Do you love the Bee Gees? Do you think Dolly Parton is a living legend, icon, and national treasure? So do we and that’s why we love this version of the Bee Gees hit “Words” with the incomparable Dolly Parton and the last surviving member of the Bee Gees, Barry Gibb. I mean, Dolly Parton and Barry Gibb? Yes, please! “Words” was the third top 10 hit that the Bee Gees had in the United Kingdom. It also reached number one in Switzerland, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Although several other artists have recorded their song, no one does it quite like the Bee Gees do, of course. Everything the Bee Gees touched was beautiful and it’s impossible to even imagine anyone else doing one of their songs better than they did. But enter Dolly Parton. To be honest, I never imagined her doing a Bee Gees song, but of course, she did and it was amazing.
Barry Gibb said that he wrote “Words” when he was staying at a friend’s place and it was years before he realized that they only released it as a single and never put it on an album. Robin Gibb, Barry’s late brother and fellow Bee Gee, said that “Word” reflects a mood and was written by Barry after an argument. He said that Barry had been arguing with a person and Robin had been arguing with someone else. The brothers were both in the same mood and the arguments were about “nothing.” Listen to it on Amazon Music below.
Dolly brings so much to this amazing musical work of art. Scroll down past this video to see the recording session and hear Barry’s take on the recording (also his opinion of the amazing Dolly!).
Happy New Year everyone! So excited to share #words with you all. @DollyParton and I had so much fun singing this song together from my new album #greenfields. The album is available everywhere January 8th. I hope you enjoy it as well. It's out today on #youtube #spotify #apple pic.twitter.com/wZlwHjy7Uv
— Barry Gibb (@GibbBarry) January 1, 2021
For her part, Dolly said that recording this song with Barry meant the world to her and that it was a “great honor.” Indeed.
I was honored when my dear friend @GibbBarry asked me to join him for a special version of “Words” on his new album! Listen to our version of the @BeeGees classic now ❤️ https://t.co/X84InmvOhp pic.twitter.com/e3W8ysAXlo
— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) January 1, 2021
Here is a video of the amazing recording session.
You can hear the song in full in the official video below.
Here are the Bee Gees singing “Words” live on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968.
Beautiful. So beautiful.
