How Inviting! Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Travolta on the disco floor in customary pose, plus a portrait of the Bee Gees

[Allow me to set the scene for this quiz. Being a rock and roller since early teenage years, I was given the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack from some well-meaning work colleagues for my 17th birthday in 1978. I thanked them for their gift and slipped it between my Bob Seger and Rod Stewart albums, and there it remained, unplayed for 43 years. In May 2021 saw a Contract Challenge asking an author to review an album you have not listened to in entirety before March 2021. I was tempted but resisted. Then I was given a Commission title called "How Inviting" which my silent album suddenly had become. So I played all four sides in total and wrote this quiz as a review. I tried sooo hard to be objective in my writing].


In 1977 both the movie and the soundtrack were blockbusters. I saw the movie and was impressed with the glamour of faraway New York City. The music left no impression. However kids saw the movie and bought the album. Disco was huge so they bought the album then went to see the movie. Both in huge numbers. The double album shipped 20 million units, stayed number one on the Billboard Album Chart for 120 weeks including 18 consecutive weeks at number one. The album revived a disco craze that was riding high as an alternative to the hard edges of punk rock. It made TV star John Travolta a movie star (which consolidated with "Grease" less than a year later). It was the biggest selling album at the time not outsold until "Thriller" in 1982 and remained the biggest selling soundtrack album until 1992's "The Bodyguard".

In what was seen as a brilliant cross-media promotion the soundtrack cover featured John Travolta replete with white suit in a typical Tony Manero pose on the specially lit disco floor with a glamour shot of the Bee Gees above. The movie poster (and subsequent VCR and DVD cover) featured a similar shot of Mr Travolta dancing with Karen Lynn Gorney (Stephanie) in shot.

Answer: False

While "Silk Degrees" marked the zenith of Boz Scaggs' career, he did not produce disco music, though "Lowdown" and "What Can I Say?" were considered soul music. Nevertheless Mr Scaggs' music was used in the choreography of the movie. John Travolta revealed in a 2007 interview with "The New Yorker" that "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs". Columbia Records refused to release the material. (Later this was estimated to have cost Mr Scaggs five million dollars in lost royalties.) Robert Stigwood, one of the movie's producers, who was also the Bee Gees' manager, approached the Bee Gees to write some "disco-ey" songs for a script adapted from British writer Nik Cohn's 1976 "New York" magazine article: "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" (which became the working title of the movie).

Answer: Stayin' Alive

If the movie represented the disco era then, "Stayin' Alive" represented the disco music era. The Bee Gees were not disco (as they claim) but singing in falsetto as requested as per their previous hit "Jive Talking" (Included on the soundtrack but not used in the movie) and a spliced drum loop made this a disco song. This was one of five songs they specifically wrote for the soundtrack. It is featured in the opening credits as Mr Travolta's character Tony Monero struts through Brooklyn.

This was the second of four number one hits for the Bee Gees off the soundtrack: "How Deep is Your Love" was released previously and was a Christmas number one on the Billboard Top 100 in 1977. "Stayin' Alive" was released a day before the movie but had previous exposure via the movie trailer. It stayed at number one for four weeks. The song was not one of the first three they made for the movie. Mr Stigwood wanted a song called "Saturday Night" to match the current running title of the movie (It was another Bee Gees soundtrack song, "Night Fever" which influenced the title". The "fever" was added to the "Saturday Night" to give the movie its release name). That song was "Stayin' Alive". There was no title nor mention of "Saturday night" but the out of context line: "We can try to understand the New York Times' effect on man" is a nod to the source material of the movie. Mr Stigwood objected but the Bee Gees prevailed. The Bee Gees did not want to use the "Saturday Night" title because of the Bay City Rollers' recent hit of the same name.

Answer: Yvonne Elliman

Yvonne Elliman was discovered in 1969 by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, when she was cast for Mary Magdalene's part in the original audio recording of "Jesus Christ Superstar". She had stints as a backing singer for Eric Clapton before breaking out as a solo artist and had a few hits, the most well-known, "Love Me", was a number 14 Billboard Hot 100 hit in late 1976.

The Bee Gees recorded their own version of "If I Can't Have You" for the movie but Mr Stigwood who was executive-producing the soundtrack and movie, instructed that the Bee Gees record "How Deep Is Your Love" and Ms Elliman sing the disco-style "If I Can't Have You".

The latter reached number one in May 1978. The Bee Gees version did not appear on the soundtrack but it was the B-side to "Stayin' Alive".

