Saturday Night Fever | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Soundtrack album by the Bee Gees and various artists | ||||
Released | November 15, 1977 | |||
Recorded | 1975–1977 | |||
Studio | Château d'Hérouville, France
| |||
Genre | Disco | |||
Length | 75:54 | |||
Label | RSO | |||
Producer | Bill Oakes (music supervisor) | |||
Bee Gees chronology | ||||
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Singles from Saturday Night Fever | ||||
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Saturday Night Fever is the soundtrack album from the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever starring John Travolta. The soundtrack was released on November 15, 1977 by RSO Records. Prior to the release of Thriller by Michael Jackson, Saturday Night Fever was the best-selling album in music history, and still ranks among the best-selling soundtrack albums worldwide, with sales figures of over 40 million copies. [3] [4]
In the United States, the album was certified 16× Platinum for shipments of at least 16 million units. [5] The album stayed atop the charts for 24 straight weeks from January to July 1978 and stayed on Billboard 's album charts for 120 weeks until March 1980. Three singles from the album contributed by the Bee Gees—"How Deep Is Your Love", "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever"—along with Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You", all reached No. 1 in the US. In the UK, the album spent 18 consecutive weeks at No. 1. The album epitomized the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic and was an international sensation. [6] The album was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2012 for being "culturally, historically, and/or aesthetically significant". [7]
According to the DVD commentary for Saturday Night Fever, the producers intended to use the song "Lowdown" by Boz Scaggs in the rehearsal scene between Tony and Stephanie in the dance studio, and choreographed their dance moves to the song. However, representatives for Scaggs's label, Columbia Records, refused to grant legal clearance for it, as they wanted to pursue another disco movie project, which never materialized. Composer David Shire, who scored the film, had to, in turn, write a song to match the dance steps demonstrated in the scene and eliminate the need for future legal hassles. However, this track does not appear on the movie's soundtrack.
The Bee Gees' involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs." [8]
Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. [9] Robin Gibb recalled:
We were recording our new album in the north of France. And we'd written about and recorded about four or five songs for the new album when Stigwood rang from LA and said, 'We're putting together this little film, low budget, called Tribal Rites of a Saturday Night. Would you have any songs on hand?', and we said, 'Look, we can't, we haven't any time to sit down and write for a film'. We didn't know what it was about. [10]
The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. [8] The first song they recorded was "If I Can't Have You", but their version was not used in the film.
Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:
They flipped out and said these will be great. We still had no concept of the movie, except some kind of rough script that they'd brought with them ... [8]
Maurice Gibb recalled, "We played him demo tracks of 'If I Can't Have You', 'Night Fever' and 'More Than a Woman'. He asked if we could write it more discoey." [10]
The Brothers Gibb then wrote a song called "Saturday Night" but as Maurice explains,
There were so many songs called 'Saturday Night', even one by the Bay City Rollers, so when we rewrote it for the movie, we called it 'Stayin' Alive'. [10]
The track was recorded at Criteria Studios, with Maurice Gibb playing a bass line similar to the guitar riff, Barry Gibb and Alan Kendall on guitar riffs, and Blue Weaver on synthesizers. Barry chose to sing falsetto on the whole song, except on the line "life’s going nowhere, somebody help me".
Dennis Bryon, who was a backing drummer, left in the middle of the session due to the death of his mother, so the group looked for a replacement. However, as there was a shortage of qualified drummers in the area, they tried out a drum machine, with unsatisfactory results. After listening to the drum track of the already-recorded "Night Fever", they took two bars from that track, and re-recorded them as a loop. [11]
At the time, Saturday Night Fever with Grease held the record for biggest preorders in Netherlands with 150,000 records sold. [12]
The original issue of the album included the original studio version of "Jive Talkin'"; later LP pressings included a version culled from Here at Last ... Bee Gees ... Live . All CD releases have included the original "Jive Talkin'". "Jive Talkin'" was to have been used in a deleted scene taking place the day after Tony Manero's first Saturday night at the disco, but as the sequence was cut for the final film, the song was cut as well. In addition to the Bee Gees songs, additional incidental music was composed and adapted by David Shire. Three of Shire's cues – "Manhattan Skyline", "Night on Disco Mountain" (based on the classical piece "Night on Bald Mountain") and "Salsation" – are included on the soundtrack album as well. Five additional cues – "Tony and Stephanie", "Near the Verrazano Bridge" (both adapted from the Bee Gees' song "How Deep Is Your Love"), "Barracuda Hangout", "Death on the Bridge" and "All Night Train" – while heard in the film, remain unreleased on CD. In 1995, the soundtrack was re-released on CD through Polydor Records. In 2006, the album was re-released on Reprise Records as part of the Bee Gees' regaining control of their master tapes.
To commemorate the movie's 40th anniversary, Capitol Records released a newly remastered version (However, CD 1 is the same remaster used for the 1995 Polydor release.) on April 21, 2017, with the original artwork and gatefold packaging. [13]
On November 17, 2017, a deluxe box set was released with the original soundtrack, 4 new mixes of "Stayin' Alive", "Night Fever", "How Deep Is Your Love" and "You Should Be Dancing", a collector's book, art prints, a movie poster and a turntable mat. [14]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [15] |
Christgau's Record Guide | B+ [16] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [17] |
The Great Rock Discography | 8/10 [18] |
Pitchfork | 8.7/10 [19] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [20] |
Select | [21] |
Along with the success of the movie, the soundtrack, composed and performed primarily by the Bee Gees, is the second best-selling soundtrack album of all time after the soundtrack to The Bodyguard . Saturday Night Fever had a large cultural impact in the United States. The Bee Gees had originally written and recorded five of the songs used in the film – "Stayin' Alive", "Night Fever", "How Deep Is Your Love", "More Than a Woman" (performed in the film in two different versions – one version by Tavares, and another by the Bee Gees) and "If I Can't Have You" (performed in the movie by Yvonne Elliman) as part of a regular album. They had no idea at the time they would be making a soundtrack and said that they basically lost an album in the process.[ citation needed ] Two previously released Bee Gees songs – "Jive Talkin'" and "You Should Be Dancing" – are also included on the soundtrack. Other previously released songs from the disco era round out the music in the movie. Rick Dees' single 'Disco Duck', and another song by Dees, 'Dr. Disco', both appear in the film, but are not included on the soundtrack album.
The soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. [22] It is the only disco album to do so, and one of only three soundtrack albums so honored. In 2012, the album was ranked No. 132 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", ranked again in a 2020 revised list at number 163. [23] The soundtrack hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart's Pop Album and Soul Album charts. In 2003 the TV network VH1 named it the 57th greatest album of all time, and it was ranked 80th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time.[ citation needed ] Pitchfork Media listed Saturday Night Fever as the 34th best album of the 1970s.
The album was added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress on March 21, 2013 for preservation. [24]
All tracks written by Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb, except where noted.
No. | Title | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Stayin' Alive" (performed by Bee Gees) |
| 4:45 |
2. | "How Deep Is Your Love" (performed by Bee Gees) |
| 4:05 |
3. | "Night Fever" (performed by Bee Gees) |
| 3:32 |
4. | "More Than a Woman" (performed by Bee Gees) |
| 3:18 |
5. | "If I Can't Have You" (performed by Yvonne Elliman) | Freddie Perren | 3:00 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "A Fifth of Beethoven" (performed by Walter Murphy) |
| Thomas J. Valentino | 3:03 |
2. | "More Than a Woman" (performed by Tavares) | Perren | 3:17 | |
3. | "Manhattan Skyline" (performed by David Shire) | Shire |
| 4:45 |
4. | "Calypso Breakdown" (performed by Ralph MacDonald) | William Eaton |
| 7:51 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Night on Disco Mountain" (performed by David Shire) |
|
| 5:13 |
2. | "Open Sesame" (performed by Kool & the Gang) | Robert Bell | Kool & the Gang | 3:59 |
3. | "Jive Talkin'" (performed by Bee Gees) | Arif Mardin | 3:44 | |
4. | "You Should Be Dancing" (performed by Bee Gees) |
| 4:14 | |
5. | "Boogie Shoes" (performed by KC and the Sunshine Band) |
| 2:17 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Salsation" (performed by David Shire) | Shire |
| 3:51 |
2. | "K-Jee" (performed by MFSB) |
|
| 4:13 |
3. | "Disco Inferno" (performed by The Trammps) |
| Kersey | 10:51 |
Total length: | 75:54 |
Notes
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
1978 | "How Deep Is Your Love" | Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group [25] | Won |
1979 | Saturday Night Fever | Album of the Year [26] | Won |
Saturday Night Fever | Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group [26] | Won | |
"Stayin' Alive" | Best Arrangement of Voices [26] | Won | |
Barry Gibb, Albhy Galuten, Karl Richardson (producers) | Producer of the Year [26] | Won | |
2004 | Saturday Night Fever | Hall of Fame Award | Won |
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
1979 | Saturday Night Fever | Favorite Soul/R&B album | Won |
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Argentina | — | 100,000 [51] |
Australia (ARIA) [52] | 11× Platinum | 830,000 [53] |
Austria | — | 70,000 [54] |
Belgium | — | 200,000 [55] |
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil) [56] | Gold | 150,000 [56] |
Canada (Music Canada) [57] Various Artists | Diamond | 1,400,000 [58] |
Canada (Music Canada) [59] Bee Gees | 4× Platinum | 400,000^ |
Colombia | — | 15,000 [60] |
Finland | — | 30,000 [55] |
