The Bee Gees' flawless harmonies during a live MTV performance in 1993 is a lost masterpiece

10 June 2022, 11:52 | Updated: 17 March 2023, 10:46

The Bee Gees are renown for their songwriting skills and crowd-pleasing vocals and one performance in 1993 showcased their acoustic harmonies to the max.
The Bee Gees are renown for their songwriting skills and crowd-pleasing vocals and one performance in 1993 showcased their acoustic harmonies to the max. Picture: MTV/Youtube

Bee Gees Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb appeared on MTV's Most Wanted in 1993 and performed a stripped back version of their 1968 hit 'I Gotta Get A Message To You'.

The Bee Gees are renown for their songwriting skills and crowd-pleasing vocals but one rarely-seen performance in 1993 showcased their acoustic harmonies to their very best.

Robin, Maurice and Barry Gibb were performing on MTV's Most Wanted when the trio sang a stripped back version of their 1968 song 'I Gotta Get A Message To You'.

Filmed in London at the MTV studios in Camden, the three brothers sit on high stools as Robin takes the lead vocals and Maurice and Barry sit on either side of him playing guitar.

Bee Gees Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb appeared on MTV's Most Wanted in 1993 and performed a stripped back version of their 1968 hit 'I Gotta Get A Message To You'.
Bee Gees Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb appeared on MTV's Most Wanted in 1993 and performed a stripped back version of their 1968 hit 'I Gotta Get A Message To You'. Picture: MTV/Youtube
Filmed in London at the MTV studios in Camden, the three brothers sit on high stools as Robin (pictured) takes to lead vocals and Maurice and Barry sit on either side of him playing guitar.
Filmed in London at the MTV studios in Camden, the three brothers sit on high stools as Robin (pictured) takes to lead vocals and Maurice and Barry sit on either side of him playing guitar. Picture: MTV/Youtube
Dressed stonewash denim – the must have uniform of the early '90s – the Bee Gees gave a spine-tingling performance of the hit song. Pictured: Barry Gibb.
Dressed stonewash denim – the must have uniform of the early '90s – the Bee Gees gave a spine-tingling performance of the hit song. Pictured: Barry Gibb. Picture: MTV/Youtube

Dressed in stonewash denim – the must have uniform of the early '90s – the Bee Gees gave a spine-tingling performance of the hit song and proved once again what a force to be reckoned with the three brothers really were.

'I Gotta Get A Message To You' is about a man awaiting execution who begs the prison chaplain to get in touch with his wife.

Written by Robin Gibb, he later said of the song: "[It's] 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.

"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?" Robin continued.

Bee Gees - I've Gotta Get a Message To You live MTV Most Wanted 1993

'I Gotta Get A Message To You' was released as a single on 7 September 1968 and was the second UK number one for the Bee Gees after 'Massachusetts' hit the top spot in 1967.
'I Gotta Get A Message To You' was released as a single on 7 September 1968 and was the second UK number one for the Bee Gees after 'Massachusetts' hit the top spot in 1967. Picture: Getty

"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 Gotta Get A Message To You' was released as a single on 7 September 1968 and was the second UK number one for the Bee Gees after 'Massachusetts' hit the top spot in 1967.

Barry Gibb recently re-recorded the song with Keith Urban for his 2021 country album, Greenfields.

Barry Gibb - Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers' Songbook (Vol. 1 / Album Trailer)