Lonely Days
{{Use British English|date=January 2025}}
{{For|the Beach Boys song|Hawthorne, CA (album)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Lonely Days
| cover = Lonely Days.jpg
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = Bee Gees
| album = 2 Years On
| B-side = Man for All Seasons
| released = 6 November 1970
| recorded = 21 August 1970
| studio = IBC Studios, London
| venue =
| genre =
- Baroque pop, orchestral pop{{Cite podcast|url=https://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/hit_parade/2018/09/how_the_bee_gees_influenced_pop_rock_easy_listening_country_even_hip_hop.html|title= The Nights on Broadway Edition|website=Hit Parade {{!}} Music History and Music Trivia|publisher=Slate|last=Molanphy|first=Chris|date=28 September 2018|access-date=9 August 2023}}
- blue-eyed soul
| length = 3:45
| label = Polydor
Atco (US/CA)
| writer = {{hlist|Barry Gibb|Robin Gibb|Maurice Gibb}}
| producer = Robert Stigwood, Bee Gees
| prev_title = I.O.I.O.
| prev_year = 1970
| next_title = How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
| next_year = 1971
| misc = {{Audio sample
| type = single
| file = LonelyDays.ogg
| description = "Lonely Days"
}}{{External music video|{{YouTube|ipwWbZnpgiI|"Lonely Days"}}
}}
}}
"Lonely Days" is a ballad written and performed by the Bee Gees. It appeared on their album 2 Years On, and was released as a single, becoming their first Top Five hit in the US, peaking at number three in the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching number one in the Cashbox and Record World charts. Barry Gibb later re-recorded the song with country quartet Little Big Town for his 2021 album Greenfields.
Writing and recording
The Bee Gees disintegrated throughout 1969 as brother Robin Gibb and drummer Colin Petersen quit the group in succession due to interpersonal conflicts, leaving Barry Gibb and Maurice Gibb as the sole remaining members. Aside from overseeing a few single releases and finishing the television film and accompanying album Cucumber Castle in late 1969, the group were effectively disbanded for the first half of 1970.
On Friday, 21 August 1970, the three Gibb brothers announced they would reunite and start recording together, nearly 16 months after Robin quit the group. They said later that they wrote "Lonely Days" and "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" at their first reunion session, but the exact day they recorded the song is unknown. However, a tape of stereo mixes received at Atlantic in October bears the notation "August 20, 1970", which, if true, means the brothers announced the reunion the day after it happened.{{cite web|url= http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beegees/70.html |title=Gibb Songs: 1970 |last=Brennan |first=Joseph |website=Columbia.edu|accessdate=13 January 2014}} According to Robin Gibb in a 2001 Billboard interview with the Bee Gees, "That was written on Addison Road in Holland Park in London, in the basement of Barry's place".{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WxQEAAAAMBAJ&q=bee+gees+marley+purt+drive&pg=RA1-PA30 |title=The Bee Gees: 35 Years of Music |date=24 March 2001 |page=20 |magazine=Billboard |accessdate=8 February 2015}}
This song was sung by all three together to Maurice's piano and bass and Bill Shepherd's string and horn arrangement, the slow verses contrasting with the pounding chorus. "{{'}}Lonely Days' was written in ten minutes. It was that quick. I was at the piano ten minutes". Barry revealed later in 1998, "A manager we had about five years back heard 'Lonely Days' in a restaurant and he said to a friend, 'That's one of my favorite Beatles songs'. And he was managing us!"
Atlantic Records president Jerry L. Greenberg recalled:
"I heard that song ['Lonely Days'] and I went crazy. I thought it was going to be an amazing number one record. In those days we had our own recording studio, right down the hall from the main offices. Now the record was pressed and ready to go, but what I did was, I made up about 30 tape copies, just put the song on a tape on a regular plastic reel, and I called up a bunch of my promotions department friends."{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KugbDQHX0R8C&q=2+years+on+bee+gees&pg=PT611 |title=The Bee Gees - Tales of the Brothers Gibb |last=Hughes |first=Andrew|year=2009 |publisher=Omnibus Press |isbn=9780857120045 |accessdate=25 January 2015}}
Greenberg continues:
"I said, 'The Bee Gees just came out of the studio and they cut this record, and I don't even have time to press it up yet, but I wanted you guys to hear it, and I'm going to send you, you're the only one I'm sending, this tape, right from the studio'. I mailed it out special delivery and I have to tell you, within a week, thirty radio stations were all over 'Lonely Days', and it busted the record wide open. I was very proud of that. Ahmet [Ertegun] and Jerry [Wexler] were both talking about it. In those days, you had to come up with some creative ideas, how to promote a record. That record took off!"
