After the great response we got to a recent Dolly Parton video (“Gotta love Dolly!”) it got me thinking about reluctantly liking, or at least appreciating, artists who are not part of your regular repertoire. Top of that list for me is probably The Bee Gees.

Understand that when the Brothers Gibb were hitting new heights in the disco era, I was checking in to Hotel California with The Eagles, really liking the Stones’ rock and roll, and playing some sweet air guitar along with Lynyrd Skynyrd. I didn’t have a Disco Sucks T-shirt, but it was written in marker on my forehead.

Nevertheless, I ultimately came to appreciate The Bee Gees’ capacity for reinvention and wide range of capabilities (from their own ballads of the ‘60s to writing “Islands in the Stream,” which turned into a No. 1 hit for country singers Parton and Kenny Rogers). And I recall listening to their AM Radio hits “Jive Talkin’” and “Nights on Broadway,” which in hindsight may be seen as a precursor of the disco to come.

Some years later, I acknowledged this unsettling condition of liking a song or band despite one’s inner inklings and compiled a CD I dubbed, “Songs I’m embarrassed to like.” The only disco song on that CD is “Shake Your Booty,” but there’s a Britney, a Christina, Hanson (come on, how can you not like “Mmmmbop”?), ABBA, and even “Da Da Da” by the German band Trio, of which I don’t mind outing Fort Lauderdale tourism’s Paul Mason, who I think told me it was his wedding song (just kidding, but he does like it!)

In the meantime, here’s “Jive Talkin’” The Bee Gees No. 1 hit from 1975. It’s not on my “embarrassed to like” compilation, nor was it played at my wedding, but I do really like it. And that’s no jive!

Lyrics

It’s just your jive talkin’
You’re telling me lies, yeah
Jive talkin’
You wear a disguise

Jive talkin’
So misunderstood, yeah
Jive talkin’
You’re really no good

Oh, my child
You’ll never know
Just what you mean to me

Oh, my child
You got so much
You’re gonna take away my energy
With all your jive talkin’
You’re telling me lies, yeah
Good lovin’
Still gets in my eyes

There’s nobody
Believe what you say
It’s just your jive talkin’
That gets in the way, yeah

Oh, my love, you’re so good
Treating me so cruel
There you go with your fancy lies
Leavin’ me lookin’ like a dumbstruck fool
With all your

Jive talkin’ (Oh yeah) (Oh yeah)
Your jive, jive talkin’
Jive talkin’
It’s just your jive, jive talkin’
You just ain’t no good!

It’s just your love talkin’
Is all very fine, yeah
And jive talkin’
Just isn’t a crime
There’s some-somebody
You’ll love ’till you die
Then all that jive talkin’
Just gets in your eye, yeah

Jive talkin’
You’re telling me lies, yeah
Good lovin’
Still gets in my eyes

There’s nobody
Believe what you say
It’s just your jive talkin’
That gets in the way, oh yeah

Love talkin’
Is all very fine
And jive talkin’
Just isn’t a crime

If there’s some-somebody
You’ll love ’till you die
It’s just your jive talkin’
That gets in your eye, no way

Don’t give me that jive
Don’t give me that jive
Don’t give me that jive
Don’t give me that jive