Barry Gibb Scores First Solo UK No.1 Album With All-Star ‘Greenfields’
Gibb’s release finished the chart week with more than twice the combined units of its nearest rival.
Barry Gibb’s Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers’ Songbook (Vol. 1) has debuted on the UK album chart at No.1. The achievement was confirmed today (15) by the Official Charts Company.
The new set sees the songwriter and co-founder of the Bee Gees revisiting his songbook in the company of such major names in country and Americana as Dolly Parton, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Jason Isbell, and Brandi Carlile.
“There is no such thing as too much heaven,” Gibb told the OCC. “I couldn’t be more thrilled. The past is unpredictable. Today is unbelievable. The greatest moment of my life! Thank you too all of our fans in the UK and all the folks at EMI. You’ve changed my life.”
Gibb’s release finished the chart week with more than twice the combined units of its nearest rival, UK singer-songwriter Passenger’s Songs for the Drunk and Broken Hearted, which debuted at No.2. The OCC reports that 83% of the weekly tally for Greenfields comprises physical sales.
Gibb previously reached No.2 on the UK countdown with his 2016 album In The Now, which went on to an eight-week chart stay. His only other LP in his own name, 1984’s Now Voyager, peaked at No.85 there. Perhaps surprisingly, the Bee Gees only topped the UK album chart once, with Spirits Having Flown, which had two weeks at the top in March 1979. However, the Saturday Night Fever album, for which they wrote most of the music, spent 18 consecutive weeks at No.1 between May and September 1978. The Bee Gees had five No.1 singles in the UK.
Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers’ Songbook (Vol. 1) is also off to a strong start in Germany, where the Offizielle Deutsche Charts published today have it entering at No.4. German schlager singer Daniela Alfinito has her third No.1 on that chart, entering at the top with Splitter aus Glück.
Last week’s bestseller on the UK album chart, Taylor Swift’s evermore, falls to No.3 in the new data. The fifth anniversary of David Bowie’s passing last Sunday (10) helps his Legacy collection jump 31-18, its highest ranking since last July.
Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1 can be bought here.
