THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

211-Bee Gees-Stayin’ Alive.

1978-Number 4 single.

Best Bit-At 0.01. Until John Travolta (see also best songs 768) made Disco dancing appear glamorous, I think it is safe to safe that the majority of the male population didn’t think it was a very masculine thing to do. In fact I vaguely remember in my early days of being a DJ the dance floor being completely dominated by the ladies, but after ‘Saturday Night Fever,’ there was a little more levelling up.

‘Stayin’ Alive’ was written by Barry, Robin, (1949-2012) and Maurice Gibb. (1949-2003) who also produced the song, along with two of their long time collaborators Albhy Galuten, and Karl Richardson. The song is one of eight songs that the Bee Gees (see also best songs 459 and 35) contributed to the 17 tracks that make up the ‘Saturday Night Fever’ soundtrack Album, which is at the time of writing the eighth best selling Album worldwide of all time, with sales in excess of 40 million copies. Up until ‘The Bodyguard’ soundtrack (see also best songs 704) in 1992, (45 million sales) it was the best selling soundtrack Album of all time.

‘Stayin’ Alive’ was the third of six singles released from the ‘Saturday Night Fever’ soundtrack, and went on to spend four weeks at Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in America. ‘Stayin’ Alive’ was the second of six consecutive Number 1 singles on Billboard by the Bee Gees, tying the record with the Beatles for most consecutive chart toppers, the record would be broken in 1987 when Whitney Houston made it seven consecutive Number 1’s with ‘Where Do Broken Heart Go.’

‘Saturday Night Fever’ (see also best songs 184 and 35) is a 1977 American dance drama film starring John Travolta as Tony Manero a young Italian-American man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking, in order to relieve the social tensions, and the disillusionment with his life that appears to be going nowhere in his working class ethnic neighbourhood, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The films script was based upon a mainly fictionalised article written by the British Rock journalist Nik Cohn, that first appeared in 1976 in the American biweekly publication ‘New York Magazine.’ Robert Stigwood (1934-2016) who was the executive producer of the film and also the Bee Gees manager asked the band to write a few songs for the soundtrack, which they did over the course of a few days at the ‘Chateau d’Herouville’ studio near Paris, the recordings were made in France for tax reasons.

Robin Gibb has explained the songs meaning,’It’s about survival on the streets of New York, and the lyrics actually say that. Barry Gibb recalled,’It’s about people crying out for help. Desperate songs, those are the ones that become giants. The minute you capture that on record it’s gold,’Stayin’ Alive’ is the epitome of that.’

‘Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk I’m a woman’s man, no time to talk. Music loud and women warm, I’ve been kicked around since I was born, and now it’s all right, it’s okay, and you may look the other way. We can try to understand, ‘The New York Times’ effect on man.’