Words by jmjiloveyou

jmjiloveyou - Words

jmjiloveyou

Nov 08, 2025 08:16am

Words is a song by the Bee Gees, written by Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb. The song reached No. 1 in Germany, Canada, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. "Words" was the Bee Gees third UK top 10 hit, reaching number 8, and in a UK television special on ITV in December 2011 it was voted fourth in "The Nation's Favourite Bee Gees Song". The song has been recorded by many other artists, including hit versions by Rita Coolidge in 1978 and Boyzone in 1996. This was Boyzone's fifth single and their first number one hit in the UK. Barry Gibb explains:    'Words' was written by me at Adams Row when I was staying at Robert [Stigwood]'s place, A lot of people began to cover that song, so over the years it's become a bit like 'To Love Somebody'. I didn't know it wasn’t on an album — that’s strange how it used to work in those days. We used to bang singles out one after another.   —?Barry Gibb Robin Gibb: "'Words' reflects a mood, It was written after an argument. Barry had been arguing with someone, I had been arguing with someone, and happened to be in the same mood. [The arguments were] about absolutely nothing. They were just words. That is what the song is all about; words can make you happy or words can make you sad". Barry said in 1996 on the VH1 Storytellers television show that it was written for their manager, Robert Stigwood. Words was recorded on 3 October 1967 along with "World" and the unreleased track "Maccleby's Secret" at the IBC Studios in London.[4] The song featured vocals from only Barry and became his solo spot in concert for the remainder of the Bee Gees' career. The recording sessions for "Words" were especially memorable for two members of the group, Barry explained:    "I remember the [first] session so clearly. Robin and I were in the studios at 9 o'clock in the morning, and Robin kept on falling asleep over the piano. I wanted him to write the piano part of the song and play it because I'm not much of a pianist, but he just couldn't keep his eyes open, so I ended up doing it myself". "Words" was also the showcase for a new piano sound, as Maurice explained:    "We accidentally discovered the sound on 'Words'. When we were recording [it], after everyone had gone to lunch, I was sitting at the piano mucking about and I wrote a riff. I went upstairs and switched on the mike for the piano, and then I started playing about with the knobs in front of me. When I played the tape back, I had all these incredible compressed piano noises. Mike Claydon at IBC Studios, who engineered all our records, then said 'What the hell was that?' when he heard the piano sound. 'Come up here and listen to that sound'. It was just compression, but he didn't know what to call it then. I think he called it 'limited'. It made the piano sound like it was about 40 pianos playing at the same time and very, very thick. In 'Words' it was very beautiful but that sound on it made it sound like the LA Symphony on it. If you listen to all our records, the piano sound is on it. According to sound engineer Damon Lyon-Shaw:    "I was the one that actually devised it, Mike Claydon was the one who took the credit for it, but i was actually piddling around at the time as his junior. On the mixer at the time, we had compressors, Maurice was playing at piano at the time, just piddling around [and] I started feeding the piano into a series of these compressors and then screwed them up until he got his lovely metallic sort of sucking sound, and that was the birth of that sound, Maurice, assumed it was Michael, so he took the credits. Another sound engineer John Pantry offered to put things in a proper perspective:    "Well, Damon didn't make the compressor/limiter, and my memory is that we all used to use that sound once we discovered what it did to piano notes. As to who got there first is open to debate. The sound was unique because it was a home-made device that was made by a guy called Denis King".