"Let There Be Love" is a dramatic

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

by the Bee Gees, written by

Barry Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 19 ...

, Robin and

Maurice Gibb Maurice Ernest Gibb (; 22 December 1949 – 12 January 2003) was a British musician. He achieved fame as a member of the pop group Bee Gees. Although his elder brother Barry Gibb and fraternal twin brother Robin Gibb were the group's main lea ...

and released as the opening track on their 1968 album ''

Idea In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are the results of thought. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object. Many philosophers have considered ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of bei ...

''. In 1970 it was issued as a single in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, peaking at no. 14 in March during a four-week chart run. In 1968 the group performed (lip-synced) the song on a European TV station, and the clip has been played on 192TV in the Netherlands. "Let There Be Love" features on the 1973 compilation '' Best of Bee Gees Vol. 2''.

Background

Barry Gibb recalls:

"'Let There Be Love'" was written next to St. Paul's Cathedral in a penthouse apartment that we rented when we first arrived in England. That song was written in that penthouse 'round about midnight. Me and my then-girlfriend, who is my wife now, we'd just fallen in love, and it was that type of mood I was in that night."

The 2006 deluxe remaster has a mono mix of an earlier state of the recording, with different

lead vocal The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

sung entirely by Barry and some instrumental differences and faded at 3:34.

Personnel

Barry Gibb Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb (born 1 September 1946) is a British musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He rose to worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful groups in the history of popula ...

— vocals,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

* Robin Gibb — vocals, organ, *

— bass,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, organ, mellotron, harmony vocals *

Colin Petersen Frederick Colin Petersen (born 24 March 1946) is an Australian drummer, record producer and former child actor. He played as a member of the bands Steve and the Board, the Bee Gees and Humpy Bong. In August 1969, he left the Bee Gees and he wa ...

— drums * Bill Shepherd — orchestral arrangement

Cover versions

P.P. Arnold PP, pp or Pp may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Pianissimo'', a music term meaning ''very quiet'', from musical dynamics * Production code for the 1967–1968 ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Enemy of the World'' * Police Procedural - a subgen ...

recorded this song on 9 June 1969 same day as " Bury Me Down By the River", another track by the Bee Gees. The session was produced by Barry Gibb. * Tom Jones covered the song and released it as the closing track on the album ''Tom'' in 1970. It was arranged by

Johnnie Spence Johnnie Spence, born John Spence Abrahams (4 February 1936 – 15 August 1977),Johnnie Spence
, ...

, engineered by Bill Price and produced by Peter Sullivan.

References

{{authority control 1968 songs Baroque pop songs Bee Gees songs Songs written by Barry Gibb Songs written by Maurice Gibb Songs written by Robin Gibb Song recordings produced by Robert Stigwood Song recordings produced by Barry Gibb Song recordings produced by Robin Gibb Song recordings produced by Maurice Gibb 1960s ballads Pop ballads Song recordings produced by Peter Sullivan (record producer)