I've Gotta Get A Message To You, Single by Bee Gees, from the album Idea. B-side \"Kitty Can\" Released: 7 September 1968 Format 7\" Recorded 12 July 1968. Genre: Soft rock, psychedelic pop, baroque pop, Length 2:59, 3:01 (single mix) Label: Polydor 56 273
Atco (United States, Canada)
Writer(s) Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb
Producer(s) Robert Stigwood, Bee Gees
\"I've Gotta Get a Message to You\" is a rock ballad by the Bee Gees. Released as a single on 7 September 1968, it became their second number-one single on the UK Singles Chart.[1] It was also their first US Top 10 hit.
The song is about a man who, awaiting his execution in the electric chair, begs the prison chaplain to pass a final message on to his wife.[2] Robin Gibb, who wrote the lyrics, said that the man's crime was the murder of his wife's lover, though the lyrics do not explicitly allude to the identity of the victim. Robin said: \"This is about a prisoner on Death Row who only has a few hours to live. He wants the prison chaplain to pass on a final message to his wife. There's a certain urgency about it. Myself and Barry wrote it. It's a bit like writing a script. Sometimes you can sit there for three hours with your guitar and nothing will happen. Then in the last ten minutes something will spark.\"[3] The song was written with Percy Sledge in mind to record it.[4] Sledge did record it in February 1970 but Atlantic did not issue this version in the United States at the time.
Barry recalls: \"In those days, the lyrics were almost pretty well done on the spot. I don't remember the fundamentals on how the lyrics were formed, except that we were writing about a guy on death row. That was it\".
