| "Stayin' Alive" | |||||||||||||
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| Single by Bee Gees | |||||||||||||
| from the album Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track | |||||||||||||
| B-side | "If I Can't Have You" | ||||||||||||
| Released | 13 December 1977 | ||||||||||||
| Format | Vinyl record (7" 45 RPM) | ||||||||||||
| Recorded | Château d'Hérouville, Hérouville, France 1977 |
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| Genre | Disco | ||||||||||||
| Length | 3:43 | ||||||||||||
| Label | RSO | ||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb | ||||||||||||
| Producer | Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten, Karl Richardson | ||||||||||||
| Certification | Platinum (RIAA)[1] | ||||||||||||
| Bee Gees singles chronology | |||||||||||||
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"Stayin' Alive" is a 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 13 December 1977, as the second single from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It is one of their signature songs.
Upon release, "Stayin' Alive" climbed the charts, hitting the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of 4 February 1978, and staying there for four weeks. In the process, it became one of the band's most recognisable tunes, in part because of its place at the beginning of Saturday Night Fever.
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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 did not 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. 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. 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.
RSO Records wanted the song to be titled "Saturday Night", but the Bee Gees refused a title change, stating that they wanted to be different, and the album already had a song with the word "night" in the title ("Night Fever"). The band also stated that there had been too many songs with "Saturday" in the title.
Over the years, the brothers have had mixed feelings about the song. On one hand, they admit it brought them tremendous fame; on the other, it eventually led to their being pigeonholed as a disco act, despite a long career before and after.
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' US 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 US 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, however from the same recording session, but of a slightly different mix, that was distributed to club DJs and radio stations that specialised 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 horn rhythm section part interjected twice. Ironically, where "Disco Versions" were usually sped up, this version was slowed down marginally. 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 from 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 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was being filmed at the same 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.
1989 reissue
"Stayin' Alive" was used in a study to train medical professionals to provide the correct number of chest compressions per minute while performing CPR. The song has close to 104 beats per minute, and 100 chest compressions per minute are recommended for CPR. The study found that medical professionals who think about "Stayin' Alive" are much more likely to do CPR correctly.[2]
On 15 June 2011, the song was featured in a Hands Only CPR PSA campaign video from the American Heart Association and featured actor Ken Jeong in the classic John Travolta outfit from Saturday Night Fever. [3]
| Preceded by "Baby Come Back" by Player |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single 4 February 1978 — 25 February 1978 |
Succeeded by "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" by Andy Gibb |
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia | 1 |
| Austria | 2 |
| Belgium | 2 |
| Brazil | 1 |
| Canada | 1 |
| Chile | 1 |
| Colombia | 1 |
| China | 2 |
| Finland | 2 |
| France | 1 |
| Ireland | 4 |
| Italy | 1 |
| Japan | 19 |
| Mexico | 1 |
| Netherlands | 1 |
| New Zealand | 1 |
| Norway | 4 |
| Spain | 1 |
| South Africa | 1 |
| Sweden | 3 |
| United Kingdom | 4 |
| United States | 1 |
| United States AC | 28[4] |
Though Stayin Alive is heavily guarded by the Bee Gees for licensing, it has appeared in numerous movies and television shows including [6]: