, 1975
Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks
It's hard to think of the Bee Gees ever having a comeback, but that's basically what they did in 1975. Obviously, they will forever be linked to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, and that album gave them mind-boggling levels of popularity. (I'll talk about this later, but the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack helped Barry Gibb make chart history, and his record still stands today. I would assume by the time I get to that era the record will still be standing, and I'll be sure to bring it up and let you all know what it is when the time comes) Anyway, because of that, people forget that the Bee Gees first started making hits as early as the late '60s, but those songs are largely forgotten about now. Their popularity carried into the '70s, and in 1971 they got their first #1 hit with the somber, melancholic "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart." It's crazy to think of an era where the Bee Gees were singing about heartbreak instead of telling us we should be dancing, or they were gloating about staying alive, but that's what they did at first.
But just like all bands, the Bee Gees' popularity eventually died down, and the rising disco movement didn't do them any favors. Obviously this was at first, and it's crazy for one to even imagine disco ever killing the Bee Gees' popularity for a time. But then something started to happen in 1975, and that something was the Main Course album. Since "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," the Bee Gees had left their Polydor label and signed on with RSO, and they, really just like the Eagles who came before them at #1, started to experiment a little more. The Main Course album is a pretty fun album, and you can tell the Bee Gees were starting to become a little more disco, albeit not the disco gods they would later become just yet.
The two songs from that album that show it the most are today's song and "Nights on Broadway," a funky, disco-ish song about dancing in a room full of strangers, and loving someone who doesn't seem to return the same feelings. (It made it to #7, and it's an 8) But then there's "Jive Talkin'" which doesn't involve dancing, or really even love for that matter. It's a song about calling someone out on their bullshit. The song was written by all three of the Bee Gees, and it started out as a song called "Drive Talking." This was inspired by the sound the group's car made while driving on the Julia Tuttle Causeway in Miami. Somewhere along the way it became "Jive Talkin'" but the band didn't know what the term "jive talking" meant. They figured it was about dancing, but their producer, Arif Mardin, told them that that was wrong, and it actually was a black expression for bullshitting. This is what changed the lyric from "Jive talkin', you dance with your eyes" to "Jive talkin', you're telling me lies."
The message here in the song is about a guy who calls his girl out on her "jive talking," or of course, her bullshitting. It's never said exactly what she's done or why the guy feels the way he does, but he's pissed about it, and also sad. He says he loves her, and he doesn't seem to understand why she says the things she does. But what's great about "Jive Talkin'" isn't the words or the message, it's the sick groove it has. The Bee Gees had yet to cross into disco, but they were starting to figure out some serious grooves, and it's not like "Jive Talkin'" is impossible to dance to either. There's a cool synth bass sound, which is one of the first songs to use that, as well as some scratchy/twangy guitars and a fun synth solo that comes on twice. Barry Gibb sings lead, and although he doesn't use his falsetto, I still love his approach. He sings more subdued, like he knows this woman is spreading lies or whatever "jive talkin'" he's referring to, and he doesn't want to waste his energy on her. But all in all, it needs no explanation. "Jive Talkin'" is simply just a fun song.
We're even treated to some great Bee Gees harmonies, which sound really great when the instruments (aside from the drums) go silent. But those harmonies will only get better as time goes along. "Jive Talkin'" is not what made the Bee Gees legends, but they were beginning to figure out what was going to work. Their "comeback" was complete, and before they long they would accomplish insane levels of popularity that they could have never even imagined.
GRADE: 8/10
IN POP CULTURE:
Here's an interesting cover of "Jive Talkin'" that the music project Boogie Box High released in 1987. George Michael sings lead on it, and I have to admit, the song works as a late-80s dance track:
(George Michael will appear in this blog several times. He'll do so as a member of Wham! and when he's by himself)
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