Barry Gibb is riding high on the charts with his new country-tinged revamp of his and his brothers' classic songs. Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers’ Songbook, Vol. 1 collection sold 24,993 units during its first week out, debuting at Number One on the Billboard Americana/Folk Albums chart; Number Two on the Billboard Albums Sales chart; Number Three on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart — and Number 15 on the Billboard 200 albums list. Greenfields marked Barry Gibb's highest charting solo album and first Top 40 solo placement on the Billboard 200.
The album also debuted this week at Number One in the UK, Australia, and Germany. According the press release marking the overseas chartings, “In the UK and Australia, this marks Gibb’s first ever solo Number One and his first chart-topper overall in 42 years since the 1979 release of the Bee Gees' Spirits Having Flown.”
Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1 features Gibb teaming up with Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, Olivia Newton-John, Sheryl Crow, and Alison Krauss, and others on a new take on his late-brothers' classic tunes.
Barry, who's now reluctantly going it alone, said the strength of the Bee Gees was that the brothers forged ahead as complete equals: “Robin was musically a genius and Maurice was, too. And they were both geniuses in different ways, y'know? That's why it worked. Because all three of us; we were actually. . we were all the same — and yet, we were all different. I would act like the leader and I would feel like I was the leader, but you couldn't say that. And I think Robin felt that was about himself too.”
