But I didn't see that the joke was on me

Continuing my trip back through the 1968 album charts.

10/11/68 : Idea - Bee Gees

I'm not a huge Bee Gee fan, but I am aware that their late 60s stuff was very different from the 70s stuff that they're mostly known for these days - I think there are a few tracks from this era that I don't mind but overall, it's not really my cup of tea.

Yeah, it's a bit odd.  It's kinda country I guess, but in weird accents with far too much tremolo and a lot of it is very ponderous as well.  In places it also sounds like they want to be The Beatles, but they don't really know which version of them they want to be.  "Gotta Get A Message To You" and "I Started A Joke" were the only ones I knew and I didn't mind them (particularly the latter), but I can't say any of the other tracks on the album jumped out at me.

We're at a very generous #5 in the charts this week on their eighth week of an eighteen week run, with it having peaked at #4 in its sixth week.  The rest of the top five are The Hollies, The Seekers, TGTBATU and TSOM with Jimi Hendrix Experience giving us the highest new entry at #23.

Wikipidia has way more on the album than I was expecting, but there's remarkably little content there.  It does tell me this is their fifth album, they really weren't getting along with each other at this point in time and "Such A Shame" is the the only track on any of their albums not written by a Bee Gee, with it being written by Vince Melouney, their guitarist.  The critics kinda shrugged about it, but it did OK commercially getting to the top ten across Europe and #17 in the US.

"Customers also listened to" various Gibbs and, somewhat surprisingly, Janis Joplin.  OK.  I thought this was just an odd album though - I didn't hate it, but I definitely struggle to see the appeal.

03/11/68 - Short but sweet
17/11/68 - I really don't see the appeal

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