‘Saturday Night Fever’ is ‘Stayin’ Alive’ at 45

The soundtrack to “Saturday Night Fever” wasn’t the start of the sensation known as disco, but the album, highlighted by an array of unforgettable Bee Gees tunes, catapulted the dance genre to another level.

Disco was ubiquitous after the exceptional “Saturday Night Fever” hit screens in December 1977. John Travolta is magnetic as Tony Manero, a struggling, immature 19-year-old killing time working in a hardware store by day but king of the dance floor by night.

The compelling love story, the disturbingly dysfunctional group of friends and the desire to rise above the lower-middle class all helped make John Badham’s film a classic. “Saturday Night Fever” wouldn’t have worked nearly as well, however, if it weren’t for one of the greatest soundtracks in music history.

If the Bee Gees weren’t responsible for eight of the 17 tracks, the film would have been very different. It would have been akin to the stories about classic films with an alternate cast. For instance, Billy Wilder’s brilliant “Some Like It Hot” was to have originally starred Frank Sinatra and Mitzi Gaynor instead of Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. It wouldn’t have worked out anywhere near as well with Ol’ Blue Eyes and anyone but Monroe.

The same can be said if the primary sonic architects of “Saturday Night Fever” were the Village People or Lipps Inc, instead of the Bee Gees.

Arguably the greatest soundtrack of all time was released 45 years ago and disco hit the upper echelon thanks to such dance anthems as “Stayin’ Alive,” “Night Fever” and “You Should be Dancing.”

The Gibbs brothers – Barry, Maurice and Robin – repurposed a few songs such as “Stayin’ Alive,” and banged out a few songs over a 48-hour period for the film, which had already been shot.

The dance scenes were electric thanks to Travolta, who was so brilliant that no edits were required, and the Gibbs’ songcraft.

The Bee Gees had several hit singles before “Saturday Night Fever,” including the No. 1 smash “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” But Barry Gibb discovered the falsetto and he and his brothers just knocked it out of the park to propel the soundtrack to sales of more than 40 million.

“Saturday Night Fever” was the No. 1 album on the Billboard chart for the first half of 1978 and stayed on the charts until March 1980 when disco was on a ventilator.

The 2020 documentary, “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” provides tremendous detail about that halcyon period.

Barry Gibb revealed that he didn’t know much about “Saturday Night Fever.” The film’s producers told the Gibbs brothers it was about a guy who works in a paint store by day and parties Saturday night.

After listening to “Saturday Night Fever” and much of the rest of the Bee Gees catalog, it’s evident there is nothing comparable for the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers.

“You can buy a Stratocaster and a box amp and sound like Buddy Holly, but you can’t sound like the Bee Gees,” singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher said during the documentary. “You can’t buy that.”

Gallagher, who became one of the biggest stars of the ’90s with his brother Liam Gallagher with Oasis and Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, who also appeared in the film, understands the power of brotherly harmonies.

The combination of the Gibbs brothers harmonies are akin to a musical fingerprint. No one has replicated their sound.

Younger recording artists, such as Justin Timberlake and Mark Ronson, gush during the documentary about what the soundtrack means to them. It just shows that tremendous songwriting lives on in perpetuity.

When disco perished during the early ’80s, the Bee Gees, as the genre’s cover boys, went down with the ship. They resurfaced as songwriters, however, immediately penning Barbra Streisand’s smash “A Woman in Love.”

Music is about the songs and the Bee Gees created them in every era.

The Gibbs brothers were never greater than during the “Saturday Night Fever” period. Their songs propelled a film from good to great, which doesn’t happen often.