"
Stayin' Alive" is a
disco song by the
pop group
Bee Gees from the
Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack. The song was written by the Bee Gees (Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb) and produced by the Bee Gees,
Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. It was released on December 13, 1977, as the second single from the
Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It is one of their
signature songs.
Upon release, Stayin' Alive climbed the charts, hitting the number one spot on the
Billboard Hot 100 the week of February 4, 1978, and staying there for four weeks. In the process, it became one of the band's most recognizable tunes, in part because of its place at the beginning of
Saturday Night Fever.
Beginnings
The
producer of the soundtrack,
Robert Stigwood (who doubled as the Bee Gees' manager) called them up and asked them to write a few songs for a soundtrack to a film he was planning. At this point, the film was in early stages and it did not have a title yet. All Stigwood had to go on was a
New York cover story about
discomania. He asked them to go on with the soundtrack anyway, and they wrote "Stayin' Alive" over the course of a few days while sprawled on the staircase at the
Château d'Hérouville studio in
Paris. As with
Pink Floyd, a majority of the soundtrack was recorded in
France for tax reasons.
Due to the death of drummer Dennis Byron's mother in the middle of the song's sessions, the group first looked for a replacement. The shortage of drummers in this area...
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