“Massachusetts” – Single by the Bee Gees from the album Horizontal
B-side “Barker of the UFO” (UK), “Sir Geoffrey Saved the World” (US)
Released: September 19, 1967
Recorded: August 1967
Studio IBC (Portland Place, London)
Label: Polydor (UK), Atco (US)
Songwriters: Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb
Producers: Robert Stigwood and Bee Gees
Charted No.1 in US and No.1 in UK
This was the first Bee Gee single on which the quavery Robin Gibb sang lead.
Sometimes appearing with the title “(The Lights Went Out In) Massachusetts,” The Bee Gees wrote and had their first UK #1 with this song in 1967, but it wasn’t until some years later, during a chance meeting in London between the Seekers lead singer Judith Durham and Maurice Gibb, that Judith learned the amazing truth that “Massachusetts” was originally intended to fulfill the Bee Gees’ dream of writing a hit for The Seekers
The song was written in the Regis Hotel, New York City during a tour of the United States. The song was intended as an antithesis to flower power anthems of the time such as “Let’s Go to San Francisco” and “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” in that the protagonist had been to San Francisco to join the hippies but was now homesick. The idea of the lights having gone out in Massachusetts was to suggest that everyone had gone to San Francisco.
On 27 August 1967, Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein told Maurice Gibb that “‘Massachusetts’ is a great song that would be very successful.” Epstein died later that night.
The Bee Gees have sold more than 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; the presenter of the award to “Britain’s first family of harmony” was Brian Wilson, historical leader of The Beach Boys, another “family act” featuring three harmonising brothers. The Bee Gees’ Hall of Fame citation says, “Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees.”
Following Maurice’s death in January 2003, at the age of 53, Barry and Robin retired the group’s name after 45 years of activity. In 2009, Robin announced that he and Barry had agreed the Bee Gees would re-form and perform again. Robin died in May 2012, aged 62, after a prolonged struggle with cancer and other health problems, leaving Barry as the only surviving member of the group’s final line-up.
