Tragedy

Not Staying Alive

Spirits Having Flown

Ever since our little Number Ones project finished, World Of Chig has been noticing whenever a number one hitmaker has died. Since the project started, both Lonnie Donegan and Jam Master Jay (of Run DMC) have passed away, and then Joe Strummer just before Christmas. (‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ became The Clash’s only #1 and only top ten hit a mere 14 years after they’d started having hits, due to the Levi’s ad.) This weekend though, the grim reaper has claimed a triumvirate of chart-toppers:

Maurice Gibb had five number ones across a twenty year span from 1967-1987 with his Bee Gee brothers. The Gibbs wrote several songs which were number ones for other people too, including ‘Chain Reaction’ for Diana Ross, ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ by Take That, boyzone’s ‘Words’ and ‘Tragedy’ by Steps. They would have had last month’s UK Christmas Number One too, with Sacred Trust, if it hadn’t been for those Girls Aloud yobbos. Maurice was also married to a #1 hitmaker, although he had divorced Lulu long before she hit the top for the only time with ‘Relight My Fire’. Which brings us back to Take That again…

I'm sure that at some point, the Bee Gees may well have been nice people, who I may have respected. Unfortunately though, my lasting memory of them now is their appearance (and disappearance) on Clive Anderson Talks Back, when they revealed themselves to be a bunch of humourless, arrogant tossers. A reputation destroyed in a flash. Such a shame.

Robin Gibb was just about to release a solo single too. I wonder what will happen to that now.

Bee Gees Triv 1: Despite everyone thinking the Gibbs were Mancunian, they were actually born in Douglas, on the Isle Of Man.
Bee Gees Triv 2: Although they wrote their first UK #1 about going back to Massachusetts (or Massive Tooth Sets as Angus Deayton’s Hee Bee Gee Bees would parody it in the 80s), they had never been there. They just liked the sound of the word.

The two other chart-toppers who died at the weekend were Micky Finn and General Galtieri. Finn was described on Ceefax last night as ‘bongo player’ with T.Rex (four number ones). I’d like to think he contributed a little more than that, for his sake. It’s not much of an epitaph, is it? General Galtieri was most famous for his 1977 chart-topper ‘ Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’. Oh shit, no, that was Julie Covington.

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