AA.VV.
Saturday Night Fever

December 1977: An album is released in America, the soundtrack of the namesake film, and no one knows that this album will become a milestone in music. After just one week, it is at the top of all American charts. It will stay there for quite a while, as it will sell 45 million copies worldwide and remain among the top 5 best-selling albums of all time. Simply an extraordinary phenomenon with very few precedents, a sign of music that is not particularly demanding. But when faced with events that change not only the course of music history in its evolution but also cinema, dance, fashion, and finally transmit a positive message to young people, well, "chapeau", "chapeau" and again "chapeau".

Different music styles follow one another during the work, yet all with the common denominator of making people dance: basses, guitars, horns, and drums mixed together differently and supported by orchestral-type arrangements gave a very successful result of a search for new "flavors" even though made with "the same ingredients". Relentless rhythms but with unexpected "musical openings", never predictable and sudden changes of pace that allowed the boldest to "float" on the dance floor, giving emotions beyond just sound but also visually. Each of these tracks, individually, achieved success beyond normal reach. When they are strung together in a sequence that has the "musical miracle", they explode with "total and permanent deflagration", in fact, the album reached every part of the earth and remained engraved there. This extraordinary event called "Saturday Night Fever" marked the return of established artists with years of concerts and recording studios behind them and a great desire to "get back in the saddle". With such experience and expertise, it was easy to identify and anticipate the musical tastes of both the young and the not-so-young, and to indicate a new path on whose track many musicians have then worked. The Bee Gees, main performers and protagonists of the album, revive their "You Should Be Dancing" made the previous year when they had begun to flirt with "disco". The track, after the global success of 1976, enjoys its second moment of glory, reaching even those very few who had not yet heard it: it stuns them with this cadenced and so new dance rhythm and Barry Gibb's falsetto that inspired the vocal cords of both light and not light music on the planet. Then a deadly sequence: "Stayin' Alive": guitar, voices, and horns combined in such a way that it places it in the authoritative magazine "Rolling Stone" among the top 200 most beautiful songs of all time.

"How Deep Is Your Love", harmonic, very sweet, and revisited by world-renowned artists. The highly praiseworthy vocal harmony and a very well-done arrangement make it one of the top 400 most beautiful songs of all time, the "Rolling Stone" magazine does not ignore this either. "Night Fever" a very pleasant track that invites couple dancing, almost orchestral, soft and fluid, remains for 8 weeks at the top of the "Billboard Hot 100", the authoritative American chart, and stays among the top 35 in the "Billboard Hot 100 All Time" chart precisely for all time. "More Than a Woman" in the same vein: melodious/disco track, well orchestrated, and danceable as a couple, a couple that could now dance together even in a disco context and express themselves with elegance. Also sung by Tavares, also quality veterans returning to showcase their energy: the piece sung by them "becomes theirs": it gains a South American rhythm and does not allow standing still. And again: "Disco Inferno" and therefore more veterans, the Trammps. The record was from the previous year, but they had anticipated the times a bit too much, it was, in fact, a modest success. But with our "Saturday", the market was ready, and this time "Disco Inferno" literally drove the planet crazy becoming their greatest success of all time: the relentless rhythm, the gritty voice, choruses, and horns charged accordingly allowed everything on the dance floor. And how many covers followed, countless, of a track that made history. But the deadly sequence does not end here: "A Fifth of Beethoven" classical music in a disco, nobody had tried it before, excellent proposal, orchestrated properly to the needs of a refined disco. Then we have the beautiful "If I Can't Have You" sung both by the Bee Gees and the extraordinary voice of Yvonne Ellimann, listening to it is a pleasure, original and special for the time.

An album that perhaps does not need reviews, but perhaps in this case yes, since I haven't read any yet on the site. Since we talk about many things that may or may not be liked, that are known or not, that will change something or not, that will affect someone or not, I believe it is legitimate to remember an album that won as much as 15 platinum records. And the extraordinary things, whether liked or not, should be remembered.