The Heydays of the RSO Label Trivia Quiz

Answer: "How Deep is Your Love" by The Bee Gees

"How Deep is Your Love" was the first single released off of the wildly successful "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack, and, fittingly enough, it was the first number one hit from the album. Although the song controlled the top spot for only three weeks, it remained in the top ten for an impressive 17 consecutive weeks.

The other songs mentioned were all in the top 5 for the "How Deep is Your Love"'s first week, with "You Light Up My Life" at number 2, "Blue Bayou" at 3, and "It's So Easy" at 5 (making it a pretty good week for Miss Ronstadt). Missing from the list was the number 4 single, "Back in Love Again" by LTD.

Answer: Five

Those songs even included some non-Bee Gee tunes. In chronological order, these five songs were "I Shot the Sheriff," "Jive Talkin'," "You Should Be Dancing," "Disco Duck (Part 1)," and "I Just Want to Be Your Everything." One can see that the RSO label really enjoyed the success of disco, even when lampooned by Rick Dees and his Cast of Idiots.

Answer: Six

The incredible success was largely the result of the "Saturday Night Live" soundtrack, which spawned four of the six number ones. However, this was not the only successful movie soundtrack that RSO would put forth in 1978, as it also released the fairly successful soundtrack to the movie "Grease." When all was said and done, RSO's six consecutive singles held a stranglehold on the number one spot for 21 straight weeks, from 24 Dec. 1977 to 20 May 1978.

Answer: "With a Little Luck" by Wings

It was fitting that a Paul McCartney-penned song would end RSO's streak. RSO's six consectutive number ones contained four consectutive songs written or co-written by Barry Gibb, breaking a former record set by McCartney/Lennon, who had penned three consecutive number one singles of their own 14 years earlier. Of further interest is the fact that the Bee Gee's, who performed three of the six consecutive RSO singles in early 1978, were originally rumored to be The Beatles recording under an alias (Bee Gee=BG=Beatle's Group, or some incarnation thereof). Coincidentally, the Bee Gee's first number one hit, "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," was eventually dethroned by Paul McCartney's composition (with Linda McCartney) "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey." Eerie.

The other three songs also made it to the top in 1978, although none controlled the pole position for more than two weeks.

Answer: Two

Those two singles were "Baby Come Back" by Player and "You're the One That I Want" by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Although the "Grease" soundtrack yielded two number ones, the Brothers Gibb managed to extend themselves even into the film's title track "Grease" by Frankie Valli.

Answer: Yvonne Elliman

Elliman's number one was "If I Can't Have You." Before teaming with Clapton, Yvonne Elliman (a Honolulu, Hawaii native) had found success in showtunes, most notably originating the role of Mary Magdalene in the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar."

Summer, Murray, and Streisand all found themselves at the top of the charts in 1978, but none of them for RSO.

Answer: Four

"How Deep is Your Love," "Stayin' Alive," "Night Fever," and "If I Can't Have You" were all in "Saturday Night Fever," with all of them except for "If I Can't Have You" performed by the Bee Gees (although Yvonne Elliman was originally supposed to record "How Deep Is Your Love" as she had a preference for ballads).

The album was a juggernaut, easily eclipsing 25 million in sales. It was also the best selling album of any kind until 1984 and the advent of "Thriller."

Answer: Two

The songs? "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" and "Shadow Dancing." Gibb had previously had a number one hit with "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" the year before (1977). However, 1978 would be his high-water mark. His career ended on March 10, 1988 when he died of an inflammatory heart virus, just five days after his 30th birthday.

Answer: Capitol

Capitol had a number one single with the aforementioned "With a Little Luck," but also attained chart supremacy with Anne Murray's "You Needed Me" and "Boogie Oogie Oogie" (as fun to say as it is to eat) by A Taste of Honey. Columbia had was next in line with two number ones ("Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" and "You Don't Bring Me Flowers"). Motown also managed a hit in the year with "Three Times a Lady," the first number one hit for the Commodores.

Answer: Too Much Heaven

All four songs were number one hits for the Bee Gee's, but only "Too Much Heaven" found itself at the top in January 1979. An interesting note: the Bee Gees donated all of the earnings for the song to UNICEF. How very nice.

Truth be told, I'm not much a fan of the disco music that was RSO's forte, but I find their chart dominance to be intriguing. All told, the label scored an impressive 17 number one hits in the 1970s, and they were for all intents and purposes the flagship label for disco music.

Thank you for taking my quiz, and I hope you enjoyed!