How Deep Is Your Love

The Bee Gees wrote this for the American singer Yvonne Elliman. Robert Stigwood, who produced the movie Saturday Night Fever, insisted the Bee Gees perform it themselves for the soundtrack. Elliman did sing "If I Can't Have You," which was written by The Bee Gees and included on the soundtrack. That song was also a #1 hit in the US.

This won the 1977 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance By A Group.

This was a massive hit in the US. It stayed in the Top-10 for 17 weeks, which was a record at the time.

In 1996 Take That covered this for their last single release until their comeback in 2006. It topped the UK chart. Gary Barlow (in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh) commented on their remake, "We wanted to prove that we could still do a cover version this far on in our career and do it very well."

A songwriter/antiques dealer in Illinois named Ronald Selle sued the Bee Gees, claiming a song he wrote in 1975 called "Let It End" was the basis for "How Deep Is Your Love." The case went to a jury in 1983. The Bee Gees claimed that they had never heard "Let It End," and there was no evidence that they did (that song was never released - Selle made a home recording that he had sent to music publishers). The case was based on the similarities between the songs, and an expert witness for Selle - a musicologist named Arrand Parsons - tried to convince the jury through technical analysis of the notes that the Bee Gees plagiarized the song. The jury bought it, and ruled that the Bee Gees did copy Selle's song. The judge, however, nullified the verdict. Selle later appealed, and was once again rebuffed.

The case underscored the problem of juries making judgments on music, and it led to a landmark ruling that "striking similarities" between songs was not enough to prove plagiarism (something George Harrison would have appreciated). Henceforth, a songwriter had to prove that the infringing party actually heard the song before the case could move forward. This is one reason why music publishers and songwriters refuse to hear most unsolicited material.

This was a huge hit on the Adult Contemporary chart, where it spent 6 weeks at #1 - more than any other Bee Gees song. When Billboard listed their top 100 Adult Contemporary song of all time in 2011, "How Deep Is Your Love" came in at #13.