B3

Anyone seeking to extend their fascination with 1970s sounds past the boundaries of Rhino’s Have a Nice Day compilations would do well to explore the catalog of B3. The New York City–based trio, styled after *NSYNC and assembled by actor/singer/guitarist Rod Michael, singer/dancer John Steven Sutherland, and singer-model Timothy Michael Cruz, discovered a mutual admiration for the Bee Gees. They fashioned a stage show built entirely around the legendary trio’s classic 1970s material. Their approach leaned heavily into retro-disco, a style that found its strongest audience in Europe, where the Bee Gees retained enormous popularity and disco had never fully vanished. Despite their American roots, that very origin story only amplified their appeal abroad, as evidenced by contemporary audience enthusiasm. BGM’s German division signed the group, sending their cover of “You Win Again” to number 19 on the German singles chart. The 2002 debut album First followed, offering twelve Bee Gees compositions alongside a single original track written by Michael. One selection, their rendition of “I.O.I.O.,” appeared on a maxi-single in three separate mixes and registered its own chart entry. Rod Michael subsequently departed, with Blair Late stepping in as his replacement. As of 2003 the act remained a strictly European phenomenon whose following centered on German girls aged fourteen and fifteen; neither the trio nor its recordings appeared in most American record-store databases aside from Tower Records.