Today (February 5th) marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of Spirits Having Flown, the fifteenth studio album from the Bee Gees. The 1979 album was certified Platinum in both the US and the UK. Chart-wise, it went to number 1 in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the UK. In the US, it peaked at number 9 on the Billboard R&B charts and number 1 on the Billboard Album chart.
This is another of my favorite albums from the 1970's. Click here to read my full review.
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It was very unfashionable among my friends in 8th grade to like Spirits Having Flown at all. Yet it was all over the radio, all over the jukebox at Pizza Hut and played constantly at the roller rink where we hung out on Saturday nights.
I was too impatient to save for the album, so I bought each single as it was released. "Too Much Heaven" actually preceded the album by a couple of months and first appeared on the Music For UNICEF album which my next door neighbor (and first kiss), Samantha, picked up about a week before Spirits Having Flown came out.
Second single "Tragedy" came out the same time the album did and would ultimately prove to be my favorite of the three SHF singles. It's the only 45 of the three I still have today. It has a huge straight scratch across it's surface and the outer edge of the record actually has a rough lip to it on the A-side, like it was not sanded down after being pressed.
"Love You Inside And Out" came out around my birthday when my parents finally bought me the album. Only after I had the album in my little mitts did I realize the singles were the first three tracks on the album. Because of this I rarely listened to Side Two. I prefer the single of this song to the somewhat longer album version. Always thought it was interesting that the first two singles were longer evn on the album than "Love You Inside And Out" but they weren't edited down for radio or singles.
I love these three songs backwards and forwards with my heart hanging out but couldn't tell you another song from the album. As an extra bonus, when we got married in 1987 and merged our music collections, I discovered "Too Much Heaven" was the first single my wife had ever purchased. Usually, she borrowed her older brother and sister's records but she said neither one of them liked the song and she loved it so it became her first purchase.
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