“That might have made me a fighter or more determined to survive or make it. “Although I don’t remember it, I must have gone through extreme agony at some point,” he said in an interview with David Leaf for the group’s 1979 biography. According to Barry, he accidentally poured a pot of scalding tea on himself when he was just one year old, which he believes may have contributed to his personality. Barry was often quiet, but very ambitious. Maurice was the comedian, while Robin was noted for his vast imagination and penchant for writing. Maurice and Robin were not identical twins and, in fact, all three brothers had very different personalities. First came Robin, then Maurice a half hour later. On December 22, 1949, twins Maurice Ernest and Robin Hugh were born. Barry Alan Crompton Gibb was given the middle name Alan for Hugh’s late brother, and Crompton for Gibb ancestor Samuel “Sir Isaac” Crompton, credited with inventing the spinning mule. It was there, on September 1, 1946, that the eldest member of what would become the Bee Gees was born. Hugh soon accepted a steady gig playing at a hotel on the Isle of Man, a popular vacation island located in the Irish Sea between Ireland and Great Britain. In 1945, they welcomed their first child, daughter Leslie Barbara. She introduced herself as Barbara Pass and three years later, they were married. When he got a break, he asked her to dance. In 1941, Hugh spotted a young woman dancing in the crowd of a Manchester ballroom. Hugh Gibb, Jr., was a working musician, forming his own Big Band and playing drums in night clubs, hotels and ballrooms throughout England and Scotland. And before any of the Gibb children were born, their father was making his living on stage, albeit on a smaller scale than his superstar sons would decades later. The three brothers displayed a remarkable aptitude for songwriting and their trademark harmonies even as young boys. Though the Bee Gees wrote and recorded music for over 40 years, their origin story begins even earlier.