“A bunch of us old goats were reminiscing this past summer and groused how loosely the term superstar gets tossed about. So of course we decided to determine who was worthy of that designation during “our” era of music (approximately 1950 to mid 1980s). We all agreed on seven: the three above, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Abba, and the BeeGees. We had to keep reminding each other that our personal like or dislike of the acts was an irrelevant factor. It would be hard to write even a short history of popular music during that span without mentioning these acts as each was, for at least a reasonable period of time, the top musical act in the world.”
Thank you for including the Bee Gees & Abba on your list. Many people dismiss them as “bubblegum” or “fluff”, which is simply untrue. Their music was much deeper than people think.
For example: Abba’s “The Visitors” LP. With the exception of a couple of songs, it’s a pretty “dark” album.
I wasn’t ever crazy about the Bee Gees, but they did pretty much invent disco. I wasn’t ever crazy about disco, either.