#91 Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack

The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time

2025 Album Rank

91

2011 Album Rank

74

Total Points

706

Year Released

1977

Billboard 200 Chart Peak

1

Weeks at #1

24

RIAA Sales Certification

16,000,000 (Multi-Platinum)

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Saturday Night Fever Album Details

Released in November 1977, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack defined the disco era and became one of the best-selling albums of all time. Serving as the musical backdrop for the film starring John Travolta, the album captured the energy, rhythm, and emotion of late-70s dance culture. Dominated by the Bee Gees, who wrote and performed most of the key tracks, it featured a mix of dancefloor anthems, soulful ballads, and pulsing instrumentals that turned disco into a global phenomenon.

The soundtrack includes enduring classics like Stayin' Alive, Night Fever, How Deep Is Your Love, and More Than a Woman. Its seamless fusion of falsetto harmonies, lush production, and irresistible grooves turned it into a cultural landmark. The album topped charts worldwide, won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1979, and played a central role in the mainstream embrace, and eventual backlash, against disco. Its legacy remains as a quintessential snapshot of the 1970s and the power of music to define an era.

Interesting Facts about Saturday Night Fever

• The Bee Gees wrote five of the album's tracks in just one weekend at the Château d'Hérouville studio in France after being asked to contribute music for the film mid-production.
• Stayin' Alive was recorded in France without a live drummer. The track uses a looped two-bar drum track taken from Night Fever, resulting in one of the most iconic beats in pop history.
• Though Night Fever was originally considered for the film's title, the producers preferred to keep Saturday Night and added "Fever" after hearing the Bee Gees' demo.
• More Than a Woman appears twice on the soundtrack, once by the Bee Gees and once by Tavares, giving the album a unique dual version of the same song.
• The soundtrack includes instrumental cuts like A Fifth of Beethoven by Walter Murphy and Calypso Breakdown by Ralph MacDonald, showcasing disco's stylistic breadth beyond just vocal tracks.
• The Bee Gees were not initially involved in the film's production and only began writing songs after filming had started. Their tracks were added post-shoot and shaped much of the film's final tone.
• The album stayed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 24 consecutive weeks and sold over 40 million copies globally, making it one of the top-selling albums in history.
• John Travolta rehearsed his dance scenes to Boz Scaggs and Stevie Wonder, not the Bee Gees, whose music was added in post-production.
• The song Jive Talkin', a previous Bee Gees hit, was also included on the album to flesh out the soundtrack's danceable core and bridge their earlier funk experiments with disco.
• The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004 for its cultural and historical significance.

Saturday Night Fever Tracklist

1. Stayin' Alive - Reached #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
2. How Deep Is Your Love - Reached #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
3. Night Fever - Reached #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
4. More Than a Woman
5. If I Can't Have You (performed by Yvvone Elliman) - Reached #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
6. A Fifth of Beethoven (performed by Walter Murphy)
7. More than a Woman (performed by Tavares)
8. Manhattan Skyline (performed by David Shire)
9. Calypso Breakdown (performed by Ralp MacDonald)
10. Night on Disco Mountain (performed by David Shire)
11. Open Sesame (performed by Kool & the Gang)
12. Jive Talkin
13. Your Should Be Dancing
14. Boogie Shoes (performed by KC and the Sunshine Band) - Reached #35 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
15. Salsation (performed by David Shire)
16. K-Jee (performed by MFSB)
17. Disco Inferno (performed by the Trammps)

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