How Deep Is Your Love

Jay Dreyer

5 minute read

Song:How Deep Is Your Love
Artist:The Bee Gees
Release Date:1977

How did this happen?

I have no explanation for this, other than possibly because it is very deeply buried in my subconscious. It is so deeply buried that every so often it just pops into my brain. There is no rhyme nor reason for it appearing, but once it does, it’s stuck there for a while. This happened today. And now I’m hoping it will stick with you.

Go ahead. Let’s hear it.

Ooooh! So lucky! They actually made a video for this, even before MTV existed. I can’t wait to discuss this, so please hurry and watch, and enjoy:

So about the song…

Wow, right? Where to begin?

Before we start, I created a set of equations so that you know which Bee Gee is which:

Barry = Beard + Hair

Maurice = Beard - Hair

Robin = Hair - Beard

Does that help? I’d make a proof for it, but not enough time. Barry is the tall one with great hair. Maurice has a beard but not much hair. And Robin has no beard. I think we’re clear enough on this now. I also know that some of you were trying to remember which one was which. I’m always thinking of you.

Ahh. This video. So, evidently they are stuck asking the question of how deep someone’s love is while only being able to walk in a circle with a few colored lights stationed around the set. Also, sometimes they ask this question with their backs to one another in a brother triangle. I’m really not sure they get the answer to their question, because eventually they walk off together in what appears to be a straight line right off of the set.

Other things that popped in my head while watching this for the 6th 7th 8th time:

  • What is stuck in between Robin’s two upper front teeth? Spinach? Kale? Gum? Please watch again and focus on Robin’s teeth (see the equations above to determine the correct Bee Gee to monitor).
  • Poor Maurice. What does Maurice really do in this video? He only sings during the chorus. I guess that’s important, but he doesn’t get much screen time. I think the blue light and the red light get more screen time. He did beat out the green light, though. I timed it. You have to count the back of his head appearing as screen time. I counted that.
  • Andy Gibb was not a Bee Gee. I always forget this. Do you forget this?
  • Bee Gees is the shortened name of what their group was originally named The Brother’s Gibb. More math: BeeGees=BG=TheBrothersGibb. Yay, poorly done math stuff! You are free to use that at your next trivia night but please be sure to have a drink for me when you do.
  • Best part: OK. For YEARS I thought the line “And you come to me on a summer breeze” (see about :35 into the video), was actually “And you come to me on a submarine”. Now I dare you to not think that when you listen to it again. I always thought it was cool that someone was coming to the Bee Gees on a submarine. SO MUCH POWER! Maybe the sub was coming to help get that stuff out of Robin’s teeth.

Jay…Get Back to the Song…

Right! Sorry. There’s just so much to deal with here. It’s getting difficult to fit it all in. I’ll give it a shot.

OK. “How Deep is Your Love” was the first hit off of the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack . It reached number one in the US in December of 1977, knocking off Debbie Boone’s “You Light Up My Life”. WAY TO GO, BEE GEES!!! It was the first of six consecutive number one hits for the Bee Gees.

If you were born later than, say, 1980, I don’t think you’ll understand what a huge cultural event the whole Saturday Night Fever thing was. It pretty much resurrected disco, for better or for worse, and brought that into the mainstream. Hell, I was like 4 years old, but I remember everyone, everyone, having a vinyl copy of the soundtrack for years after it had faded away. I mean, everyone had that album. You could almost guarantee it. It was so big there was a knockoff “Sesame Street Fever”. It ended up #75 on the album chart and went gold.

Fun chart facts for the album:

  • Stayed #1 on the album charts for 24 straight weeks
  • It stayed on Billboard’s album charts for 120 weeks, until March, 1980
  • Certified 15x platinum
  • The Library of Congress has added it to the National Recording Registry

If you’ve never listened to it, it actually really holds up well. Maybe it’s just me. There’s a lot of great music on it (it’s a double album!) and it’s always fun to break it out at parties. It’s not all just the Bee Gees, but they did write most of the music on it. They even wrote the song “If I Can’t Have You”, which was performed by Yvonne Elliman. Side A of that double album is straight classic. More fun facts!

All in all, it’s not the worst song to have stuck in your head, just a little weird. I still don’t know how it ended up in here.

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