Background
When the Bee Gees completed mixing their live album Here at Last...Bee Gees...Live at Le Chateau, they began recording songs for their next album. "If I Can't Have You" was the first song they recorded, but it was not used on the film. The Bee Gees' songs were started in Le Chateau, France and were finished in Criteria and Cherokee Studios. All of the songs have Barry as the lead vocalist as it was pretty much established on Children of the World that his voice was now the voice of the Bee Gees. With mostly falsetto and an occasional breathy natural voice, Barry did much of the backing and harmony vocals with Robin and Maurice. On the recording of the songs, Maurice is sometimes notable for bass guitar parts and Blue Weaver on keyboards and synthesizer.
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 1994, the soundtrack was re-released on CD through Polydor Records. The album was recently re-released on Reprise Records, as part of the Bee Gees' regaining control of their master tapes.
Along with the success of the movie, the soundtrack, composed and performed primarily by the Bee Gees, was the best-selling soundtrack album of all time (it was later surpassed by Whitney Houston's soundtrack to The Bodyguard). The cultural impact of Saturday Night Fever in the United States was tremendous. The Bee Gees had originally written and recorded the 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. 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.
The soundtrack also won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The only disco album to do so.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 131 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
The soundtrack hit the No. 1 spot on Billboard Music Chart's Pop Album and Soul Album charts. In 2003 the TV network VH1 named it the 57th greatest album of all time.
Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Soundtrack was ranked 80th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time.
Pitchfork Media listed Saturday Night Fever as 34th best album of the 1970s.
Read more about this topic: Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track
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