About the Song
Among the many beautiful treasures in the Bee Gees’ later catalog, “Rings Around the Moon” holds a special place. This song appeared as a bonus track on their 1997 album Still Waters, and also as the B‑side to their single “Alone.” Still Waters marked a period of quiet reflection and renewed artistry for the brothers after a long career in the public eye.
Musically, “Rings Around the Moon” is a soft, elegant ballad. It moves slowly, giving space for air and silence. The arrangement features gentle instrumentation — perhaps acoustic or lightly layered keyboards, light percussion, and just enough orchestration to lift the emotional tone without overwhelming it. The mood is wistful rather than dramatic. The song doesn’t demand attention; it invites it.
Vocally, Robin Gibb takes the lead. His voice, with its expressive tremor and emotional nuance, carries the weight of memory and longing. There is no grand gesture—only the delicate touch of someone speaking to distance, to absence, to what remains when someone is no longer beside you.
Lyrically, the metaphor of “rings around the moon” suggests circles, orbits, and things that encircle but perhaps never touch. It’s an image of closeness without contact, of presence that hovers but cannot quite land. The song evokes the feeling of someone loved and missed, whose memory still moves in orbit around your heart. It acknowledges the space between, the distance that can’t be erased, and the beauty of keeping light where darkness might have claimed it.
In the arc of Bee Gees’ music, Still Waters offered maturity, vulnerability, and grace. “Rings Around the Moon” is one of the quieter statements on that album, but in some ways one of the most personal. It is a song of looking up at night skies and remembering, a song of love remembered softly.