Gourt Home::Gourt :: Stayin' Alive
"Stayin' Alive" is a song by The Bee Gees, released as a single in 1977. It was their first hit off of the album Saturday Night Fever ("Night Fever" followed two months later). "Stayin' Alive" is one of The Bee Gees' most popular and recognizable songs, in part because it was played in the opening scene of a popular disco film, Saturday Night Fever. The song can still be heard in a variety of venues, ranging from dance halls to sporting events.
Beginnings
The producer of the soundtrack, Robert Stigwood (who also doubled as the Bee Gees' manager) called them up and asked them to write a few songs for a soundtrack to a film he was planning. At this point, the film was in very early stages and it didn't even have a title yet. All Stigwood had to go on was a New York cover story about discomania. He asked them to go on with the soundtrack anyway, and they wrote "Stayin' Alive" over the course of a few days while sprawled on the staircase at the Château d'Hérouville studio in Paris.
On the day "Stayin' Alive" was recorded, drummer Dennis Bryon was late to the studio, so producer Robert Stigwood created a tape loop using the drum track from the already-recorded "Night Fever" instead. This accounts for the unchanging rhythm throughout the song.
Saturday Night Fever
The song was not originally supposed to be released as a single, but fans called radio stations and RSO Records immediately after seeing trailers for Saturday Night Fever, in which the aforementioned introductory scene was played. The single was eventually released in mid-December, a month after the album, and moved to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in February, where it would stay for four weeks. Soon after, it would slide to number two, locking in a solid one-two punch with the Bee Gees' other hit from the album, "Night Fever". In the United Kingdom, "Stayin' Alive" was a solid seller but not as popular as it was in the United States, topping out at number four.
Further demonstrating the Bee Gees' U.S. chart domination in 1978, "Stayin' Alive" was replaced at number one with the group's younger brother Andy Gibb, followed by the Bee Gees' own "Night Fever". This was then replaced by Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You", as Samantha Sang was also in the top ten with "Emotion". All of these songs were written and produced by the Bee Gees.
As for the message of the song, Robin Gibb was quoted as saying, "Stayin' Alive" is about survival in the big city—any big city—but basically New York."
Acclaim & Notoriety
The Bee Gees won a Grammy Award for the song in 1977 for Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices.
Over the years, "Stayin' Alive" has earned more critical acclaim. The song was ranked number 189 on the list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and it was also on the list of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The song was prominently featured in the 1980 disaster spoof Airplane! during a memorable flashback scene in which Robert Hayes' and Julie Hagerty's characters are shown meeting at a dive bar and engaging in an extremely exaggerated semblance of popular disco dancing which the film also mocked as the disco fad was beginning to wane in popularity. This parody might also have given rise to the misconception that Stayin' Alive is the song played during John Travolta's famous dancing scene in Saturday Night Fever.
See also
External links
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles | 1977 singles | The Bee Gees songs | Sampled songs
"Stayin' Alive"