When you listen to the gleaming harmonies of the Bee Gees, you can’t help but think they’re the product of closeness between the three Brothers Gibb. But the truth is that the relationship between the three men was often fractious, with a series of ups and downs taking place over the course of a long recording career.
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As a matter of fact, one of their most famous tracks, “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” is partly inspired by the occasional brotherly rancor. Let’s take a look back at how this brilliant song came together, which, oddly enough, came about only after the brothers had almost completely broken apart.
Breaking Up the Brothers
In March 1969, Robin Gibb announced that he was leaving the Bee Gees to pursue a solo career. This shocked the music world, as the group was at the absolute height of its popularity when it happened. By that time, they had already churned out a slew of massive hits on both sides of the pond. But the last of those hits was the straw that broke the camel’s back of dissension.
As the two chief singers and songwriters, Robin and Barry were the ones who were in the spotlight whenever a single was released. Robin had started to feel that he was being sidelined in that respect, with Barry getting the prime assignments. When a song that Robin wrote called “Lamplight” was passed over in favor of Barry’s “First of May” as a single, he decided he’d had enough.
In a 2022 interview with the Irish Times, Barry Gibb spoke frankly about this issue. “Before we ever became famous were the best times of our lives,” he said. “There was no competition; it didn’t matter who sang what. When we had our first No. 1, ‘Massachusetts’, Robin sang the lead, and I don’t think he ever got past that; he never felt that anyone else should sing lead after that. And that was not the nature of the group.”
Bee Gees No More
Nonetheless, Robin’s departure left it all on Barry and Maurice. After one album as a duo, they announced that the Bee Gees were no more. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed by the first half of 1970. First, Maurice and Robin announced they’d be reuniting, and then Barry soon followed. In one of their first songwriting sessions after getting together again, Barry and Robin created the milestone hit that would put them at the top of the US charts for the first time.
On the Mend
It might be hard to imagine it now that we’ve grown accustomed to hearing the Gibbs’ vocals on this song for so many years, but “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” was written by Robin and Barry with Andy Williams in mind as a potential singer. Williams did eventually release a version, although the most iconic cover belongs to Al Green, who delivered a pain-wracked vocal on his take that can still melt your heart.
But this song was always tailor-made for the Bee Gees. Not only did it provide both Barry and Robin a chance to step out in front while still delivering on those gilded harmonies, but it also spoke directly to the sorrow left over from their clashes of the previous few years.
What is the Meaning of How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?
The song begins with a striking statement, sung by Robin in his signature quaver: I can still think of younger days when living for my life/Was everything a man could want to do. It’s perhaps an admission by the brothers that they had thought and acted selfishly in the past. Note also how the line in the first verse, I could never see tomorrow, becomes We could never see tomorrow the second time around.
In the refrains, the narrator veers back and forth between reeling off cosmic imponderables (What makes the world go ‘round? How can you stop the sun from shining?) and asking questions related to his own dismal situation. How can this loser ever win? Barry passionately asks. The point is that there are no good answers. Just as the sun, sky, and rain are unstoppable forces, so too is a broken heart never completely mendable.
And yet the narrator can’t help but make his plea. Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again. By that time, the brothers are singing in harmony, as if to say it takes effort on all sides for old wounds to properly heal.
As successful as it was, “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” didn’t exactly herald in a new heyday for the Bee Gees, as they struggled to match its success again until the middle of the ‘70s when they found a niche in disco. None of that would have been possible if they hadn’t reunited, which proved that you can learn to live with a broken heart, even if you can’t fix it.
(Photo by Sydney O’Meara/Getty Images)
