"World" is a song by the Bee Gees, released in 1967 as a single in the United Kingdom and Europe and then included on their album '' Horizontal'' the following year. Though it was a big hit in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Atco Records ATCO Records is an American record label founded in 1955. It is owned by Warner Music Group and operates as an imprint of Atlantic Records. After several decades of dormancy and infrequent activity under alternating Warner Music labels, the comp ...

did not issue it as a single in the United States, having just issued a third single from ''

Bee Gees' 1st ''Bee Gees' 1st'' is the third studio album by English group Bee Gees, and their first international full-length recording after two albums distributed only in Australia and New Zealand. ''Bee Gees' 1st'' was the group's debut album for the UK P ...

'', " Holiday".

Recording and composition

The song's first recording session was on 3 October 1967 along with "With the Sun in My Eyes" and "

Words A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no conse ...

". The song's last recording session was on 28 October 1967. "World" was originally planned as having no orchestra, so was recorded on four tracks, including some piano played by Maurice and organ played by Robin. When it was decided to add an orchestra, the four tracks containing the band were mixed to one track and the orchestra was added to the other track. The stereo mix suffered since the second tape had to play as mono until the end when the orchestra comes in on one side. Barry adds: "'World' is one of those things we came up with in the studio, Everyone just having fun and saying, 'Let's just do something!' you know".

Vince Melouney Vincent Melouney (Maloney) (born 18 August 1945) is an Australian musician, singer and songwriter best known as an official member of The Bee Gees from 1967 to 1969 during the group’s initial period of worldwide success. Prior to joining Be ...

recalls: "I had this idea to play the melody right up in the top register of the guitar behind the chorus". The song's lyrics question the singer's purpose in life.

Release

In 1990,

Bill Inglot Bill Inglot is an American music engineer and producer, best known for remastering older recordings to high quality digital standards. Inglot worked for Rhino Entertainment and other Warner Music Group labels from 1982 to 2007. He was largely ...

synched up the two tape reels and made a new stereo mix for the ''

Tales from the Brothers Gibb ''Tales from the Brothers Gibb: A History in Song'' is a box set compilation released by the Bee Gees in 1990. Originally released on four cassettes and four compact discs, ''Tales'' is a summary of the Bee Gees output from their third album, ...

'' box set. Two mixes of the record were played to journalists at a press conference before its release. The released version is mainly the unorchestrated version but the orchestrated version is used from 2:39. The track features Robin on organ and Maurice on double-tracked piano. The vocals are mostly by Barry but Robin sings the chorus a few times prior to the fadeout.

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

's Donald A. Guarisco described this song as "a thoroughly psychedelic

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 ...

worthy of

the Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1964, initially consisting of keyboardist Mike Pinder, multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas, guitarist Denny Laine, drummer Graeme Edge and bassist Clint Warwick. The g ...

' finest similar efforts". The original promotional video for "World" is black and white.

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 ...

– lead vocals, rhythm guitar * Robin Gibb – Hammond organ, lead vocals on closing choruses *

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 ...

– 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 ...

–

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featu ...

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 –

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l arrangement

Chart performance

Peak positions

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control Bee Gees songs 1967 songs 1967 singles Number-one singles in Germany Songs written by Barry Gibb Songs written by Maurice Gibb Songs written by Robin Gibb Song recordings produced by Robert Stigwood Polydor Records singles Pop ballads