"Odessa (City on the Black Sea)" is a song by the English rock band the Bee Gees, written by Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb in 1968 and released in early 1969.
The geography of "Odessa" must not be taken too literally, although a man sailing in the Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea is as far from the port of Odesa (then part of the USSR) as he seems to feel in the lyrics.
One possible inspiration is the true story of the SS Ellan Vannin, a packet ship which sank in the Irish Sea on its way between the Isle of Man and Liverpool on 3 December 1909.
[5] The lyrics are written in the stream-of-consciousness style, telling the story of the survivor of a fictitious British ship called Veronica, floating on an iceberg in the Baltic Sea.
This reel would follow the preceding one, since it ends with what is called a retake of "Odessa on the White Sea", probably the final take of the song, to which the orchestra was added later.
For the second verse, the electric bass was added and proceeds at a faster pace through the same melody, into an even more intense chorus, augmented by a cello part by Buckmaster and some high notes by Robin.