Memorable and Romantic Bee Gees How Deep is Your Love

The Bee Gees How Deep is your Love stirs up emotions from the late 1970s. This deeply romantic song gives many people goosebumps of love and tenderness. For most people who weren’t even alive at the time of this song’s release can remember it being played on the radio, over and over again. And they might remember their parents getting all sentimental about this top love song.

Bee Gees How Deep is Your Love – Song Overview

The Bee Gees wrote this love song at the Château d’Hérouville in France – the “Honky Chateau” where Elton John recorded three albums in the early ’70s. When they arrived to record songs for Saturday Night Fever, they found it had been neglected – the studio worked, but the grounds were a mess. This gave them focus because they had little reason to leave the studio.

There was a beautiful room with a piano where their keyboard player, Blue Weaver, would play. One day, he played as Barry Gibb worked out “How Deep Is Your Love.” In the documentary How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, Weaver explained how it came together: “We went into a room at the Chateau. Chopin had stayed there, so every time I looked at this piano I envisioned Chopin playing. I sat down at the piano and thought of his ‘Prelude In E-flat,’ and I knew Barry could sing in E-flat. Through the stained-glass window came a beam of sunlight, and Barry sang, ‘I know your eyes in the morning sun.'”

A songwriter/antiques dealer in Illinois named Ronald Selle sued the Bee Gees, claiming a song he wrote in 1975 called “Let It End” was the basis for “How Deep Is Your Love.” The case went to a jury in 1983. The Bee Gees claimed that they had never heard “Let It End,” and there was no evidence that they did (that song was never released – Selle made a home recording that he had sent to music publishers).

The case was based on the similarities between the songs, and an expert witness for Selle – a musicologist named Arrand Parsons – tried to convince the jury through technical analysis of the notes that the Bee Gees plagiarized the song. The jury bought it, and ruled that the Bee Gees did copy Selle’s song. The judge, however, nullified the verdict. Selle later appealed, and was once again rebuffed.

Bee Gees How Deep is Your Love: The Songs a Hit

The American singer Yvonne Elliman was supposed to record this song for Saturday Night Fever, but Robert Stigwood, who produced the movie, insisted the Bee Gees perform it themselves for the soundtrack. Elliman did sing “If I Can’t Have You,” which was written by the Bee Gees and included on the soundtrack. That song was also a #1 hit in the US.

In Daniel Rachel’s The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters, Robin Gibb explained the unique sound he and Barry created by combining their voices: “If you listen to ‘How Deep is Your Love’ you think it’s a single voice but it’s me and Barry singing in unison, which produces a nice sound, as it does on ‘New York Mining Disaster.’ There’s a sound that we do, it’s almost like a single voice, but it isn’t, and it’s not double-tracked, it’s two voices together. It’s something that we’ve done a lot.”

This was a massive hit in the US. It was #1 for three weeks and stayed in the Top 10 for 17 weeks, which was a record at the time. The song was also a huge hit on the Adult Contemporary chart, where it spent six weeks at #1 – more than any other Bee Gees song. When Billboard listed their top 100 Adult Contemporary song of all time in 2011, “How Deep Is Your Love” came in at #13.

This was the first of four new songs on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack to top the US Hot 100. It was released as a single before the film or the soundtrack were issued, and rose to the top spot a week after the film debuted.