The heartbreaking song the Bee Gees wrote in honor of their late brother Andy Gibb

July 1, 2024, 4:00 p.m.

It was an unimaginable loss.

On March 10, 1988, the Bee Gees had to deal with the news that their little brother Andy Gibb had died. He had just turned 30 years old.

Despite being a pop star in his own right, the youngest member of the Gibbs family has had well-documented problems with addiction and substance abuse throughout his life.

However, his problems had damaged his career in many ways, as he no longer had any hits and his finances and self-confidence were also failing.

Sadly, he was unable to kick his addiction and began drinking heavily a few days before his death. His behaviour was often erratic and unpredictable and he told his mother Barbara that he “might as well be dead”.

He suffered from chest pains and was kept in hospital all night. Tragically, however, he was pronounced dead after he lost consciousness during a conversation with the doctor. His heart failed.

Robin Gibb – who was also in the UK at the time – had to break the news to his brothers Barry and Maurice, who were in Miami.

“That must have been the saddest and most desperate moment of my life,” Robin later recalled.

Their despair brought the Bee Gees together and they wrote a heartbreaking song in memory of their deceased brother: “Wish You Were Here”.

The tragedy occurred at a time when the Bee Gees were back on the rise and enjoying chart success after almost a decade of slump.

“You Win Again” returned to the top of the charts in the UK and Australia while the Gibb brothers were writing for their next album. Onewhich was finally published in 1989.

The intention behind this album, according to Maurice, was to bring Andy into the group to make him the fourth Bee Gee, something their younger brother had always dreamed of.

But unfortunately it was not to be. Robin believed that Andy had “developed a fear of life and almost drove himself mad.”

Plagued by guilt over the loss of their brother, the Bee Gees had no choice but to return to the studio.

“The following week, we thought that maybe going back to work would help us re-center ourselves,” recalls Maurice.

“I played the strings (on the keyboards) and it was beautiful. Barry and Robin started crying and I started crying too. I said, ‘I can’t play anymore.’ We went home.”

They began to write successfully together – the brothers wrote ‘Shape Of Things To Come’ for the Album of the 1988 Summer Olympics.

But shortly afterwards, emotions erupted as they wrote “Wish You Were Here,” with their late brother Andy at the forefront.

The song paints a picture of someone trying to cope with a great loss by reliving their memories. It was clear that Barry, Robin and Maurice were suffering greatly.

“A summer song keeps playing in my head / And so I wake up in someone else’s dreams,” Barry sings tenderly and sadly.

The recurring mantra “I wish you were here” serves as a powerful refrain, emphasizing the emptiness they all felt without Andy in their lives.

Away from the Bee Gees, eldest brother Barry viewed the devastating loss of Andy with a philosophical expression: “They say that losing someone makes the soul grow.”

“In the past, people hardly paid any attention to the metaphysical side of life. Later, you start to look at everything that way.”

Afterwards, the Bee Gees, known as workaholics, took six months off to collect their thoughts and process their grief.

From then on, the band took their foot off the gas and placed more emphasis on their relationship as brothers than as bandmates.

“I think in many ways we all refused to accept that he was gone forever,” Maurice admitted a few years later.

“His death has definitely brought the rest of the family closer together. We are united in our despair.”