Musical structure
{{listen|filename=LonelyDays.ogg|title="Lonely Days"|description=An excerpt from the first chorus}}
The song incorporated the innovative structure and knack for changing tempos exemplified by the second side of The Beatles' Abbey Road album, released the previous year and a clear influence on this single. "Lonely Days" shifts back and forth between a piano-and-strings-dominated verse reminiscent of "You Never Give Me Your Money" and "Golden Slumbers," and an up-tempo stomping chorus that echoes "Carry That Weight"; perhaps as an acknowledgment of the debt, as the record approaches its fade-out, the lead singer's voice is filtered to sound like John Lennon's.
Release
In the United States, Atco released "Lonely Days" on 6 November 1970. As in other territories, "Man for All Seasons", also taken from 2 Years On, featured as the B-side.{{cite web|url=http://www.45cat.com/record/456795 |title=Bee Gees - Lonely Days |website=45cat.com |accessdate=25 January 2015}} Atco also issued a promotional single featuring the mono and stereo mixes on the disc's respective sides.{{cite web|url=http://www.45cat.com/record/456795us |title=Bee Gees - Lonely Days |website=45cat.com |accessdate=25 January 2015}} A music video of the song was made following the release of the song. The first scene features Maurice playing a Fender Malibu acoustic guitar and sitting next to the window. The second scene features Barry walking his dog in a London park and the third scene features Robin showing loneliness and wanting to go outside driving his car.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipwWbZnpgiI |title=Bee Gees - Lonely Days (1970) |date=8 July 2013 |publisher=YouTube |accessdate=25 January 2015}}
The Bee Gees performed "Lonely Days" on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Johnny Cash Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. On their performance of this song in The Andy Williams Show, they also performed "Man for All Seasons".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uzv_AgAAQBAJ&q=bee+gees+the+johnny+cash+show+lonely+days&pg=PT511 |title=The Bee Gees - Tales of the Brothers Gibb |author1=Melinda Bilyeu |author2=Hector Cook |author3=Andrew Môn Hughes|date=January 2011 |publisher=Omnibus Press |isbn=9780857128942 |accessdate=7 February 2015}}
Reception
Cash Box described the song as a "slow building ballad [which] aims at the creation of atmosphere before it breaks into its chant-like body."{{cite news|title=CashBox Record Reviews|date=28 November 1970|page=20|accessdate=9 December 2021|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/70s/1970/CB-1970-11-28.pdf|newspaper=Cash Box}} Record World said that the song "goes through several engrossing changes which should keep listeners (and buyers) on their toes."{{cite magazine|title=Picks of the Week|magazine=Record World|date=28 November 1970|page=1|accessdate=23 April 2023|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Record-World/70s/70/RW-1970-11-28.pdf}}
Personnel
- Barry Gibb – lead and harmony vocals, acoustic guitar
- Robin Gibb – lead, harmony and backing vocals
- Maurice Gibb – lead, harmony and backing vocals, piano, bass, acoustic guitar
- Geoff Bridgford – drums
- Bill Shepherd – orchestra and strings arrangement
Charts
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References
{{Reflist}}
{{Bee Gees}}
{{Bee Gees singles}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Songs written by Barry Gibb
Category:Songs written by Maurice Gibb
Category:Songs written by Robin Gibb
Category:Song recordings produced by Robert Stigwood
Category:Song recordings produced by Barry Gibb
Category:Song recordings produced by Robin Gibb
Category:Song recordings produced by Maurice Gibb
Category:Cashbox number-one singles
Category:RPM Top Singles number-one singles
Category:Polydor Records singles