#163 Various Artists, 'Saturday Night Fever' (1977)

Previously #132

The Bee Gees were not involved in ‘Saturday Night Fever’ until after the film had been filmed. Travolta was dancing to Boz Scaggs and Stevie Wonder. Scaggs’s label decided not to clear his song, ‘Lowdown’ for the film, leaving producers to find new music. The producer approached The Bee Gees who would write all the music for the film in a weekend. Can you imagine the iconic strut at the beginning of the film without the classic line “Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk

I'm a woman's man, no time to talk.” Impossible to fathom.

The band would perform 6 of the 17 tracks on the record, although they composed 8 of them; ‘If I Can’t Have You’ was performed by Yvonne Elliman, while ‘More Than A Woman’ performed by Tavares. The album is one big disco part from start to finish. Hit after hit. Barry Gibb’s incredible falsetto flanked by his brothers’ harmonies is astounding. Non-Bee Gees tracks on the record include a classic re-imagining of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, by Walter Murphy, later sampled on Robin Thicke’s breakthrough single, ‘When I Get You Alone; Kool & The Gang’s ‘Open Sesame,’ KC & The Sunshine Band’s ‘Boogie Shoes’ and the almost 11-minute ‘Disco Inferno’ by The Trammps, which soundtracked one of Travolta’s iconic dances in the film. The record was a megahit. It would remain #1 on the charts for 24 weeks straight. In fact, it went to #1 in every single country that had a chart at the time. It won 5 Grammys and with its sales of 40 million plus copies, it remains one of the biggest selling albums of all time (#7, to be specific). It’s the second biggest selling soundtrack of all time behind ‘The Bodyguard,’ (it helf the #1 spot for 15 years). This record is THE Disco record. It cemented the Bee Gees as Disco legends and really was the peak of the genre. The album has been added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress for being culturally significant.

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