Size Isn't Everything

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Size Isn't Everything
Studio album by Bee Gees
Released	September 13, 1993 (UK) November 2, 1993 (US)
Recorded	1992-1993
Genre	Pop, Rock
Length	50:43 (US version) 55:39 (European version)
Label	Polydor Records
Producer	Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Robin Gibb
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Bee Gees chronology
High Civilization (1991) Size Isn't Everything (1993) Still Waters (1997)

Size Isn't Everything is the Bee Gees' eighteenth studio album. It was released in the UK on September 13, 1993, and delayed in the United States for November 2.

[edit] History

This album marked Bee Gees' return to Polydor Records after their 5-year, 3-album contract with Warner Bros. Records, they became one of the most popular bands in the history of music records.

According to Robin in a publication dated March 1992, the Bee Gees recorded seven new songs in January. Maurice recalled later in 1992 that the occasion was when he came back from his last bout with alcoholism and found Barry and Robin waiting for him before starting work on songs. What they probably in January did was record the basic tracks by themselves as they usually did, and maybe they even completed lyrics. Meanwhile, Barry was constantly visiting his bedridden wife and prematurely newborn daughter in hospital, and probably keeping busy in the studio to keep his mind off their health problems. Besides the Bee Gees songs he even recorded another one with Kelli Wolfe. As if this was not enough, he also underwent previously scheduled back surgery, apparently after all the recording.

Then as Barry, wife and child were recovering, on March 5 the brothers’ father, Hugh Gibb, died. It was Andy Gibb’s birthday. As a result of all the family events, even after the promising start in January 1993, Size Isn’t Everything did come out later that year.

On August 9, Paying the Price of Love, the album's first single, was released in the UK with mixed reviews. Being the lead cut from the album, the track was the only song with a prominent Barry falsetto vocal and a dance beat. When the album was released five weeks later, Paying the Price of Love was falling down in the charts. In all, it reached #23 in the UK and later during the Chritmas season reached only #74 in the US. Size isn't Everything debuted at #33 in late September, and the following week slipped down to #71. Then disappeared from the charts, only coming back in December during the promotion of the album's second single, the epic ballad For Whom the Bell Tolls, making a new chart peak of #28 during the Christmas week, and then surpassing it during the first week of 1994 with a #23 mark. In all, the album spent 16 weeks inside the UK Top 100. In the US, meanwhile, reaction was terrible, with the album debuting at #153 and never recovering from that, and spending only 3 weeks inside the whole Billboard 200. The single For Whom the Bell Tolls, released in the UK on November 15, 1993 was a big hit all over Europe, spending two weeks at #4 in the UK, and a total of 14 weeks inside the Top 75. In the US, once again the product failed reaching only #9 in the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles. A third single, the ballad How to Fall in Love, Part 1 was released on April 4, 1994 in the UK, peaking a respectable #30.

Reception of the album was mixed around the world. Is notable the fact that it was one of the most successful Bee Gees albums in Argentina, peaking at #1 due to the big success of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" there. Worldwide sales of the album are estimated to be over 700,000 copies.

[edit] Track listing

All compositions by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb.

1. "Paying the Price of Love" – 4:12
   • The lead single from the album. It had numerous alternate "mixes" available in different releases.
2. "Kiss of Life" – 4:14
   • Originally planed as the second single from the album, and released as the fourth single in some markets. It's an energetic rock/dance hybrid with an impressively complex vocal line involving distinctive Robin and Barry solo vocals as well as group vocals.
3. "How to Fall in Love (Part 1)" – 5:59
   • Strangely, there was not a second part of the song available.
4. "Omega Man" – 3:59
   • Lead vocals by Maurice Gibb.
5. "Haunted House" – 5:44
6. "Heart Like Mine" – 4:41
   • Robin said this was inspired by Enya’s moody songs, and he gets some of the slow dreamy feel of her music.
7. "Anything For You" – 4:36
8. "Blue Island" – 3:15
   • "Dedicated to the children of the former Yugoslavia", according to the liner notes.
9. "Above and Beyond" – 4:27
   • Lead vocals by Maurice Gibb.
10. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" – 5:06
    • The epic-ballad, biggest hit from the album.
11. "Fallen Angel" – 4:30
12. "Decadance" - 4:31
    • A new remix of the classic #1 hit "You Should Be Dancing", which was included only in the European version of the album.

[edit] Singles

[edit] Chart performance