Saturday Night Fever - Various Artists

The writer’s of Saturday Night Fever must of had an inkling of how successful the film would be, they gave John Travolta’s character the surname Manero, which is the Portuguese for cool. The Bee Gee’s however had no idea of what was in store after the films release.

The Gibb brothers are from the Isle of Man, when you think of Disco, its not exactly Studio 54 but this is where the writers of the archetypal disco album hailed form. They were nothing if not prolific with a mere 14 albums under their belt before they began work on this weeks Critical Junction, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever.

Dispel your love or hate for disco for this nugget of music mastery as this is not only a successful album but an important one to boot. In the United States, the album has gone platinum fifteen times and it is the number one best-selling soundtrack of all time. The cultural impact of Saturday Night Fever in the U.S was tremendous, bringing the Disco scene out of the clubs and into the mainstream something we are paying fore even today.

The Majority of the songs on the Album were written by the Bee Gees, Standard classics now like Night Fever, Stayin’ Alive, If I Cant Have you and Jive Talking litter the album. Disco stalwarts Kool And The Gang and KC & The Sunshine Band are also found on this seminal soundtrack. At the height of his powers legendary 70’s film scorer David Shire contributed a number of incidental pieces to the soundtrack.

Amazingly the songs written by the Bee Gee’s were done before a script was written for the film. But they knew the idea behind the film and how their songs would be used and what they penned says more than the script ever could.

Stayin’ Alive opens Saturday Night Fever as John Travolta struts along a city sidewalk. A teasing thirty seconds of that scene was shown in fifteen hundred theatres a week before the movie actually opened. A record was not yet available, but people began calling RSO anyway, asking for "Stayin' Alive."

The single broke in mid-December 1977, spending four weeks at number one in February 1978. It was on the charts for more than six months, and won a Grammy.

You Should Be Dancing is still sampled by DJ’s it is a dance floor filler start to finish as is Disco Inferno by Tramps.

So grab your white leisure suit, get out that disco ball and boogie down to the album that launched the craze. Barry, Robin, Maurice and a host of smooth polyester wearing disco stars will transport you back to shake your booty.


Track listing

1. Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees
2. How Deep Is Your Love - Bee Gees
3. Night Fever - Bee Gees
4. More Than A Woman - Bee Gees
5. Jive Talkin' - Bee Gees
6. You Should Be Dancing - Bee Gees
7. Calypso Breakdown - Donaldson, Ralph
8. If I Can't Have You - Elliman, Yvonne
9. Fifth Of Beethoven - Murphy, Walter
10. Open Sesame - Kool & The Gang 1
1. Boogie Shoes - KC & The Sunshine Band
12. MFSB - KC & The Sunshine Band
13. K Jee - KC & The Sunshine Band
14. Disco Inferno - Tramps
15. Manhattan Skyline - Tramps
16. Night On Disco Mountain - Tramps
17. Salsation - Tramps