“Tragedy” Single by Bee Gees from the album Spirits Having Flown
B-side “Until”
Released February 1979
Label RSO
Songwriters Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb
Producers Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten, Karl Richardson
Charted No.1 in US; No.1 in UK; No.1 in Spain; No.1 in New Zeeland; No.1 in Canada; No.1 in Italy; No.2 in West Germany.
The Bee Gees captured some serious urgency on “Tragedy,” with a falsetto lead vocal by Barry Gibb that sounds like a siren racing to the scene of an emotional breakdown. The song captures that feeling when the love of your life has left you, and you feel you can’t go on.
The group didn’t have to be experiencing heartbreak to write about it: They were expert composers who could capture an emotion and deliver it in convincing manner.
In the US, it would become the fifth of six consecutive number-ones, tying the record with Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles for most consecutive number-ones in the US—a record later broken by Whitney Houston, who had seven.
“Tragedy” hit #1 in America on March 24, 1979, giving the Bee Gees their eight chart-topper in that country.
On 1 November 2024, the new music video for this song was released on the Bee Gees’ official YouTube channel.