Answer: There is no Andy Gibb track on the soundtrack

Andy Gibb, the youngest of the four Gibb brothers, was signed to the same label as his brothers, RSO records owned by Robert Stigwood. He was the first artist to have his first three hits peak at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. While he had no songs included on the soundtrack, his three number ones may have affected the success of his older brothers' hits competing at the same time. The correct chronology of the collective Gibb number ones in the era was as follows:

"Jive Talking" - Bee Gees. Number one August 1975 (2 weeks)
"You Should Be Dancing" - Bee Gees. Number one September 1976 (1 week)
"I Just Want to Be Your Everything" - Andy Gibb. Number one August/September 1977 (4 weeks)

["Saturday Night Fever" released November 15, 1977]
"How Deep Is Your Love" - Bee Gees. Number one Dec 1977 / Jan 1978 (3 weeks)
"Stayin' Alive" - Bee Gees. Number one February 1978 (4 weeks) replaced by
"(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" - Andy Gibb. Number one March 1978 (2 weeks) replaced by
"Night Fever" - Bee Gees. . Number one March-May 1978 (8 weeks) replaced by
"If I Can't Have You" - Yvonne Elliman. Number one May 1978 (1week)
"Shadow Dancing" - Andy Gibb. Number one June/July 1978 (7 weeks)

Answer: The Tavares

"More than a Woman" was written by the Bee Gees specifically for the soundtrack. The Tavares also recorded a version. Both were used on the soundtrack and in the movie. The Bee Gees' version was not released in the UK or the US as a single but remains well known in both countries as it was a radio staple.

The Tavares version peaked at number 32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart. The Tavares were a soul/funk vocal band of five brothers of Cape Verde descent.

They had several hits but their highest chart position in the US was "It Only Takes a Minute" which reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975. However, globally, they are most well-known for "Heaven Must be Missing an Angel" (Peaked at 15) which gained the attention of Mr Stigwood who gave them "More Than A Woman".

Answer: Before the soundtrack was released

Walter Murphy was interested in adapting classical music to rock music which was a useful way to obtain source material as most classical music is in the public domain. He had minor success with "Themes From E.T. (The Extra-Terrestrial)," before he put a huge disco drumbeat onto Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony" to get a number one hit (despite it being an instrumental) on the Billboard Hot 100 after a slow 19 weeks. Over two million copies were sold overall.

The song was credited to Water Murphy and the Big Apple Band even though Mr Murphy played all the instruments. The 'band' name was quickly changed to the Walter Murphy Band. In 1977 RSO Records licensed the song for the soundtrack but it was not re-released to capitalise its success in the movie nor did Mr Murphy ever have another Top 40 hit.

Answer: American songwriter and stage musical composer

Known for his movie scores ("The Big Bus" [1976], "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" [1973], "The Conversation" [1974] and "All the President's Men" [1976]}, and stage musical compositions. On the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack, Mr Shire was responsible for the incidental music. Three of these interludes:- "Manhattan Skyline", "Night on Disco Mountain" (based on the classical "Night on Bald Mountain", to complement "Fifth of Beethoven") and "Salsation", were included on the soundtrack, but five pieces: "Tony and Stephanie", "Near the Verrazano Bridge" (both based on "How Deep Is Your Love"), "Barracuda Hangout", "Death on the Bridge" and "All Night Train" are heard in the movie but are not on the soundtrack. One difficult cut was some footage of Mr Travolta and Ms Gorney rehearsing to Boz Scagg's "Lowdown".

This had to be replaced for legal reasons. Mr Shire needed to compose a score into the existing dance moves on the already shot footage. Neither this scene, nor musical score were used in the final movie or soundtrack.

Answer: Boogie Shoes

KC and the Sunshine Band (from Florida of course), had three Billboard Hot 100 number ones, including the mega-successful signature hit, "That's The Way (I Like It)" before the soundtrack producers took notice and asked him to join the album. The group contributed an original song called "Boogie Shoes", a 2 minute 17 second quickie which reached number 35 on the US chart after the soundtrack was released. "Boogie Fever" was a 1974 number one disco for The Sylvers, a family of nine sibling vocalists. "Disco Inferno" by the Trammps closed out the soundtrack - it was by far the longest track at nearly 11 minutes which was same length as when it was first released as a single in 1976 where it made number 53 on the Billboard Hot 100.

After its inclusion on the soundtrack, it was re-released and made number 11 on the same chart. That was the peak of their popularity.

They never had another hit.

Answer: TV network VH1 named it the third greatest album of all time in 2003

The album won four Grammys in 1979: Album of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Stayin' Alive"; and Barry Gibb, Albhy Galuten, and Karl Richardson for Producer of the Year. It was the only disco album to ever win the coveted Album of the Year.
In 2012, the soundtrack was indeed ranked Number 132 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time and "VH1" named it the 57th greatest album of all time,
But perhaps the greatest honour was that in 2013, it was added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress
With those sorts of honours, the album certainly had some musical chops and whether you liked disco or not, you had to admire the musical talents of its contributors. I did listen to it in its entirety so I have fulfilled my own compact. I returned the album in its sleeve, returned it to its alphabetical place, incongruous amongst the myriad of rock albums, where it will stay, untouched for another 43 years.