DAY 220: Night Fever by Bee Gees
Album: Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack Release: November 15th, 1977 Genre: Disco
I donât care what any damn music historians or critics have to say, disco is a dirty pleasure of mine and nobody can ever take that from me. I mean, itâs a genre that revolves around dancing and having a good time. What isnât there to love? The 70â˛s were dominated by disco culture, a decade long party that came to an abrupt end after fierce resistance from metal heads and rock and rollers. No movement has taken America by storm quite like disco fever, although echoes of its influence can still be heard on occasion in todayâs music. Discoâs popularity cannot be denied, and you donât have to look any further than the list of best-selling albums of all time. Just underneath The Eagleâs Hotel California and above Fleetwood Macâs Rumours resides the highest selling soundtrack of all time, Saturday Night Fever. This groundbreaking soundtrack to the cult classic movie is a whos-who of disco music, featuring songs written for the film by bands like Kool & the Gang and KC & the Sunshine Band. However, the overall curation was overseen by one of discoâs greatest acts, the Bee Gees. In fact, most of their well-known songs were made specifically for Saturday Night Fever, including their magnum opus Stayinâ Alive. But before we can talk about their crowning achievement, we canât go without talking about the early days of the Bee Gees. Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibbs began their career in music in the late 60â˛s with a much different sound than what they are remembered for. Disco wasnât even a thing when the Bee Gees began recording music, and took on a much more fitting sound for the time that more closely emulated bands like The Beatles who were dominating the charts at the time. Listening to their early library, you would never guess that the guys playing would end up being one of discoâs greatest acts. Where did the switch occur? Well, it began during a period of dormancy for the Bee Gees, who had broken up as a band at the end of the 60â˛s and soon after reformed with just the core trio of brothers. The three struggled to find a core sound and debated whether or not to deviate from their previous sound. The group moved to more dance-oriented music during their time in Miami, Florida in 1975 and began receiving recognition not long after. Part of this recognition came from David Shire, a composer who was in the midst of creating the score for a movie about disco culture entitled Saturday Night Fever. Initially, the soundtrack was set to include names like Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs, but Shire was denied usage rights by Columbia Records who owned the rights to the music. Shire was faced with a massive copyright problem in a film that was already in post-production. Lead actor for Saturday Night Fever John Travolta had never heard of the Bee Gees, the group his character would now be dancing to throughout the movie. The Bee Gees were skeptical to undertake the daunting task, but ended up contributing their part to the soundtrack in a recording session that lasted only about one weekend. In that weekend, the Bee Gees had created memorable hits like More Than A Woman and todayâs featured track Night Fever which would become career staples. Just about every track from Saturday Night Fever of the Bee Gees contains the signature disco sound, but there is a certain element to Night Fever that has my toe tapping just a little harder. The tight harmonies of the Gibbs brothers are a hallmark of any disco-era Bee Gees song, and the trio shines bright in Night Fever. Barry Gibbâs silky smooth lead vocals set the tone for this funky little jam, backed by a standard disco beat that doesnât try too hard to outshine the vocal talent. This careful balance between synthesized riffs and sultry chorus lines proved to be the X factor for the Bee Gees among their fellow artists on Saturday Night Fever, and they truly steal the show from not only their musical contemporaries, but the on-screen actors as well. Sure, everybody knows Stayinâ Alive, but how much else of the Bee Gees do you enjoy? Spoiler alert: the answer is probably most of their work. But youâll never know unless you get your booty on the dance floor and shake it out to fully gain the immersive experience!







