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CNN Sunday Morning
Maurice Gibb Dies
Aired January 12, 2003 - 10:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The sound of the Bee Gees has again changed.
Early this morning singer and musician Maurice Gibb died in a Miami Beach hospital. He had went there early in the week and suffered cardiac arrest before undergoing emergency abdominal surgery on Thursday.
CNN's Susan Candiotti looks back on a career and a sound that left a legacy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THE BEE GEES (singing): Keep on challenging / there is a vision and fire in me.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the tender age of 5, growing up in Manchester, England, Maurice Gibb said he and his brothers had a dream.
MAURICE GIBB, MUSICIAN: I remember when we'd walk down the street, Barry saying that one day we're going to be famous. We're going to do this.
CANDIOTTI: And they did. Maurice Gibb, along with his twin brother Robin and older brother Barry, hit it big as the Bee Gees, the brothers Gibb. Their harmonizing skills were a signature.
THE BEE GEES (singing): Grease is the word / it's the word that you heard. / It's got groove, it's got meaning.
GIBBS: We used to do some -- quite a lot of pop and things like that and just learned to harmonize. And we'd just sort of harmonize together automatically.
GIBB BROTHERS (singing): Oh, my old man's a butler / he wears a butling vest.
CANDIOTTI: So they started hitting the top of the charts in the mid '60s. They briefly split and came back with a fever in the 1970s.
THE BEE GEES (singing): Dancin' yeah.
CANDIOTTI: "Saturday Night Fever" sent both the Bee Gees and actor John Travolta's careers into the stratosphere, surprising even them. GIBB: Nobody knew exactly what it was going to do. I mean, it didn't have big promotion or anything. It just happened.
CANDIOTTI: The album -- they were still called albums then -- remains the best selling movie soundtrack ever.
Maurice was a recovering alcoholic. His younger brother Andy was not. Addicted to drugs, he died at the age of 30 from a heart infection.
Maurice Gibb lived in Miami Beach, as did his older brother, Barry.
THE BEE GEES (singing): How can you mend a broken heart?
CANDIOTTI: The Bee Gees not only had their own hits, they wrote for Elvis, Barbra Streisand, Otis Redding. Maurice once said the Bee Gees' passion for writing was their life line.
GIBB: I think the songs have always kept us up there.
THE BEE GEES (singing): I can hear you reeling (ph) in the sigh of the wind.
CANDIOTTI: Those songs earned the Bee Gees seven Grammys, 16 nominations.
THE BEE GEES (singing): Don't throw it all away on love.
CANDIOTTI: And a place in the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Maurice Gibb was 80 -- was 53.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 12, 2003 - 10:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The sound of the Bee Gees has again changed.
Early this morning singer and musician Maurice Gibb died in a Miami Beach hospital. He had went there early in the week and suffered cardiac arrest before undergoing emergency abdominal surgery on Thursday.
CNN's Susan Candiotti looks back on a career and a sound that left a legacy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THE BEE GEES (singing): Keep on challenging / there is a vision and fire in me.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the tender age of 5, growing up in Manchester, England, Maurice Gibb said he and his brothers had a dream.
MAURICE GIBB, MUSICIAN: I remember when we'd walk down the street, Barry saying that one day we're going to be famous. We're going to do this.
CANDIOTTI: And they did. Maurice Gibb, along with his twin brother Robin and older brother Barry, hit it big as the Bee Gees, the brothers Gibb. Their harmonizing skills were a signature.
THE BEE GEES (singing): Grease is the word / it's the word that you heard. / It's got groove, it's got meaning.
GIBBS: We used to do some -- quite a lot of pop and things like that and just learned to harmonize. And we'd just sort of harmonize together automatically.
GIBB BROTHERS (singing): Oh, my old man's a butler / he wears a butling vest.
CANDIOTTI: So they started hitting the top of the charts in the mid '60s. They briefly split and came back with a fever in the 1970s.
THE BEE GEES (singing): Dancin' yeah.
CANDIOTTI: "Saturday Night Fever" sent both the Bee Gees and actor John Travolta's careers into the stratosphere, surprising even them. GIBB: Nobody knew exactly what it was going to do. I mean, it didn't have big promotion or anything. It just happened.
CANDIOTTI: The album -- they were still called albums then -- remains the best selling movie soundtrack ever.
Maurice was a recovering alcoholic. His younger brother Andy was not. Addicted to drugs, he died at the age of 30 from a heart infection.
Maurice Gibb lived in Miami Beach, as did his older brother, Barry.
THE BEE GEES (singing): How can you mend a broken heart?
CANDIOTTI: The Bee Gees not only had their own hits, they wrote for Elvis, Barbra Streisand, Otis Redding. Maurice once said the Bee Gees' passion for writing was their life line.
GIBB: I think the songs have always kept us up there.
THE BEE GEES (singing): I can hear you reeling (ph) in the sigh of the wind.
CANDIOTTI: Those songs earned the Bee Gees seven Grammys, 16 nominations.
THE BEE GEES (singing): Don't throw it all away on love.
CANDIOTTI: And a place in the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Maurice Gibb was 80 -- was 53.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
