B-side "Rest Your Love on Me" Length 4:58 | Genre R&B, soul | |
Released 24 October 1978 (UK)
21 November 1978 (US, Canada) Format Vinyl record (7" 45 RPM) Recorded July 1978
Criteria Studios, Miami, Florida | ||
"Too Much Heaven" is a song by the Bee Gees, which was the band's contribution to the "Music for UNICEF" fund. They performed it at the Music for UNICEF Concert on 9 January 1979. The song later found its way to the group's thirteenth original album, Spirits Having Flown. It hit No. 1 in both the United States and Canada. It also rose to the top three in the United Kingdom. In the US, it would become the fourth of six consecutive No. 1s, tying the record set by the Beatles for most consecutive No. 1 songs.
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Robin Gibb reportedly said on the Bee Gees' interview for Billboard in 2001 that this track was one of his favorite songs of the Bee Gees.
Background and recording
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb wrote this track with "Tragedy" in an afternoon off from the making the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie; that same evening, the Gibbs wrote "Shadow Dancing" for Andy Gibb (but that song was later credited to all four Gibbs)
The recording process was the longest of all the tracks on Spirits Having Flown as there are nine layers of three-part harmony, creating 27 voices, though the high falsetto voices are the most pronounced in the final mix:
Imbued with their falsetto style, it is also notable for being one of two songs on the album featuring the Chicago horn section (James Pankow, Walt Parazaider and Lee Loughnane); the other track that features the Chicago members is "Search, Find", in return for the brothers' appearance on the Chicago song "Little Miss Lovin'". On its demo version, Barry begins with count-in. This track does have some backing vocals. The demo lacks the full orchestral feel of the final song.
Release
"Too Much Heaven" was released nine months after "Night Fever". At the time, this had been the longest gap in The Bee Gees' distribution of singles since 1975.
The single "Too Much Heaven" was released in the late autumn of 1978 (it had originally been intended for use in the John Travolta movie Moment By Moment, but was pulled before the film's release reportedly because Barry Gibb thought the movie was awful when he was shown a rough cut), and started a slow ascent up the music charts. In the first week of 1979, preceding the Music for UNICEF Concert, the single first topped the charts in both the United States and Canada. In the United Kingdom, the single peaked at number three late in 1978. A slow ballad that was unlike the previous two singles off the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, Barry Gibb noted that the group wanted to "move in an R&B direction, still maintaining our lyric power, and our melody power as well." In the summer of 1978, the Gibb brothers announced their latest project at a news conference at the United Nations in New York City. All of the publishing royalties on their next single would go into UNICEF, to celebrate the International Year of the Child, which was designated to be 1979. The song earned over $7 million in publishing royalties. Then-United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralded the move as "an outstanding and generous initiative."
The Bee Gees were later invited to the White House, where President Jimmy Carter thanked the group for their donation. At the ceremony, the brothers presented Carter with one of their black satin tour jackets. Carter remarked that he was "not a disco fan" but knew enough about their music because his daughter Amy was a big fan. In later years, the brothers performed the song with only Barry's guitar and keyboards, with all three singing in their normal range. This version was part of a medley the brothers did as part of their All for One Australian concert, and is also included on the Tales from the Brothers Gibb box set alongside the original version.
"Too Much Heaven" also reached No. 2 in Cash Box charts in six weeks between 30 December 1978 and 3 February 1979 behind Chic's "Le Freak".