Various Artists-Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Artist: Soundtrack (Bee Gees, Kool & The Gang, Yvonne Elliman, Walter Murphy, Tavares, David Shire, Ralph MacDonald, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, M.F.S.B., The Trammps)
Title: Saturday Night Fever
Year of Release: 1977
Country and Year of Edition: Canada 1977
Sell Price: $3.52
Sell Date: 3/29/26
Condition: VG/VG untested
Discogs Last Sold: 12/13/25 VG+/no cover $4.28
Low: $1.44
Median: $3.52
Average: $3.07
High: $4.28
Current low price: $2.87
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 2
Have/Want: 72/125
Where Sold: Fort Worth, TX
Time It Took To Sell: 2 years
Where and When Buught: Ebay lot
Gwiz-gau Grade: A+
Sad To See It Go: No
Somebody bought my childhood shortlist on 8-Track this week, so I'm going down deep memory lane. It ain't no big thang to admit there really has never been a time in my life where I disliked hearing Saturday Night Fever from start to finish from age 7 when it came out and invaded my elementary school onward. First I bought most of the hits on 45 because a double record set was over $10. Out of my price range although I got it as a gift around my birthday May of 1978. I'm a bit shocked that I had it that late but the soundtrack didn't come out until November 15, 1977. Hell the PG cut of the movie I was allowed to see didn't come until 1979 when I was still 8 and R movies were verboten.
However, by the time I actually had the album everybody else did too, so I knew it pretty well by that point. You could not escape it. I seem to remember the librarian assistant Mrs. Pickett having an 8-track player in the school library with the lone 8-track being this one. What I did not remember listing to this Canadian 8-track was that "Open Sesame" was moved up to the third song after "Stayin' Alive" and "How Deep It Your Love" while "Night Fever" was moved to head the next cluster of Bee Gees songs later in the album. It's a weird swap, but it works.
The instrumental disco songs I find enjoyable in this context even the heavily orchestrated David Shire soundtrack music has an appeal. In fact, the reason this album is so strong is because of the variety and the break of vocal songs with instrumentals and the long version of "Disco Inferno" that closes the record. I had a version on 45 with a shortened version and I remember the B-side was "That's Where The Happy People Go" instead of fading the song in the middle for a two parter.
The last thing I have to say about SNF is the odd perfection of "Stayin' Alive." There is something about that that makes my brain follow it through involuntarily in a way very few songs can. It was derided, parodied, overexposed and yet it still reigns supreme with an interlocking bass line that is so subtly different from the guitar you think the guitar is the bass with falsettos that just get higher and more intense.
Jive talkin' just isn't a crime.
FOR FURTHER REVIEW:
Bee Gees-Spirits Having Flown (1979)
Kool and the Gang-Open Sesame (1976)
Various Artists-Music Machine (1977)
Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice-Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)
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