This Early Bee Gees Hit About a US State Was Intended for a Different Australian Group

Bee Gees churned out a ton of hits during their incredible career. Many of those are arguably more renowned these days than “Massachusetts”. But none might be more important in terms of the group establishing themselves as superstars.

Recorded and released during their first year in England, the song shot to No. 1. It also caused some issues in terms of group harmony down the road.

Seeking The Seekers

Talk about a whirlwind year. In 1967, Bee Gees not only moved to Great Britain from Australia, but they also secured a recording contract. A couple of instrumentalists (guitarist Vince Melouney and drummer Colin Petersen) were hastily hired to join Robin, Barry, and Maurice Gibb in the group.

They hustled into a studio and began churning out songs and albums. In addition to recording for themselves, their prolific writing also allowed them to pitch songs to other artists. And that’s what the brothers originally intended for “Massachusetts”.

A group called The Seekers had preceded them earlier in the decade in making the jump from Australia to become worldwide hitmakers. The three brothers thought that “Massachusetts” could be an ideal song for the group. But they wisely ended up holding on to the song for themselves.

First UK Chart-Topper

Although the recollections differ slightly about the exact location (either a hotel or a boat), it’s clear that the Brothers Gibb wrote “Massachusetts” during a visit to New York in that whirlwind year of 1967. They claimed that they wrote the song as a kind of challenge to themselves. Could they create a song based on nothing more than a location as a title?

Well, it turned out that they could. With Robin on lead vocals, with Barry and Maurice pitching in on harmonies, the group released the song as a single in August 1967 and included it on the album Horizontal. The song went to No. 1 in Great Britain, a huge milestone for them.

The fact that Robin had been the lead on the first No. 1 caused some consternation a few years later. When he felt that Barry had usurped him as the group’s lead singer, the previous success of “Massachusetts” helped convince Robin that he could do better on his own. It led to a brief group breakup in 1969.

Behind the Lyrics of “Massachusetts”

In short lyrical strokes, “Massachusetts” tells a story about a man caught between exploring the breadth of the United States and returning to his titular home. “Something’s telling me I must go home,” he explains. It seems there’s someone waiting for him there: “The day I left her standing on her own.”

Yet in the second verse, he’s explaining that he needs to get to San Francisco: “Gotta do the things I wanna do.” In the final verse, it seems like he’s made the choice to indulge his wanderlust, speaking about his former home in the past tense: “And Massachusetts is one place I have seen.”

With “Massachusetts” clearing a path, Bee Gees were headed for even bigger success in the coming years. And, as a side note, The Seekers eventually did get to record the track, doing so to honor Maurice Gibb after his death in 2003.

(Photo by Ivan Keeman/Redferns)

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