For a time in the late Seventies, EVERYTHING the Bee Gees touched turned to gold. In late 1977/early 1978, songs written or performed by Barry, Robin and Maurice held the top spot on the Billboard Top 100 for half a year! “Night Fever”, “How Deep is Your Love”, “Stayin’ Alive”, “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water”, “Shadow Dancing” (both hits for younger brother Andy) and “If I Can’t Have You” by Yvonne Elliman were all chart-toppers. Plus, there was Frankie Valli’s “Grease”, Tavares’s version of “More Than a Woman”, and this luscious one-shot, which briefly brought Australian singer Samantha Sang fame.

Even when I was little, I thought Samantha Sang was a weird name, and come to find out, it’s not her real name. She was born Cheryl Gray in 1951 (if you believe Wikipedia) or 1953 (if you believe All Music Guide). “Emotion” turned out to be a blessing and a curse for the singer. It became a huge hit, peaking at #3 pop, #5 Easy Listening and #42 on the R&B charts. It’s not hard to figure out why the song became so popular: the melody is beautiful and The Bee Gees’ influence is pervasive. So pervasive, as a matter of fact, that many people were convinced that Samantha didn’t exist and the song was actually The Bee Gees with their voices sped up! Sang balked at having her success so closely associated with the Gibbs in the future and resisted working with them again. Unfortunately, “Emotion” spelled the beginning and the end of her career, and she never hit the Top 40 again.

The video clip for “Emotion” is wicked Seventies! Samantha looks a lot like Andrea True, who we’ll cover in another Hump Day Flashback. Certainly won’t be the first time True and “hump” have been in the same sentence.

Destiny Child recorded a pretty version of this song back in 2001, and the Bee Gees themselves have re-recorded “Emotion” and included it on several hits collections, but nothing tops the breathy goodness of Sang’s original.