Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: Saturday Night Fever

36 years ago today, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever – and, in a very real way, the soundtrack to the late ‘70s – made its debut at the pinnacle of the Billboard Top 200, which is where it stayed (alive) for an astounding 18 consecutive weeks.

Much of the Bee Gees’ material on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was intended for what would’ve been the group’s follow-up to 1976’s Children of the World...or, if you’re counting live albums, then it was the follow-up to 1977’s Here at Last…Bee Gees…Live. But, really, who counts live albums? Either way, though, the brothers Gibb first started the recording process for what was going to be their next album with “If I Can’t Have You,” and by the time all was said and done, the Bee Gees ended up with six of their songs on the soundtrack…and that wasn’t even one of them!

Well, actually, it was. But it wasn’t by them. It was by Yvonne Elliman. The Bee Gees’ actual contributions were “Stayin’ Alive,” “How Deep Is Your Love,” “Night Fever,” “More Than a Woman,” “Jive Talkin’,” and “You Should Be Dancing.”

Although it’s said without citation within the soundtrack’s Wikipedia page that the group “said that they basically lost an album in the process,” it’s easy enough to imagine them grumbling about it…right up until it became a huge freaking hit, that is. At that point, even though there may have been further mild grumbling later in their career about the albatross that was disco, you have to believe that the Bee Gees were pretty gleeful about the soundtrack’s success.

And, of course, the Bee Gees weren’t the only artist to reap the rewards of Saturday Night Fever. In addition to the brothers Gibb and Elliman , other contributors to the soundtrack included Walter Murphy (“A Fifth of Beethoven”), Tavares (also tackling “More Than a Woman”), David Shire (“Manhattan Skyline,” “Night on Disco Mountain,” and “Salsation”), Kool & the Gang (“Open Sesame”), KC and the Sunshine Band (“Boogie Shoes”), MFSB (“K-Jee”), and The Trammps (“Disco Inferno”).

On July 8, 1978, Saturday Night Fever’s streak was finally broken, with Gerry Rafferty ascending to #1 with City to City, an album which did not spend 18 weeks at the top of the chart. But on the other hand, it did give us “Baker Street” and “Right Down the Line,” so Rafferty earned his own bit of immortality, too. It’s no disco classic, mind you, but it’s still not bad.