Olivia Newton-John and Andy Gibb were icons of the late ’70s music scene and it was natural that the two superstars would collaborate on a duet.
Taking to the stage on January 9, 1979 the pair sat opposite one other on high chairs and gave a stunningly heartfelt performance of the delicate Bee Gees song ‘Rest Your Love On Me’.
While rumours of whether the two dated have never been confirmed, the energy between the two is palpable and lead to them recording a single for Andy’s new album just a few months later.
Olivia and the youngest Gibb brother were performing at The Music for UNICEF Concert: A Gift of Song, a gig held to raise money for world hunger programs and to mark the beginning of 1979’s International Year of the Child.
The concert was the brainchild of the Bee Gees and David Frost and was held at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City which saw performers including the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, ABBA, Donna Summer and Earth, Wind and Fire donate royalties of the song they performed to UNICEF.
The biggest pop and disco stars of the time were roped in by the Gibb brothers for the one-off gig and saw each act sing one of their own hit songs, alongside special appearances from Henry Fonda, David Frost and Henry ‘The Fonz’ Winkler.
The incredible show culminated in a beautiful medley of Jackie DeShannon’s ‘Put A Little Bit Of Love In Your Heart’ by all the acts and was recorded and televised the following day on NBC and across the world.
The Bee Gees decided to give all of the publishing royalties of the single to UNICEF and as of 2003, ‘Too Much Heaven’ had earned a staggering over seven million dollars for the charity.
Filmed when Andy Gibb was only 21-years-old, the 1979 event came nine years before the Bee Gees would officially announce he would be joining them as the fourth member of the band, just months before his untimely death in 1988.
Later in 1979 Andy Gibb and Olivia Newton-John collaborated once again on a song written by Barry Gibb for Andy’s new album.
Released in 1980, the duet was called ‘I Can’t Help It’ and appeared alongside their 1979 duet ‘Rest Your Love On Me’ as the sixth and seventh tracks on Andy’s album After Dark.
Just two years after the UNICEF concert was filmed, Andy Gibb would become host of music television show Solid Gold in 1981 and 1982 and performed in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on Broadway, but he was eventually sadly fired from both jobs due to his absenteeism.
Over the next few years Andy would go twice to drug rehabilitation and in 1988 planned a come back and a record deal with Island Records, but the deal was never signed.
Despite the Bee Gees also announcing Andy Gibb would be officially joining their group as their fourth band member in 1988, Robin would later say that Andy was suffering: “He just went downhill so fast… he was in a terrible state of depression.”
Just two days after celebrating his 30th birthday in London and while working on his new album, Andy was admitted to hospital in Oxford where he complained of chest pains and died not long afterwards.
Barry Gibb spoke of Andy’s death in the 2000 official Bee Gees biography, Tales From The Brothers Gibb, saying, “To me Andy’s problems were not drugs and booze — to me they were a massive insecurity, psychological problems, compounded by drink and cocaine.
“Maybe they also caused it, but at the end of the day (he) had no confidence in himself, yet had a lot of talent. . . he seemed to have lost the will or desire to use it.”
