No. 1 - Saturday Night Fever
It’s hard to read this 1977 film title without seeing John Travolta strutting down the street. Or perhaps in his white suit on that coloured square nightclub dance floor arm aloft. Not to mention hearing “Staying Alive” playing in your head.
The film is full of disco songs with the Bee Gees to the fore. That wasn’t the case when it was being shot though as the Bee Gees didn’t get involved until after filming. Travolta revealed later that he was strutting his stuff to Boz Scaggs and Stevie Wonder songs while being filmed for all those memorable scenes.
The Bee Gees were approached to create some songs for the movie, but they didn’t know much about the story, other than a Saturday night out vibe. They wrote several songs quickly while away recording an album in France and hit gold with their work. The film’s success was backed by their great music and led to a resurgence in their career.
The movie was incredibly successful as was the soundtrack album. It rose to A long number one on the Billboard 200 a few weeks after release, knocking Fleetwood Mac and Rumours off the top. It remained at number one for 24 weeks. With 16 million in sales, it is comfortably the top movie soundtrack of 1977.