The Bee Gees”Main Course” (1975) Polydor* Times...

The Bee Gees

“Main Course” (1975)

Polydor

* Times Line(tm): 808-8463. To hear an excerpt from “Main Course,” call TimesLine and press * 5511

During the late ‘60s and early ‘70s the Bee Gees were internationally popular balladeers. The Brothers Gibb scored no less than a dozen Top 20 singles during this commercially fertile period. Still, when the Australian trio’s star abruptly dimmed, astute pop observers couldn’t have been terribly surprised. Consisting largely of melodic, flyweight love songs, the Bee Gees’ canon didn’t reflect a group with the ability or malleability needed to survive in the fickle pop marketplace.

As it turned out, Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb had more than enough talent and resiliency. “Main Course” laid the groundwork for an improbable comeback story, which culminated in the group’s indispensable contributions to the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack in 1977. Not only did the platinum-selling “Main Course” fly out of record stores like no other Bee Gees album before it, but it found the group injecting far more charisma and invention into its once-staid image and sound. The old Bee Gees had been torn down and reconstructed into something far more sleek and alluring.

“Main Course’s” two biggest hits were not in the mold of the trio’s trademark Beatlesque ballads but were sensual and funky R&B-laced; dance songs. The high-stepping “Nights on Broadway” bristles with a throbbing urban tension; “Jive Talkin” echoes the then-burgeoning pulse of disco with its thumping back beat and erotic ambience. “Wind of Change” also pays homage to American black music with its soulful energy and Thom Bell-style string arrangement.

Even the album’s cornerstone ballad, “Fanny (Be Tender With My Love),” mirrors the popular Philadelphia R&B; sound of the ‘70s. The group’s heavy use of falsetto on this track (and such future hits as “Night Fever”) undoubtedly was inspired by the stratospheric vocals used by soul crooners like the Stylistics and Blue Magic.

“Main Course” does include some of the Bee Gees’ old-fashioned ear candy. Yet even these tracks--such as the country flavored “Come on Over” and the sentimental “Songbird”--tend to be fairly classy efforts.