Levenson Michael

Their late-'70s image as white-suited disco kings has earned them cultural-icon status for all the wrong reasons. In their 4 decade recording career, the Bee Gees have built a singularly impressive body of work encompassing the eccentric art-pop that first made the trio unlikely pop stars in the '60s and the R&B-inflected, falsetto-laced dance pop of their Saturday Night Fever comeback. This 4 CD, 74 song set may be a mite too even-handed historically (thus giving short shrift to the group's prolific '60's output), but it presents a representative sampling of the ups and downs of the group, and includes all of the relevant hits and a generous assortment of rare items. This 4-CD set is very good, but it also isn't quite all it could have been, mostly because the makers were hamstrung by the peculiar nature of the ' audience.

by Carolyn Aldwin Ph.D. (Author), Heidi Igarashi PhD (Author), Diane Gilmer Ph.D. (Author), Michael R. Levenson PhD (Author)
Uniquely bridging a gap in the gerontology literature between the biological and psychosocial aspects of aging, this interdisciplinary text provides key updates on an abundance of cutting-edge research

Isaac Hayes' stint with Polydor in the late '70s isn't always looked at as being one of his better eras. In fact, it's not looked upon highly at all by many of his fans. It's important to keep in mind, though, that Hayes had already seen enormous success and had released a sizable amount of legendary albums by the time the late '70s came around. In this respect, you really can't expect his later work to be on par with his classic early-'70s era with Stax no one could one-up albums like Shaft and Black Moses. Plus, the late '70s wasn't a kind era for any early-'70s soul icons as disco and funk moved black music from behind closed doors and into the clubs. Hayes had learned this the hard way during his short-lived mid-'70s run with ABC Records where he struggled to even chart, not to mention score a big hit.