"I've Gotta Get a Message to You" is a song by the

Bee Gees The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era in ...

. Released as a single on 1968, it was their second number-one single on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, and their first US Top 10 hit.

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 popul ...

re-recorded the song with

Keith Urban Keith Lionel Urban (born 26 October 1967) is an Australian-American musician, singer, guitarist and songwriter known for his work in country music. Recognized with four Grammy Awards, Urban also received fifteen Academy of Country Music Award ...

for his 2021 album ''Greenfields''.

Writing and recording

The song is about a man who, awaiting his execution in the

electric chair An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...

, begs the prison

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

to pass a final message on to his wife.''Tales Of The Brothers Gibb'', First Edition, Omnibus Press, 2000.

Robin Gibb Robin Hugh Gibb (22 December 1949 – 20 May 2012) was a British singer and songwriter. He gained worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees pop group with elder brother Barry and fraternal twin brother Maurice. Robin Gibb also had his o ...

, who wrote the lyrics, said that the man's crime was the murder of his wife's lover, though the lyrics do not explicitly allude to the identity of the victim. Robin said, "This is about a prisoner on Death Row who only has a few hours to live. He wants the prison chaplain to pass on a final message to his wife. There's a certain urgency about it. Myself and Barry wrote it. It's a bit like writing a script. Sometimes you can sit there for three hours with your guitar and nothing will happen. Then in the last ten minutes something will spark." The song was written with

Percy Sledge Percy Tyrone Sledge (November 25, 1940 – April 14, 2015) was an American R&B, soul and gospel singer. He is best known for the song " When a Man Loves a Woman", a No. 1 hit on both the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and R&B singles charts in 196 ...

in mind to record it. Sledge did record it in February 1970, but

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

did not issue his version in the United States at the time. Barry recalled, "In those days, the lyrics were almost pretty well done on the spot. I don't remember the fundamentals on how the lyrics were formed, except that we were writing about a guy on death row. That was it." Robin adds:

"It was like acting, you see, we said, let's pretend that somebody, his life is on the line, somebody's going to the chair. What would be going through their mind? Let's not make it doom and gloom, but sort of an appeal to the person he loves. Because right now that's all he cares about. Regardless of whether he's done a bad thing, he is a human being, and he's sending out this last message. There's someone out there whom he loves. It's a torch song, but within a very sort of theatrical sense. Not sort of abstract, but definitely somebody in a very bad situation whose life is going to end. What would they be saying, you know? This is it: 'Gotta get a message to you, hold on".

"I've Gotta Get a Message to You" was recorded with "

I Laugh in Your Face "I Laugh in Your Face" is a ballad performed by the Bee Gees, written by Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb and released in March 1969 on the album ''Odessa''. Most of the vocals are performed by Barry Gibb except for a short central section sung by R ...

" (released on ''

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

'' in 1969) on 12 July 1968. This track was not recorded during the ''Idea'' sessions, which had concluded on 25 June 1968 with the recording of "

I Started a Joke "I Started a Joke" is a song by the Bee Gees from their 1968 album ''Idea'', which was released as a single in December of that year. It was not released as a single in the United Kingdom, where buyers who could not afford the album had to co ...

". As Barry explained, "Now that was a memorable night. The song we wrote together, all three of us. I think that night, I know for a fact, we didn't sing the choruses in harmony. Robert called us back to the studio at 11 o'clock at night and said, 'I want the choruses in harmony, I don't want them in just melody. I want three-part harmony choruses.' So we went in and attempted that 'round about midnight. Everyone drove back to the studio, and that's what we did." The song features bass guitar lines by Maurice Gibb as Barry explained, "He had a lot of intensity in his bass, Mo was a real

McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

bass freak, as a lot of us were. He would pick up on all the things that McCartney would o Maurice was very good on different instruments, you know. Good lead guitarist, good bass player, good keyboard player. He was versatile. He loved playing bass more than anything else, I think, at that time."

