Bee gees saturday night fever album cover

#Bee gees saturday night fever album cover movie#

Saturday Night Fever -В which was so successful at the time that it was eventually released in both 'R' and 'PG' versions - showcases Manero's troubled and often comical personal life, highlighted by his Friday and Saturday nights dancing at Bay Ridge's 2001 Odyssey disco, which define his and his friends' otherwise empty lives. The film, which turned actor John TravoltaВ into a global superstar, told the story of Tony Manero, a 19-year-old from Brooklyn going nowhere fast, whose only bright spot is as the weekend king of the disco floor. Surprisingly, there are even Latin rhythms on Saturday Night Fever, most notably on M.F.S.B.'s 'K-Jee' but also consigned to the souped-up incidental music by David Shire and Ralph McDonald.It was 44 years ago today (December 16th, 1977) that Saturday Night FeverВ opened nationally. And of course there's novelty: Walter Murphy's 'Fifth of Beethoven' is not just the height of disco-geek cheese, but also the precursor to 'serious' undertakings by contemporary artists like Mirwais and Moby.

There's soul: The Trammps' 10-story 'Disco Inferno'- the extended cut, no less- provides both the soundtrack's climax and its denouement. There's funk: 'Open Sesame' doesn't rank among Kool & the Gang's absolute best cuts, but its silly vocals and breakneck horns are nevertheless impressive. Saturday Night Fever is by no means the definitive compilation of disco- Rhino's 4xCD Disco Box, for example, is obviously more comprehensive, and Strut's Disco (Not Disco) comps and Tommy Boy's The Perfect Beats help capture proto-, post-, and underground disco- but even beyond the contributions of the Bee Gees, it does have the potential to be a gateway comp, exposing listeners to a small range of disco subgenres.

Their portion of the soundtrack forms a condensed hits package that few bands of the era can rival. With its snaking instrumental melody and sneaking beat, opener 'Stayin' Alive' is all cocksure strut, even separated from Travolta's stroll through the credits, and 'Night Fever' and 'You Should Be Dancin'' have an urgency that makes dancin' seem like a life-or-death imperative. As such, they should be critical pariahs on par with Stone Temple Pilots or the Killers, but their six tracks on Saturday Night Fever are frequently brilliant and redemptively fun. It makes cynical sense: The Bee Gees played their own instruments had a dubious history in sub-Beatles pop and were white and handsome- all of which made them more marketable to new audiences than their black, female, or homosexual peers.

Similarly, the soundtrack, which Rhino is reissuing on its 30th anniversary, is a showcase for hetero heartthrobs the Bee Gees, who contribute a third of the tracklist, get a writing credit for Yvonne Elliman's 'If I Can't Have You', and even grace the cover as some sort of mirrorball Holy Trinity. That film only existed when Travolta danced.' In addition to his extraordinary dance moves, the actor's edgy, preening presence holds the camera's attention as it juxtaposes him with the lifeless neighborhood around him.

#Bee gees saturday night fever album cover movie#

The movie itself is seedy in a different way (rape, bigotry, death), but as film critic David Thompson writes, 'Children ignored its.sordid suburban context.