I usually don’t struggle to find my “song of the day”, but tonight, for some reason, I just couldn’t come up with anything that I hadn’t already played.  Probably because I just finished my “mini-rants” post and the remnants of angst are still pinging around in my head.  Anyway, I threw out some random ideas, then hit upon this one by the Bee Gees.

In 1977, The Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood was producing a movie about the New York disco scene. The working title of the film was “Saturday Night,” so he asked the group to write a song of that name. The Bee Gees thought it was a dumb title, but they had already written a song called “Night Fever.” They convinced Stigwood to use that and change the film’s title to Saturday Night Fever. The movie became a classic, telling a coming-of-age story in the disco era. It helped launch the film career of John Travolta, who starred as Tony Manero, the conflicted youth who escaped his troubles on the dance floor.

The soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever sold over 30 million copies worldwide and won the 1978 Grammy for Album Of The Year. This was the third single from the soundtrack and its biggest hit, remaining on the top of the Hot 100 for eight weeks in early 1978. It also topped the British singles chart for two weeks and won a 1978 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Group.  According to Robin Gibb …

“The idea for the film that became Saturday Night Fever started when our manager, Robert Stigwood, saw an article in New York magazine entitled ‘Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night’ by Nik Cohn, talking about teenagers going to dancing competitions. When they first started dance rehearsals for the film with John Travolta, they were using our song ‘You Should Be Dancing,’ which had been released the previous year. We were mixing a live album in France and Robert rang and asked if we had any other songs we could contribute. In the end we had five new tracks – ‘Staying Alive,’ ‘How Deep is Your Love?’ ‘Night Fever,’ ‘More Than a Woman’ and ‘If I Can’t Have You’ (recorded by Yvonne Elliman) – plus the previously released ‘Jive Talkin” and ‘You Should Be Dancing.’ It was also our idea to call it Saturday Night Fever, because the competitions were on Saturday and we already had the track ‘Night Fever.’

Until the film came out, ‘disco’ meant something very different in the UK to the US. We were writing what we considered to be blue-eyed soul. We never set out to make ourselves the kings of disco, although plenty of other people tried to jump on the bandwagon after the success of the film. When we went to the premiere at the Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles it was obvious the film and the songs really gelled, but none of us had any idea how huge it would become. It remains the biggest-selling soundtrack ever, and very few artists have created something with the cultural impact that Saturday Night Fever had.”

Night Fever
Bee Gees

Listen to the ground
There is movement all around
There is something goin’ down
And I can feel it

On the waves of the air
There is dancin’ out there
If it’s somethin’ we can share
We can steal it

And that sweet city woman
She moves through the light
Controlling my mind and my soul
When you reach out for me
Yeah, and the feelin’ is right

Then I get night fever, night fever
We know how to do it
Gimme that night fever, night fever
We know how to show it

Here I am
Prayin’ for this moment to last
Livin’ on the music so fine
Borne on the wind
Makin’ it mine

Night fever, night fever
We know how to do it
Gimme that night fever, night fever
We know how to show it

In the heat of our love
Don’t need no help for us to make it
Gimme just enough to take us to the mornin’
I got fire in my mind
I get higher in my walkin’
And I’m glowin’ in the dark
I give you warnin’

And that sweet city woman
She moves through the night
Controlling my mind and my soul
When you reach out for me
Yeah, and the feelin’ is right

Then I get night fever, night fever
We know how to do it
Gimme that night fever, night fever
We know how to show it

Here I am
Prayin’ for this moment to last
Livin’ on the music so fine
Borne on the wind
Makin’ it mine

Night fever, night fever
We know how to do it
Gimme that night fever, night fever
We know how to show it

Gimme that night fever, night fever
We know how to do it
Gimme that night fever, night fever
We know how to show it
Gimme that night fever, night fever
We know how to do it

Songwriters: Robin Hugh Gibb / Maurice Ernest Gibb / Barry Gibb / Barry Alan Gibb / Maurice Gibb / Robin Gibb
Night Fever lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group