Release

The song was the group's second UK number one single, also went to number one in Ireland and reached number eight in the US, their first top-ten hit in the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. In the UK, the song was released as a single only. The song appeared on the US edition of the Bee Gees' third 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 being ...

'', but not in the UK, where the

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 ...

track "

Such a Shame "Such a Shame" is a song written by Mark Hollis for the English band Talk Talk's second album '' It's My Life'' (1984). It was released as the album's second single and went on to become a top 10 hit across Europe. Overview "Such a Shame" was ...

" appeared instead. Both songs appeared on CD editions of the album. The song was sent to

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

with "

", so it would be reasonable to assume that the latter was the intended B-side. However, it was dropped in favour of " Kitty Can". ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' called it a "one of the most powerful outings from the Bee Gees in a while", with a "phenomenal

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

" and "brilliant performance".

Versions

"I've Gotta Get a Message to You" has appeared in five versions, all made from the same recording, but heard at three different speeds, faded out at three different points, and with different elements mixed forward. As to the speed, Bill Inglot said in 1999 that the mix he made 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 in 1990 is at the correct reel tape speed. This speed is intermediate between the mono and stereo mixes released in 1968. The correct speed can be achieved by playing the mono single mix at 98.8%, and the LP stereo mix at 103.0%, which brings them to the correct timing. The first mix to appear was the mono mix for the single, followed closely by a stereo mix that appeared on North American copies of the ''

'' album. The two sound very different. For most of the song the album mix has percussion effects and string overdubs not heard (or barely heard) in the single mix. In the ending, most of the second chorus (2:28-2:37 at the correct speed) has lead vocal in the album mix, but wordless backing vocal in the single mix, until, at 'hold on', they resume the same vocal tracks. The slower album mix is shorter because it fades out much sooner, 4 seconds sooner at the speed given, or 11 seconds sooner at corrected speed. At 2:45 (correct speed) fans hear a spoken ‘save your voice’ in the stereo album mix, and also less distinctly in the Tales from the Brothers Gibb mix. During preparation of ''The Studio Albums 1967-1968'' box set, another mix from 1968 was discovered, a mono mix that sounds like the 1968 stereo mix. Since the North American ''Idea'' LP was released only in stereo, this companion mono mix was never released. It plays faster than the stereo mix, but that is true of all the mono mixes for ''Idea''. The ''Tales from the Brothers Gibb'' mix can also be found on Rhino's 1991 ''The British Invasion, Volume 9'' compilation. An Italian version of the song, called ''Pensiero d'amore'' (Thought of Love), was published by Welsh singer

Mal Ryder Paul Bradley Couling (born 27 February 1944 in Llanfrechfa, Wales), known by his stage name Mal Ryder, is a British singer who achieved popularity in Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, ...

in 1969.

Personnel

–

lead vocals 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 t ...

(first and third verse) and

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

– lead vocals (second verse) and backing vocals,

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

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 le ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

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 keyboa ...

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

, backing vocals *

–

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 featur ...

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 A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

The Soldiers version

In 2011,

The Soldiers The Soldiers is a singing trio consisting of serving British Army soldiers, whose debut album, ''Coming Home'', was released on 26 October 2009, and who have since continued their singing career whilst remaining full-time army personnel. Signe ...

recorded the song with Robin Gibb for the Royal British Legion's annual charity single. It was released on 23 October 2011 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. This song reached number 75 on the

. A music video to accompany the release of "I've Gotta Get A Message To You" was first released onto YouTube on 13 October 2011.

Track listing

; CD/Digital download # "I've Gotta Get a Message to You" – 3:19 # "I've Gotta Get a Message to You" (Full Instrumental Version) – 3:17

Chart performance

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:I've Gotta Get A Message To You Bee Gees songs 1968 singles UK Singles Chart number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in South Africa 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 Robin Gibb songs Polydor Records singles Atco Records singles Demon Music Group singles Songs about death 1968 songs