Throwing back to the week of August 15, 1976, we find Elton John and Kiki Dee atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,’ the song that claimed Billboard’s official Song of the Summer crown that year.
At #2 that week was ‘You Should Be Dancing’ by the Bee Gees, on its way to a single week atop the Hot 100. This song — and Children of the World, the album on which it appeared — marked the band’s shift to disco, a controversial but wildly successful move.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1977…
#6 – Saturday Night Fever soundtrack
It goes against my long-held principles to include a soundtrack album on a list of favorites, but I do allow some exceptions. And if ever an album is worthy of an exception, it’s the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever.
In fact, it’s probably a bigger outrage that this seminal recording didn’t crack my top five. But that’s just a testament to how incredible 1977 was for new music.
Throwing back to the week of August 16, 1975, we find the Bee Gees atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Jive Talkin’.’ It was the band’s first #1 hit (and first in the top ten) since 1971’s ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.’ They would have seven more over the next four years.
This was the lead single of the album Main Course, the Bee Gees’ first gold album in the U.S. and the start of a massively successful run that made them one of the top-selling acts in history.
Continuing my look at the albums of 1975…
My favorite part of doing these Decades posts is discovering new material by artists with whom I’m only superficially familiar. That was the case with Aerosmith yesterday, and it’s definitely the case with the Bee Gees today.
My knowledge of the Bee Gees pretty much begins and ends with the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, which frankly is more than enough for me to consider them legends. But this is one of the top-selling bands, worldwide, of all time, with 22 studio albums and a slew of compilations, live albums and soundtrack work.
Earlier this week I named ‘Theme from New York, New York’ as #5 on my list of Oscar Best Song snubs.
That same year, 1977, saw the release of the film that tops my list.
If ever a movie (and a great movie, at that) was defined by its music, it was Saturday Night Fever. And yet the Academy didn’t see fit to nominate a single song from its record-shattering and Grammy-winning soundtrack.
Meet Me In Montauk 