Song in Focus:

(Our Love) Don’t Throw it All Away

Hello all. Today, I want to begin what might become a new series of posts, focusing on a particular single. When this song popped up on my YouTube Playlist, it reminded me how much I like it-so the perfect place to start a Song in Focus!

This song was written by none other than Barry Gibb and Blue Weaver. And what a great song it is. It has the typically lyrical genius you would expect from Barry Gibb with a wonderful melody created by Blue Weaver (which is a great name).

Right, so the version that came up on my playlist recommendation is Andy Gibb’s 1978 version, his third single from his second album Shadow Dancing, and my favorite version of the record. I gave the others a good chance but his version stands out for me. Also, for these kinds of posts I always like to feature an unsigned act, but I haven’t been able to find any YouTubers or anyone else covering it, but If you can point me in the right direction, please set me on the path in the comments section below. Let’s take a listen.

Ahh, doesn’t that opening-the first few bars-softly hook you into the song, unwrapping a beautiful melody? And it creates the perfect background for a very nice vocal from Andy, which is full of layers and ad-libs. The reason why I like listening to Andy Gibb’s music so much is he had his Barry-like voice but also a richness to his vocal (see his version of Words) making him a unique performer with depth, in his own right. The loss of Andy at such a young age really did rob the world of an almost certain megastar (I mean he did have a lot of success but he would have reached another level), but he achieved a lot in his short life, it has to be said.

This song is easy to listen to and has gentleness because of its instrumental, but there is a hint of potential sadness; if a course isn’t changed-if it is ‘thrown all away on love.”

Let’s look at some other versions of the song. The BeeGees have the original version (which came about during a session creating songs for Saturday Night Fever). And yes, their version is good as you would expect. It is especially moving when at later dates they sang it at concerts as a tribute to Andy.

Barbara Streisand covered the song for her Guilty Pleasures album, and it sounds good with Barry Gibb joining her. Now this is Barbara, so of course, it’s sung well, but I just don’t connect with it like Andy’s version.

I went to Wiki to see if there were any versions released that I didn’t know about and yes there were: Jenifer Love Hewitt released a cover. Well, I didn’t know she covered it so let’s give it a listen.

Ah, so this is different. I mean look, I don’t think it’s bad, it is clearly a more ‘poppy’ take and if that is what you want, it does it well. But by making the song this way, and having it go through a lot more production, it just sounds like so many other 90’s songs and loses its uniqueness. And it also suffers for me with the Barabara issue, I just don’t connect with it.

So in summary, (Our Love) Don’t Throw it All Away is a great song and in my opinion, the Andy Gibb version is by far the best. What are your thoughts on the song?