France (SNEP) [61] | Gold | 1,350,000 [62] |
Germany (BVMI) [63] | 3× Platinum | 1,750,000 [64] |
Greece | — | 120,000 [65] |
Hong Kong (IFPI Hong Kong) [66] | Platinum | 70,000 [67] |
India | — | 250,000 [68] |
Ireland | — | 25,000 [69] |
Italy | — | 1,000,000 [70] |
Italy (FIMI) [71] sales since 2009 | Gold | 25,000* |
Japan (Oricon Charts) | — | 693,000 [34] |
Malaysia | — | 20,000 [72] |
Mexico | — | 800,000 [73] |
Netherlands (NVPI) [74] | Platinum | 650,000 [75] |
New Zealand | — | 250,000 [76] |
Norway | — | 180,000 [77] |
Sweden | — | 150,000 [78] |
Switzerland | — | 135,000 [79] |
United Kingdom (BPI) [80] | 7× Platinum | 2,200,000 [81] |
United States (RIAA) [82] | 16× Platinum | 16,000,000‡ |
Summaries | ||
Southeast Asia | — | 150,000 [83] |
Worldwide | — | 40,000,000 [84] |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a local discothèque while dealing with social tensions and disillusionment in his working class ethnic neighborhood in Brooklyn. The story is based on "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night", a mostly fictional 1976 New York article by music writer Nik Cohn.
The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era in the mid-to-late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies: Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid-to-late 1970s and 1980s. The group wrote all their own original material, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists, and are regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop-music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain's First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.
Robert Colin Stigwood was an Australian-born British-resident music entrepreneur, film producer, and impresario, best known for managing musicians such as Cream, Andy Gibb, and the Bee Gees; theatrical productions such as Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar; and film productions, including Grease and Saturday Night Fever.
RSO Records was a record label formed by rock and roll and musical theatre impresario Robert Stigwood and record executive Al Coury in 1973. The letters "RSO" stood for the Robert Stigwood Organisation.
One Night Only is a live album and DVD/Blu-ray by the Bee Gees. It features the group's concert at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 1997 and includes many of their greatest hits.
"Night Fever" is a song written and performed by the Bee Gees. It first appeared on the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever on RSO Records. Producer Robert Stigwood wanted to call the film Saturday Night, but singer Robin Gibb expressed hesitation at the title. Stigwood liked the title Night Fever but was wary of marketing a movie with that name. The song bounded up the Billboard charts while the Bee Gees’ two previous hits from Saturday Night Fever soundtrack were still in the top ten. The record debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart at #76, then leaped up 44 positions to #32. It then moved: 32–17–8–5–2–1. It remained at #1 for eight weeks, and ultimately spent 13 weeks in the top 10. For the first five weeks that "Night Fever" was at #1, "Stayin' Alive" was at #2. Also, for one week in March, Bee Gees related songs held five of the top positions on the Hot 100 chart, and four of the top five positions, with "Night Fever" at the top of the list. The B-side of "Night Fever" was a live version of "Down the Road" taken from the Bee Gees 1977 album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live.
"Stayin' Alive" is a song written and performed by the Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack. The song was released in December 1977 by RSO Records as the second single from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The band wrote the song and co-produced it with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. It is one of the Bee Gees' signature songs. In 2004, "Stayin' Alive" was placed at No. 189 by Rolling Stone on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The 2021 updated Rolling Stone list of 500 Greatest Songs placed "Stayin' Alive" at No. 99. In 2004, it ranked No. 9 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In a UK television poll on ITV in December 2011 it was voted fifth in The Nation's Favourite Bee Gees Song.
"Too Much Heaven" is a song by the Bee Gees, which was the band's contribution to the "Music for UNICEF" fund. They performed it at the Music for UNICEF Concert on 9 January 1979. The song later found its way to the group's thirteenth original album, Spirits Having Flown. It hit No. 1 in both the US and Canada. In the United States, the song was the first single out of three from the album to interrupt a song's stay at #1. "Too Much Heaven" knocked "Le Freak" off the top spot for two weeks before "Le Freak" returned to #1 again. "Too Much Heaven" also rose to the top three in the UK. In the US, it would become the fourth of six consecutive No. 1s, equaling the record set by Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles for the most consecutive No. 1 songs. The six Bee Gee songs are "How Deep Is Your Love", "Stayin' Alive", "Night Fever", "Too Much Heaven", "Tragedy" and "Love You Inside Out". The songs spanned the years of 1977, 1978 and 1979.
Spirits Having Flown is the fifteenth album by the Bee Gees, released in 1979 by RSO Records. It was the group's first album after their collaboration on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The album's first three tracks were released as singles and all reached No. 1 in the US, giving the Bee Gees an unbroken run of six US chart-toppers in a one-year period and equaling a feat shared by Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles. It was the first Bee Gees album to make the UK top 40 in ten years, as well as being their first and only UK No. 1 album. Spirits Having Flown also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and the US. The album has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
"Tragedy" is a song released by the Bee Gees, written by Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb, included on their 1979 album Spirits Having Flown. The single reached number one in the UK in February 1979 and repeated the feat the following month on the US Billboard Hot 100. In 1998, it was covered by British pop group Steps, whose version also reached number one in the UK. In 2024, it was used in the film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, as well as its trailer.
Children of the World is the fourteenth studio album by the Bee Gees, released in 1976 by RSO Records. The first single, "You Should Be Dancing", went to No. 1 in the US and Canada, and was a top ten hit in numerous other territories. The album was re-issued on CD by Reprise Records and Rhino Records in 2006. This was the first record featuring the Gibb-Galuten-Richardson production team which would have many successful collaborations in the following years. Many consider this a "prologue" to the band's foray into disco, which would culminate with the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack the following year.
"You Should Be Dancing" is a song by the Bee Gees, from the album Children of the World, released in 1976. It hit No. 1 for one week on the American Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 for seven weeks on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart, and in September the same year, reached No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart. The song also peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Soul chart. It was this song that first launched the Bee Gees into disco. It was also the only track from the group to top the dance chart.
The discography of the British-Australian musical group Bee Gees consists of 39 albums, 83 singles and 37 music videos. In a career spanning more than 50 years, the Gibb brothers have already sold over 120 million records worldwide, becoming among the best-selling music artists in history. Billboard ranked them as the 28th Greatest Artist[s] of All Time. According to RIAA, the Bee Gees have sold 28 million certified albums in the United States.
"How Deep Is Your Love" is a ballad written and recorded by the Bee Gees in 1977 and released as a single in September of that year by RSO Records. It was ultimately used as part of the soundtrack to the film Saturday Night Fever. It was a number-three hit in the United Kingdom and Australia. In the United States, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 on 25 December 1977 and stayed in the Top 10 for 17 weeks. It spent six weeks atop the US adult contemporary chart. It is listed at No. 27 on Billboard's All Time Top 100. Alongside "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever", it is one of the group's three tracks on the list. The song was covered by Take That for their 1996 Greatest Hits album, reaching No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks.
"If I Can't Have You" is a disco song written by the Bee Gees in 1977. The song initially appeared on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in a version by Yvonne Elliman, released in November 1977. The Bee Gees' own version appeared a month later as the B-side of "Stayin' Alive".
Albhy Galuten is an American technology executive and futurist, Grammy Award-winning record producer, composer, musician, orchestrator and conductor.
"(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" is a song performed by Andy Gibb, released in September 1977 as the second and final single by RSO Records from his debut album, Flowing Rivers (1977). The song was his second single that topped the US Billboard Hot 100. It was mainly written by Barry Gibb, with help from Andy Gibb and produced by Gibb-Galuten-Richardson. The B-side of this song was "Words and Music" in the US, but "Flowing Rivers" in the UK. It became a gold record.
Greatest is a greatest hits album by the Bee Gees. Released by RSO Records in October 1979, the album is a retrospective of the group's material from 1975 to 1979. A remastered and expanded version of the album was released by Reprise Records in 2007.
"More Than a Woman" is a song by musical group the Bee Gees, written by Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb for the soundtrack to the film Saturday Night Fever. It became a regular feature of the group's live sets from 1977 until Maurice Gibb's death in 2003 and was often coupled with "Night Fever".
"Fine Line" is a 1984 single by Barry Gibb. The song was written by Gibb and keyboardist George Bitzer. It is the second and final single from his debut solo album Now Voyager. It was released in October 1984 in North America by MCA Records and in most countries by Polydor Records. The song failed to chart in the United States, but it did manage to reach #50 on the Hot Dance Club Songs. The 12" version of this song was remixed by Larry Patterson. This single was less successful than his previous single, "Shine, Shine".
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)The article shows a list of records certified as Gold by ABPD. The albums were certified Gold in Brazil for 150,000 sold, according to the source.