I doubt it would interest Donald or Sharon to know that Steve Gadd, featured on the Chick Corea album derided that night, also plays on Guilty. He plays superbly, with manly assurance. Thanks to his hiccupping fills toward the end of “Promises,” even Barbra Streisand can claim to have almost made a funk single. What a sad, strange song that is, Gibb’s hooks like icicles, Streisand’s singing joyfully desperate. “I am the love, don’t let me die away,” she sings, with several Barry Gibbs answering “Die away” in harmony, appropriately stretching out “die” like a last breath. I wish I could hear this album with Sharon. I could listen to it every night with her, twice. I would gently rub it with a pink felt record-cleaning cloth after each airing, apologizing for the tiny needle pricks.
As a songwriter, working alone and with his brothers, Gibb has had great success. In 1978, he had five songs simultaneously in the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100, and for one week in March, four of the top five songs were written by him. His songs were #1 for 27 out of 37 weeks from December 24, 1977 to September 2, 1978. As a songwriter Gibb has had #1 songs in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, when (Barry) Islands in the Stream became number 1 in the UK as the Comic Relief single for 2009. His songs have been recorded by hundreds of artists, including Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, Barbra Streisand, Destiny's Child, Celine Dion, Al Green, Diana Ross, Kenny Rogers, Dionne Warwick, Luther Vandross, Sarah Vaughn, and Wyclef Jean.
Guilty is an album released by Barbra Streisand in 1980. After the success of the Bee Gees in 1977/1978 there was some time to perform songwriting for other artists and Barbra Streisand asked Barry Gibb to write an album for her.[1] It became her best-selling album to date with sales (according to Streisand's official website) of over 20 million copies[2] and was produced by the Bee Gees' Barry Gibb and the Bee Gees' regular production team of Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson.
