Emotion by Samantha Sang

Emotion

1977

Samantha Sang

So, how can a song that was not only written by Barry Gibb, but performed by The Bee Gees ever be a One Hit Wonder? How 'Bout if the song was written for someone else, and The Bee Gees were actually the back-up singers? (Even if their voices are almost more prominent than the lead singer's voice)  

That's pretty much exactly what happened when Australian singer Samantha Sang scored 1978's first Top 20 one Hit Wonder with her single 'Emotion'. She’d enjoyed a busy and pretty successful career in Australia but was pretty much unknown outside of The Land Down Under and decided to broaden her horizons…and career possibilities…by reconnecting with The Brothers Gibb, who she had ctually worked with before. She had worked with The Bee Gees nearly a decade earlier, when she was in the UK  between 1969 and 1975,  and had scored a couple of minor hits before visa restrictions forced her to move back Down Under. She met back up with them in France in 1977, while they were working on the soundtrack for an obscure little film called Saturday Night Fever.

Barry Gibb had convinced his label to sign her when she was in the UK several years back and he was still convinced she had something big vocally. Barry and Robin Gibb had a song that they were writing for Saturday Night Fever, and that The Head Bee Gee though would be perfect for Samantha. SO she recorded it, produced by Barry Gibb, with the same musicians providing the tunes that did so for The Bee Gees, and with Barry and Robin Gibb providing back-up vocals…so, essentially, it was a Bee Gees song…except that Samantha Sang was the lead singer, and she wasn’t  a Bee Gee. SO that’s how a Bee Gee song becomes a One Hit Wonder. 
 
Emotion was released pretty much smack dab in the middle of the late Seventies Disco Era, and was solid packed with Disco elements, even though it was a ballad. Of course, that's not unusual, and ‘Light Disco’ songs such as this came to be known as ‘Disco Ballads’ and were actually very common during the mid to Late Seventies. In fact, a slew of them climbed to pretty lofty heights on The Billboard Hot 100. 

‘Emotion’ definitely did…it was released on the Private Stock label in December 1977, and began steadily climbing the charts, finally peaking at # 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 18^th, 1978. The song's light, breezy instrumental intro and the strong percussion accompanying Samantha Sang and The Brothers Gibb became a real familiar sound drifting from radio speakers during the winter and spring of '78, and the song stayed popular on into and through the summer. I also remember that everyone who thought about it at all considered it a Bee Gee's song, and I think I remember DJs on Richmond's Top 40 station (Than as now, WRVQ...'Q-94') introducing it as a Bee Gees song. But it wasn't. It was Samantha Sang's sole US Hot 100 hit.

It still pops up on Oldies stations occasionally, and it's almost a guarantee that you'll hear it if said Oldies Station's having a Disco, Bee Gees, or One Hit Wonder tribute. Still sounds as nice now as it did 35 years back, too!.



So Enjoy! 'Emotion' by Samantha Sang, featuring 'The Bee Gees.