Relive the Bee Gees' flawless impromptu acapella performance of 'How Deep Is Your Love' on live TV
3 January 2024, 14:21 | Updated: 8 January 2024, 00:17
Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb gave the incredible spontaneous performance in 1998.
The Bee Gees were appearing as guests on ITV show Des O'Connor Tonight when the spine-tingling moment occurred.
There to promote their new album One Night Only, recorded at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in front of a huge audience, the trio took the moment to show off some live acapella vocals.
Barry starts off with a beautiful introduction to 'How Deep is Your Love', prompting Robin and Maurice to join him for the chorus and then split off into breathtaking harmonies.
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Bee Gees - How Deep Is Your Love - acapella - **Awesome Quality** LIVE 1998
The acoustics in the studio are perfect for the performance and host Des O'Connor is clearly completely enchanted by the singers as he mouths along to the words.
'How Deep Is Your Love' was a huge hit for the Bee Gees in the 1970's, and for Take That in 1996, and was written by all three Gibb brothers.
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The Gibbs haven't ever said that the song was inspired by any particular love story, but Barry once said of the song's creation: "A lot of the textures you hear in the song were added on later. We didn't change any lyrics, mind you, but the way we recorded it was a little different than the way we wrote in the terms of construction.
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"A little different for the better, I think, the title 'How Deep Is Your Love' we thought was perfect because of all the connotations involved in that sentence, and that was simply it".
The song became a huge hit after being used on the soundtrack for the John Travolta film Saturday Night Fever in 1977.
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When 'How Deep Is Your Love' became a UK number 3 hit, Barry said: "You have no idea what a thrill it is to have a top five single in England.
"With all the new wave and punk rock out, I would have thought something like 'How Deep Is Your Love' wouldn't have a chance. We always kept going forward and we're getting stronger every day."
It was a number one hit around the world, including the US where it was in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a then-record 17 weeks.
Following the success of the Bee Gees - and Freddie Mercury's biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and Elton John's movie Rocketman - it's unsurprising the the next big musical film is to be about the Gibb brothers.
Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King has reportedly approached Bradley Cooper to star as Sir Barry, according to the Daily Mail and Robin Gibb’s son RJ is also keen to cast Oscar-winning star Rami Malek as the role of his dad.
"When I saw him play Freddie, he reminded me of my father during the Bee Gees' Massachusetts period [1967].
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Film producer Graham King, who worked on Queen's 2018 biographical drama, is working with RJ to develop the new movie.
The upcoming film will apparently follow the three brothers from their arrival from Australia to 1960s London, capturing their ups and downs in the music industry – including how they became legendary disco kings.
"If it were me, I would want everyone to get a full picture of everyone, not only the successes but the pitfalls," RJ said.
Sir Barry Gibb is the only surviving member of the band, following the deaths of twins Maurice (2003) and Robin (2012).
