The one positive to arise from their humiliating experience working the northern supper club circuit was that Maurice met and fell in love with Yvonne Spencely, a waitress at a Batley’s steakhouse, and following his divorce from Lulu, they were married in October 1975 (below), they had two children, and remained together for the rest of their lives. Natural were criticised for lacking innovation and being outdated, another album, A Kick In The Head was so bad it was never released.īy 1974 the Bee Gees were playing second-rate supper club shows at James Corrigan’s Batley’s Variety club in Leeds, the Golden Garter in Wythenshaw, and the Fiesta Club in Sheffield, their popularity was such that an upcoming show at Batley’s in Liverpool was cancelled due to poor ticket sales, they were no longer writing songs, their creative inspiration had dimmed, they had drifted into the pop wilderness, and needed to regroup. Run To Me would be the Bee Gees last major hit single for several years as musical tastes changed and the band’s ballads and soft rock pocket symphonies, failed to impress, they may have thought that their era of success was over as their next two albums also stiffed – Life In A Tin Can and Mr. Veteran session drummer Clem Cattini had replaced Geoff Bridgford and Barry and Robin shared lead vocals, the song took the band back into the top 10 in the UK, and was also top 10 in Australia and throughout Europe and parts of South America and Asia, but surprisingly failed to climb above #16 in the US. The first and most successful single lifted from the album was Run To Me, a haunting love ballad composed when the brothers were staying at Robert Stigwood’s home in Beverly Hills, lyrically it chronicled the anguish of a man who longs to be noticed by a broken-hearted girl – “If ever you’ve got pain, in your heart/ someone has hurt you and torn you apart/ Am I unwise to open up your eyes to love me…” The Bee Gees had become famous for their melancholic and soulful ballads, wrapped in shimmering orchestral arrangements and replete with clever brotherly harmonies, that could only be matched by the Beach Boys, the Everly Brothers and possibly the Hollies, the template for success had been cast and the album To Whom It May Concern did not stray too far from that proven formula. The song has four verses, and the chorus is repeated numerous times, the refrain features one of the brothers’ most effective play on words “My world is our world, and this world is your world, and your world is my world, and my world is your world is mine” My World was a genuine soft rock classic and it resonated around the world, making the top 20 in the UK and USA, #3 in Aust, #1 in Italy, and Hong Kong, and top ten in New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands, and Spain. The song was written backstage in Birmingham, at a performance of ITV’s game show The Golden Shot, and bears a striking similarity to How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, a hit for the band the year before. The creation of the lead single My World was unusual in that it was not an album track originally, although it subsequentrly appeared on a Best of Bee Gees compilation in 1973.
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