History

“Stayin’ Alive“ is a disco song by the pop group Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack. The song was written by the Bee Gees – Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb – and produced by the Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. It was released on December 13, 1977, as the second single from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It is their signature song.

Saturday Night Fever: Stayin' Alive

Upon release, Stayin’ Alive climbed the charts, hitting the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of February 4, 1978, and staying there for four weeks. In the process, it became the band’s most recognizable tune, in part because of its place at the beginning of Saturday Night Fever.

The producer of the soundtrack, Robert Stigwood (who 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 early stages and it didn’t have a title yet. All Stigwood had to go on was a New Yorkcover 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. As with Pink Floyd, a majority of the soundtrack was recorded in France for tax reasons.

Due to the death of drummer Dennis Byron’s mother in the middle of the song’s sessions, the group first looked for a replacement. Oddly enough, the shortage of drummers in this area of France prompted the group to use a drum machine—yet it did not offer satisfactory results. After listening to the drum track of the already-recorded “Night Fever”, the group (and producer Albhy Galuten) selected two bars from the song, re-recorded them to a separate track, and proceeded with sessions for “Stayin’ Alive”. This accounts for the unchanging rhythm throughout the song.

As a joke, the group listed the drummer as “Bernard Lupe” (a takeoff on session drummer Bernard Purdie). Mr. Lupe became a highly sought-after drummer – until it was discovered that he did not exist.

Over the years, the brothers have had mixed feelings about the song. On one hand, they admit it brought them tremendous fame, but on the other, it eventually led to their being pigeonholed as a disco act–despite a long career before that–and their subsequent career downturn.

The song is rumored to have one of the most restrictive licensing terms of any song in modern times. One of the specific terms of any agreement to use the song is that it cannot be used for anything involved with disco.

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’s single, “Love Is Thicker Than Water”, followed by the Bee Gees’ own “Night Fever”. This was then replaced by Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You”. Since Barry Gibb had a hand in writing all four of these songs, he became the only person in history to write four consecutive U.S. number one singles.

Besides the version that appeared on the soundtrack album (and subsequent CD release) and the edited single for the 45RPM and Top 40 radio release, there was yet another version, of the same basic mix, that was distributed to club DJs and radio stations that specialized in airing longer versions of hit songs. This “Special Disco Version” as it was called, featured all the same parts as the album version, but had a mysterious horn rhythm section part interjected twice, but turned out to be broadcast on very few U.S. radio stations. This version was finally released on CD when Reprise re-issued Bee Gees Greatest in 2007 in an expanded & remastered edition.

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 especially New York.”

The music video for the song is of a completely different concept to Saturday Night Fever. It depicts the group singing the song on an abandoned subway terminal set at MGM Studios, directly adjacent to the one where the boys were filming Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at the time. This set featured buildings, a train station, and other elements.

The original three music videos for the movie Saturday Night Fever were shot on the soundstages, and edited at the facilities of, Video City, Inc., in North Miami, Florida. The European video for “Stayin’ Alive” as mentioned above (with Barry sans his beard) was one of these original three. These original music videos were scrapped and re-shot in California after Barry grew his beard.

Source: Wikipedia