The Intro

In the 10 years since their last number 1, The Bee Gees had split, reunited and suffered wilderness years before a remarkable comeback. They rode the disco wave and set the charts alight with a string of hits and eventually returned to the top of the charts once more with this smooth song from the Saturday Night Fever (1977) soundtrack.

Before

Following their second number 1, I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You, The Bee Gees lost their lead guitarist, Vince Melouney. He had been the only non-Gibb brother to write and sing on a Bee Gees album, with the track Such a Shame on Idea. He did however feature on their fourth LP Odessa, a sprawling double album released in 1969. A single, First of May, reached six, but Robin wasn’t happy that his song Lamplight was relegated to the B-side. Such was the tension between he and Barry, he announced he was leaving the band to pursue a solo career.

Barry and Maurice continued, releasing the bizarrely named Cucumber Castle. During recording, they fired drummer Colin Petersen and hired Pentangle’s Terry Cox to finish the sessions instead. The first single from it, Don’t Forget to Remember, was a big hit, peaking at two. However, by the time the album was released in 1970, The Bee Gees were no more, and sales plummeted. Robin’s solo album Robin’s Reign was released around the same time, but planned releases by Barry and Maurice never saw the light of day.

It wasn’t long before they reunited. Robin rang Barry and they made amends, announcing The Bee Gees were back that August. The album 2 Years On followed, with new drummer Geoff Bridgford. The single Lonely Days did well in the US but not here. How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, from the LP Trafalgar, became their first US number 1, in 1971. That year, Alan Kendall became their lead guitarist.

Run to Me, from To Whom It May Concern, became their first top 10 hit in three years, climbing to nine in 1972. But their commercial appeal shrank hugely and their next albums, Life in a Tin Can (1973) and Mr Natural (1974), sank without trace. They found themselves performing in tiny Yorkshire clubs, with a new drummer, Dennis Byron.

Bolstered by former Strawbs keyboardist Blue Weaver, The Bee Gees moved to Miami, Florida and recorded their 13th album Main Course. Following the advice of manager Robert Stigwood and producer Arif Mardin, they adopted a disco sound and Barry began using a falsetto for the first time. The funky Jive Talkin’ rightly returned them to the mainstream, hitting number 1 in the US and five in the UK. They were bona fide superstars and followed up their Main Course with Children of the World a year later. First single You Should Be Dancing, featuring Stephen Stills on percussion, earned them another US number 1, reaching five in the UK.

After the release of live album Here at Last… Bee Gees… Live the Gibbs agreed to work on the film that made them a bona fide phenomenon. Saturday Night Fever was in post-production when the Bee Gees began recording for the soundtrack. The Bee Gees were recording their next album in France when Stigwood rang them and asked if they’d consider helping out and they originally refused, saying they hadn’t the time. They relented and, with nothing but a rough script as a guideline, recording demos. It’s weird to imagine, but before the Gibbs were involved, John Travolta was originally dancing to music by Boz Scaggs and Stevie Wonder when filming his famous dance scenes.

To say The Bee Gees got it right is an understatement. The soundtrack became enormously successful. You wouldn’t know from this collection of disco classics and soul ballads, primarily by the Gibbs, that the actual film was a gritty, bleak affair. It’s fair to say it marked the peak of the commercial appeal of disco, turning it into a true phenomenon. It’s one of the best-selling albums of all time and every single it spawned – How Deep Is Your Love, More Than a Woman, Stayin’ Alive and Night Fever, became global smashes and all became US chart-toppers. Amazingly, Night Fever was the only one of the four to be number 1 on these shores.

The film was originally going to be called Saturday Night and Stigwood was hoping his group would write a title track but The Bee Gees noted there were too many songs already out there with that name. They offered Night Fever but he wasn’t keen on that as a movie title, so they compromised and the film was renamed.

Among the demos began in April 1977, it was inspired by Blue Weaver noodling on a string synthesiser. He had been wanting to record a disco version of Theme From a Summer Place and when Barry heard it he knew they had the origins of a brand new song. Barry, Robin and Maurice completed the lyrics sitting on a staircase, which was how they wrote their first international hit New York Mining Disaster 1941.

Review

These days Night Fever is considered one of the least impressive Bee Gees hits of the era. I don’t agree with this. It’s not as good as Stayin’ Alive but that’s one of the best disco songs of all time. Night Fever is nearly just as good but for different reasons. The main issue seems to be that the chorus doesn’t have the same impact as the verses. That sense of urgency, in which Barry is so intense you can’t really understand what he’s saying, turns into lovely, gentle harmonies, and then the chorus is a more sedate but blissful affair. I love it.

The highlight of the song is the string synth, it’s just gorgeous and I can’t quite believe it’s not a real orchestral arrangement. And although The Bee Gees are rightly better remembered for their melodies than their lyrics, those verses are great so it’s a shame they’re almost unintelligible. They really capture the magic of a night on the dancefloor, totally lost in music.

After

The more famous Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb became, the more ridiculous and ripe for parodying their image became. The trousers got tighter. The hairy chests came out. The gold medallions displayed proudly, as they flashed those famous large pearly whites. It’s worth checking out the official video above. It was recorded in 1978 but unseen until 2004. Barry has no beard!

The Info

Written by

Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb & Maurice Gibb

Producers

Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten & Karl Richardson

Weeks at number 1

2 (29 April-12 May)

Meanwhile…

1 May: The early May Day bank holiday was enjoyed for the first time.

4 May: When Altab Ali was murdered in East London in a racially motivated attack, the British Bangladeshi community protested. 

6 May: Ipswich Town won the FA Cup for the first time, defeating Arsenal 1-0 in the final at Wembley.

10 May: Liverpool retained the European Cup with a 1–0 win over Club Brugge KV, also at Wembley.