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53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'm Gonna Put On My, My, My, My Boogie Shoes, October 22, 2004
I was just a youngun when this movie and soundtrack came out, but I can still remember my older sister getting into her satin and sequined outfits and hitting the local disco with friends every weekend. Say what you will about disco, or the late 70's as a whole. You have to give this landmark album 5 stars. Saturday Night Fever, both the film and the soundtrack changed the course of the 70's. The nation went from listening to The Beatles and Led Zeppelin to Lipps Inc. and the Bee Gees. The songs contained on this soundtrack are dated, "Jive Talkin", "More Than a Woman", and "Disco Inferno" could only have come out during the late 70's, but just try not tapping your foot to them. Some of the tunes are sooooo corny; "Boogie Shoes" and "Open Sesame" would be almost funny, if they weren't so damn infectious, again making you involuntarily giving you the urge to dance. And a couple of the songs found here would be groan-worthy; "Night on Disco Mountain" and "A Fifth of Beethoven" if they were supposed to be taken as serious music....they're not. They are supposed to give you a good beat to dance to, and they are supposed to be fun. Some of the tunes on here are now considered classics; "Stayin' Alive" is probably played today at parties and weddings as often as it was in the 70's. Lord knows enough of today's rap and pop artists have sampled, and made career's off of remaking the songs found here. They say there is no such thing as a time machine, but man, when I put this disc on...I am taken right back to a more peaceful, a more innocent and a more fun period in America.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a brilliant timecapsule, September 3, 1999
Love it or hate it, whether you were there or not, disco was not just a fad in the late 70's. It became damned near a national (if not worldwide) obsession. Studio 54 became the cultural mecca. And this album was the movement at it's zenith. Just look at the numbers...30 million copies sold, 10 top ten singles, #1 on the charts for 6 months. The biggest selling album of all time for 7 years running (until Mikey came around). The world got the Fever, big time. Even mainstream pop & rock artists (the Stones, Rod Stewart, ELO, Paul McCartney, Kiss) were making disco music just to attempt to compete in the marketplace and be heard on that holy place that was the disco dancefloor. Inevitably, something that big had to fall and the backlash was huge. The Bee Gees, most notably, didn't recover from that for years. What gets lost in the cultural significance of this album is just how good the songs really were. In some cases they ARE dated (thus my one star deduction). But you cannot deny that "Night Fever" is one of the damned catchiest tunes ever made (8 weeks at #1 on its own is proof enough). The arrangements are suprisingly lush and intricate. The Bee Gees material is especally well produced. This was a great songwriting & production team at the top of their game here. It's more a tribute to old R&B than an attempt to cash in on the disco craze at the time. The more orchestral bits (5th of Beethoven, Night on Disco Mt) might make you cringe a bit, but they're fun send ups anyway...the original use of sampling! "Boogie Shoes" is infectious. Then there's "Disco Inferno"...a r&b classic. But this is the Brothers Gibb show all the way. To quote a critic, time has proven that disco didn't suck & neither did the Bee Gees. The mark of a truly great album is it's ability to accurately mark its place in time, yet remain timeless. Arguably, no greater musical or cultural timecapsule exists that works as well as "Saturday Night Fever". And there's a reason you still hear "Staying Alive" at weddings, folks.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Saturday Night Fever - 25 Years Later., October 14, 2002
It's difficult to remember that, before "Thriller," the soundtrack to John Travolta's "Saturday Night Fever" was the biggest-selling album of all time. And not without reason. Disco glitter aside, this is a solid soundtrack that stayed afloat largely due to the stellar material from the Bee Gees. It's unfair to associate the Brothers Gibb with disco cheese, for they truly crafted some groovilicious jams back in its day. "Staying Alive," "Night Fever," "More Than a Woman," and "Jive Talkin'" are flawlessly arranged dance hits that, remarkably, don't sound embarrassing by today's standards. And the ballad, "How Deep is Your Love" is a classic love song gently sung and well-written. But beyond the Bee Gees, what else is there? Well, there's Yyvonne Elliman's gem "If I Can't Have You" and the classic "Disco Inferno" by the Trammps. Unfortunately, the disc gets docked a star for a few spots of filler that remind us why disco got a bad rap in its day. One of these tracks is Walter Murphy's "A Fifth of Beethoven," which sounded cheesy then, and it's still cheesy now. Still, "Saturday Night Fever" is a solid album that won't look ridiculous in your collection--even after 25 years.
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