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THE ULTIMATE BEE GEES is a double-disc career retrospective featuring the group's many hits and chart-topping singles, performances of a selection of hit songs they wrote for others, and liner notes by Tim Rice.
Tim Rice's liner notes accompanying THE ULTIMATE BEE GEES puts the group's extravagant popularity into perspective. 'Within this package is a collection of performances and songs that very few practitioners of popular music of the past could match for quality, originality, and emotion. It's the singing, the harmonies, the arrangements, the sound, the rivalry, the love, the intelligence, the determination, but above all it's the songs.'

User Reviews about The Ultimate Bee Gees (2 CD)

This is indeed a good compilation of the Bee Gees entire musical careers BUT...why begin the first CD with their disco/dance songs? Ever since Saturday Night Fever people who don't know any better think of disco when the Bee Gees are mentioned. Most younger people have never even heard the fantastic music they did starting in 1965 up until before Saturday Night Fever. My favorite music of theirs is their 60s and early 70s recordings. The vast majority of the Bee Gees music is NOT disco..so why on earth does this compilation start out with those type of songs? Why not start from the early days and the move in chronological order? That is my main beef about this new compilation. The way the songs are sequenced here is idiotic. Sorry folks, but I hated disco music when it came out and still do. Disco may have revived the Bee Gees careers from a financial standpoint but artistically it ruined their reputation with many just as it did with Rod Stewart when he came out with that awful song "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" I sincerely hope the boxed set "Mythology" does a much better job of representing the Bee Gees and their incredible music. -- Good compilation BUT...

The two discs are ok. I guess I was expecting more of the Saturday Night Fever music. My fault, I should have checked it out further. -- Expected more Sat Night Fever music

Initially I was very happy with this purchase, as it's got almost all of the Bee Gees songs I was looking for. But then, I started to listen, and...
These songs do NOT sound the same, and the change is NOT for the better!!

- "I've Gotta Get A Message to You" - I have an MP3 of this from a different album. The difference is shocking within the first five seconds of both songs - for example, there's a chord that's played with a violin crescendo on the other version I have, virtually replaced here by what sounds like a clang from an untuned guitar. I flipped back and forth between them to compare: this album's version is a slightly different pitch and sounds less soulful, less complex, less warm, less rich, less moving.

- Ditto for "Emotion" - this is not the version with Samantha Sang. Now, that was understandable if this compilation's focus is the Bee Gees and not artists that sang with them, because they do a pretty darn good job of covering their own songs. (I've heard demo versions of songs like "Guilty" and "Heartbreaker" with Barry's falsetto in lieu of female vocals - it's admittedly a bit disconcerting at first, but his passion and vocal prowess are impressive enough, IMHO, to overcome most objections.)
*BUT*, I bought this album thinking I'd be getting the original song. In addition, the music itself sounds different as well -- once again, less moving, as though various subtle sounds have been changed or removed.

...and I could go on; even though I don't have the time or the heart to compare all 40 songs (except for the handful of live performance recordings) to other versions, I can hear and more importantly *feel* the difference between this and the music that moved me. I see there are a number of people who feel it's a crisper/clearer sound, and as someone else mentioned the changes might not even be noticeable to most people. But if you're as nitpicky -- ahem, I mean as "hyper-aware" as I am when it comes to music, I would strongly suggest comparing the samples of this and other albums before you purchase.





-- These aren't the songs I fell in love with!!

If you only have one Bee Gees CD, this is it. Great collection of all their best known songs and I few I dont remember ever hearing. -- Ultimate Bee Gees