The AT40 Blog/February 25, 1978: How good it was to be a Bee Gee

For the first five months of 1978, there was one dominant act on the music chart -- the Bee Gees.

And in those first five months, no one dominated as songwriters quite the way Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb did, especially oldest brother Barry. And on the week of February 25, 1978, the trio hit a new zenith not seen as recently as 1964 when a couple of guys named John Lennon and Paul McCartney were writing almost every big hit their band, The Beatles, had at the time.

The draw? It was disco's rising star at the time. Oh, it was also this movie out called Saturday Night Fever, starring a 24-year-old New Jersey native named John Travolta as Tony Manero, the star of the disco scene at the 2001 Odyssey club in New York every Saturday night. And with Travolta showing off his moves, those at the movies watching it were taken in by the songs playing. It was what propelled the soundtrack to jump to No. 1 the week of January 21, 1978 from No. 10 the week before. That would start a 24-week run at the top of the album chart.

Already out as a single, "How Deep Is Your Love" had hit No. 1 Christmas weekend 1977 and spent three straight weeks at the top. But while "How Deep Is Your Love" was getting to the top, the follow-up single was getting into the Top 40 as "Stayin' Alive" debuted at No. 39 that same weekend. Six weeks later, "Stayin' Alive" began a four-week run in the top spot, just three weeks after "How Deep Is Your Love" finished its stay at the top.

In the meantime, little brother Andy Gibb had released the follow-up to his No. 1 hit "I Just Want To Be Your Everything." And "Love Is Thicker Than Water" debuted at No. 39 two weeks before "Stayin' Alive" debuted and began a slow and arduous climb up the chart.

While that was all happening, a 25-year-old woman from Australia came visiting the brothers as they were putting together the songs that would make up the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in France. Her name was Samantha Sang and after they chatted, she flew back to Miami because she was about to record her debut album for Private Stock Records at the famed Criteria Studios with the Gibbs writing and helping in the production. She thought she was going to be offered a tune the trio wrote called "Don't Throw It All Away," which would eventually be recorded a year later by younger brother Andy Gibb for his "Shadow Dancing" album. Instead, Barry Gibb pulled out a composition he and brother Robin wrote titled "Emotion." She loved it and recorded the song in April 1977 with Barry Gibb doing backing vocals and co-producing alongside his normal partners Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson.

From the album of the same name, "Emotion" would start getting airplay in late 1977 and on January 7, 1978, it debuted in the Top 40 at No. 37 and began its climb up the chart.

By early February 1978, Saturday Night Fever was the biggest movie in the land and the soundtrack was holding for the third straight week at No. 1 when "Night Fever," the third Bee Gees release from the soundtrack, was released. It debuted on the Hot 100 at No. 76, then vaulted 44 unbelievable and seemingly inevitable notches to debut in the countdown at No. 32.

The Bee Gees were a scorching, white hot at this point. And it made for the perfect storm two weeks later on February 25, 1978. "Stayin' Alive" was holding for the fourth straight week at the top, while little brother Andy Gibb held at No. 2. "Emotion" by Sang inched up from No. 6 to No. 5, making it three Top 5 hits that had the Gibb fingerprints all over it. Meanwhile, "How Deep Is Your Love" was holding steady at No. 10, the song's amazing 16th week in the Top 10, which tied Andy Gibb's "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" for the longest run in the Top 10 since 1960.

Four Top 10 hits by the Brothers Gibb was pretty darn amazing. But two weeks after it debuted at No. 32, the Bee Gees vaulted to No. 17 and then to No. 8 on that very week with "Night Fever," giving them five of the Top 10 songs that week as songwriters. Well ... at least Barry Gibb had five songs in the Top 10 as a songwriter. He wrote his own group's hits with his two brothers, co-wrote "Emotion" with Robin and co-wrote "Love Is Thicker Than Water" with little brother Andy.

And that made it the most dominating moment on the chart by one act since the Beatles held down the Top 5 songs on the Hot 100 the week of April 4, 1964. But unlike the Beatles, the Bee Gees were relatively known throughout the world, first known for their ballad hits like "I Started A Joke," "Holiday," "Lonely Days" and their first No. 1 hit "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?"

In an interview done in 1979, Barry Gibb admitted they were not fans of disco music, yet they made their ultra-known fame through the disco scene. Being involved with disco music became a bad thing when the 1970s ended, the disco era waned and acts who were huge stars were stereotyped because of it.

But that's later. Let's go back to the present for 1978.

A week after having five songs in the Top 10 at the same time, the same five songs held in the Top 10 with "How Deep Is Your Love" spending a then-record 17th week in the Top 10. It would drop out of the Top 10 the following week of March 11, 1978, leaving only four Barry Gibb/Bee Gees songs.

In the meantime, all four of those songs were hanging out in the Top 5 on March 4: "Love Is Thicker Than Water" at No. 1, "Stayin' Alive" at No. 2, "Emotion" at No. 4 and "Night Fever" at No. 5. "Stayin' Alive" would drop to No. 6 the next week as "Night Fever vaulted to No. 2.

But as if magic dust continued to fall upon the Brothers Gibb, "Night Fever" not only claimed the No. 1 spot on March 18, 1978, but "Stayin' Alive" jumped back up the countdown from No. 6 to No. 2 again! That started a five-week run in which the two Bee Gees records were No. 1 and No. 2.

Still, that was not all: On March 25, 1978, another Barry Gibb composition, this time written with Bee Gee mates Robin and Maurice, entered the Top 10 at No. 9. This one was Yvonne Elliman's latest song, "If I Can't Have You," also from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. That song had debuted in the Top 40 on February 25, 1978 and swiftly climbed from No. 40 to No. 29 to No. 21 to No. 14 to No. 9. It would eventually knock "Night Fever" out of the No. 1 spot on May 13, 1978, and spend one week at the top.

But once again for three straight weeks on March 25, April 1 and April 8, 1978, Barry Gibb and his brothers ruled the Top 10 with five songs co-written and produced by the Bee Gees.

By May, the heat of the Bee Gees success had finally cooled down.

But whoa, was it ever hot during the snow-driven, cold winter days of 1978.