"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 and Albhy Galuten and Karl
Richardson. It was released on December 13, 1977, as the second
single from the
Saturday Night Feversoundtrack.
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
engineer 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.
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 Greatestin 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 Bandat the time. This
set featured buildings, a train station, and other
elements.
The original three music videos for the movie
Saturday Night Feverwere 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.
The song was prominently featured in the 1980 disaster spoof
Airplane!during a memorable flashback scene in which
Robert Hays' and Julie Hagerty's characters are shown meeting
at a dive bar and engaging in an extremely exaggerated
semblance of popular disco dancing. The music in the movie was
however, sped up 10% over its usual speed, with permission.
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. The film Foul Play featured the
song in a particular scene (Dudley Moore's apartment
scene).
The song has also been included on the soundtracks of over
20 other films, and was featured in the films
A Goofy Movie,
Bushwhacked,
A Night at the Roxbury,
Honey, I Blew Up the Kid,
Arthur and the Minimoys,
Young @ Heart,
Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult,
Madagascar,
Chicken Little, and
Airplane!.
The song is also featured as the theme song for the movie
Staying Alive, starring John Travolta.
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 is also listed at #46 on
Billboard's All Time Top 100.[1]
A number of musicians have covered "Stayin Alive'":
It featured twice on the HBO series,
Entourage, in the episodes "Aquamansion" and "The Dream
Team". It is the only song to feature in more than one episode
of the series.
The Simpsonshave made numerous references to the song,
using it in scenes as the aforementioned "Table Five" parody
Homer sang, during a scene in the episode "Two Bad Neighbors",
and in a "Treehouse of Horror" scene. In "Bart's Girlfriend",
the opening is featured.
On
Jeopardy!'s 14 September 2006 episode, the last 3
categories in the
Jeopardy!round referenced the opening lines of the
song:
U.S. ventriloquist Terry Fator uses "Stayin' Alive" in his
stage show at The Mirage in Las Vegas, Nevada. One of Fator's
puppets, Winston the Impersonating Turtle sings part of the
song. The performance is included on the DVD "Terry Fator: Live
from Las Vegas".
"Stayin' Alive" was used in a study to train doctors to
provide the correct number chest compressions per minute while
performing CPR. The song has exactly 103 beats per minute, and
100 chest compressions per minute are recommended for CPR. The
study found that doctors who think about "Stayin' Alive" are
much more likely to do CPR correctly.
In the newspaper comic strip 'Fox Trot,' the older son Peter
in one strip sings the opening lines as 'well you can tell be
the way I view my clock, I'm at 0.9 C, less time to talk,' in a
performance he humorously dubbed 'Saturday Night Physics', with
other songs parodied, including 'More than a Woman' and 'Disco
inferno' as 'More than a Photon' and 'Disc has Inertia.'