Movie Music Monday – Saturday Night Fever

Today we wish a happy 79th birthday to Barry Gibb!

As a songwriter, Barry shares with John Lennon and Paul McCartney the record for most consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number ones, each having six. In total, he has written or co-written sixteen Billboard Hot 100 number ones.

Barry and the Bee Gees had a ton of hits in the 70’s – many of them can be found on the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever.

For a little history on today’s song, I turned to Songfacts:

In 1977, The Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood was producing a movie about the New York disco scene. The working title of the film was “Saturday Night,” so he asked the group to write a song of that name. The Bee Gees thought it was a dumb title, but they had already written a song called “Night Fever.” They convinced Stigwood to use that and change the film’s title to Saturday Night Fever. The movie became a classic, telling a coming-of-age story in the disco era. It helped launch the film career of John Travolta, who starred as Tony Manero, the conflicted youth who escaped his troubles on the dance floor.

The soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever sold over 30 million copies worldwide and won the 1978 Grammy for Album Of The Year. Night Fever was the third single from the soundtrack and its biggest hit, remaining on the top of the Hot 100 for eight weeks in early 1978. It also topped the British singles chart for two weeks and won a 1978 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Group.

In America, it spent more weeks (eight) at #1 than any other song in 1978. For five of those weeks (March 18 – April 15), another Bee Gees song from Saturday Night Fever, “Staying Alive,” was #2. The last week it was at #1 (May 6), “More Than a Woman” by Tavares, which was written by the Bee Gees and featured in the film, reached its chart peak of #32. The following week, “If I Can’t Have You” replaced “Night Fever” at #1.

Light up the disco ball … Happy Birthday, Barry!