Bee Gees:
The tune was also on the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack album as if you didn't know, Gentle Reader, assuming you're "of a certain age." And yeah: I bought it. And I played it, a lot. From The Wiki:
The cultural impact of Saturday Night Fever in the United States was tremendous.
[...]
The soundtrack also won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[4]
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 #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.
Pretty successful, no? The album's success and sales make it all the more interesting that a lot of my contemporaries pull a "Good Morning, Mr. Phelps" where SNF is concerned, which is to say they "disavow all knowledge" of its existence and the fact they boogied down to the tunes therein. That might also be because we ALL know "Disco SUCKED," right? Either that or the missions of my contemporaries weren't successful, thus the disavowal of all knowledge.
I think that is you in your wedding dress on the album cover!
ReplyDeleteI think it was amazing how the Bee Gee's reinvented themselves! Compare this to when the lights went out in mass. Sort of like Pet Sounds, and Sgt Pepper completely left everything behind as ancient.
The song was actually inspired by driving over a drawbridge every day to the studio (acording to Barry).
He said that everyday the tires would go "che-che-che" as they went over the steel cage material of the draw part of the bridge. Ack, if you've never been over a drawbridge made out of steel mesh you won't know what I am on about.
I learned to bump-my-rump to this album.
ReplyDeleteNever got laid with anything having to do with disco, lawrence welk, or hee-haw.
Wink
I listened to this song over and over again, with pleasure, from a jukebox at the little beach snack shop where I worked one summer. What a catchy rhythm! Nice memories of my young self and my elder partner (I'm her age now, I think!) as I cooked the burgers and she handled the crowd. Listened to the Apollo-Soyuz docking (1975) on the radio that summer, too, and thought, how great! I also spilled a huge bowl of melted butter on the bottom of the refrigerator. Yikes! (Yes, we cooked with real butter.)
ReplyDeleteHeh - I even have the movie on DVD. Loved the Bee Gees and not ashamed to admit it.
ReplyDeleteThey were the top of the heap in their day; Jive Talkin' was one of the best they ever did. I'm a sucker for harmonies, no matter where I can find them.
The guys were GOOD. You're right, though. A lot of folks paint disco with the "what were they thinking" brush.
ReplyDeleteNot me. I can watch SNF, and still enjoy it just as much as when I was a teenager.
Good stuff, stands up well over time.
ReplyDeleteThere was no shortage of good music from the 70's except for that Starland Vocal Band nonsense.
I think that is you in your wedding dress on the album cover!
ReplyDeleteNah... I was a redhead then. And the album came out before I married, anyhoo. Good take on the Bee Gees reinventing themselves, Pont-Levis.
Never got laid with anything having to do with disco, lawrence welk, or hee-haw.
Heh. Hee-Haw never worked for me, either. Mainly coz I never let it get close.
Bec: That's the coolest dang thing about music... you hear a certain tune and BAM! there you are, right back there. That works two ways, of course.
Kris: The Bee Gees were at the top at the time. Big time.
I can watch SNF, and still enjoy it just as much as when I was a teenager.
Heh. You puppy, you.
There was no shortage of good music from the 70's except for that Starland Vocal Band nonsense.
Their ONE hit was in constant rotation when I nearly died in the hospital at Yokota AB (the story is in my sidebar: "Weird Scenes V") and I think it MIGHT have been playin' at a most appropriate time. Ergo, I have a weird attachment to that particular tune.
I always preferred Disco Duck myself. :)
ReplyDeleteI could bump-my-rump too, but two-steppin' was more my style and I was glad when Urban Cowboy came out.
ReplyDelete