When the backlash came, I suppose after ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart’, that’s when I came along and moved them to a new producer. Then I saw them become not cool – and I’m embarrassed to say I probably thought that – then they became cool again.”īill, we see in the documentary how you started to work with the Bee Gees during this ‘not cool’ phase…īill Oakes: “ Yes! They’d had such great success very young: much too young, perhaps. ‘Massachusetts’ in particular, which of course was an immediate number 1 hit and probably would be again today if it was released. I was 18 in 1966-67 when the Bee Gees arrived and I remember watching them on Top of the Pops at the very beginning – I bought the first three or four records. But when Saturday Night Fever came around, I was right there for those songs.” I grew up in a musical family and I remember their music in the 70s. Were you both Bee Gees fans in your youth?įrank: “Yes, I’d say we were, for different reasons. Then I went and found Nigel because I loved what he had done with The Beatles documentary and I needed a producer.” We started talking about projects and mentioned that they had just acquired the catalogue to the Bee Gees and I said, ‘Wow, that’d be an amazing documentary,’ and here we are. I spent a lot of time in Studio A under the desk, when I probably wasn’t supposed to be there. My dad was a composer, arranger, producer and guitar player. I met him in his office and I was being nostalgic about having been in that very building as a teenager. How did the idea for the documentary come about?įrank Marshall: “Four years ago, I was introduced to Steve Barnett who was the new president of Capitol Records. We caught up with Frank, Nigel and legendary producer Bill Oaks (who compiled the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever and who features in the documentary) to find out more… With insights from Noel Gallagher, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Justin Timberlake, Mark Ronson and more, it’s a must-watch music documentary for 2020. Produced by Nigel Sinclair ( Eight Days A Week), the documentary contains never-before-heard demos (including one that charts the creation of ‘How Deep Is Your Love’), new interviews with Barry Gibb and rare archive footage with Maurice (who passed away in 2003) and Robin (who died in 2012). In his sweeping new documentary, How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, renowned director and producer Frank Marshall tells the extraordinary life story of the Bee Gees: how three brothers from Manchester went on to sell over 220 million records worldwide and wrote one of the greatest movie soundtracks of all time with Saturday Night Fever.Ĭharting the success of the Gibb brothers from their early 60s hits to the stratospheric success of their R&B era in the 70s, the documentary takes a candid look at the brothers behind the scenes through the highs and lows of a 60-year-career.

Bee gees greatest hits cassette tape