From Tom Jones to the Rolling Stones, Who Are the Oldest Swingers in Town?

Marianne Faithful, 74

Doomed to be regarded more as a muse to Mick Jagger and a hanger-on to the beautiful people of the swinging ’60s than a performer in her own right, Marianne Faithfull achieved brief fame with songs such as As Tears Go By, before descending into years of drug abuse, anorexia and homelessness.

She made a comeback in 1979 with the album Broken English, featuring the single , and has continued to perform and record since; but a recent battle with coronavirus has left her in poor health and unsure whether she will be able to continue her career. Nonetheless she has an album out this month, She Walks In Beauty, a collaborative effort with Warren Ellis of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

Barry Gibb, 74

Barry Gibb is the sole surviving brother from the family group the Bee Gees, and continues to perform despite the band’s long history of feuding and breakups. Brother Maurice and Robin both died in the 2000s, without ever resolving some of the tensions caused by Barry’s supposed prominence in the group.

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The Bee Gees had evolved through skiffle and folk into the ’70s disco harmony phenomenon for which they are now most remembered, with hits like Stayin’ Alive and You Should Be Dancin‘ bringing them over 220m sales worldwide. The Bee Gees are the third most successful band in Billboard charts history after the Beatles and the Supremes. It’s all recorded in a recent HBO documentary Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.

Sir Barry, as he now is, recently released a gen-yoo-ine made-in-Nashville country album, Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook Vol.1, featuring duets of Bee Gees songs with Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile, Olivia Newton-John and others.