You should be dancing ...

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Q.� What's the best selling soundtrack album ever < xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

A.� It's Titanic, and that beat The Bodyguard, but for a long time the Saturday Night Fever album held the honour.

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Q.� Yes, the Bee Gees album.

A.� Actually no, although they are on the album sleeve, The Bee Gees only sang six of the tracks, and there are seventeen in all. So nearly two thirds of the album features other artists, although Tavares and Yvonne Elliman are singing Bee Gees compositions.

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Q.� Why is this album so popular

A.� Although the album stands up perfectly well on its own, and has aged remarkably well, it is a soundtrack, and the movie which it accompanies catapulted the phenomenon of disco into the mainstream, signalling its greatest triumph, and its death knell simultaneously.

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Even now, twenty-five years on, if Stayin' Alive or Night Fever is played at a party or wedding, just count the number of people pointing one finger in the air, then at the floor in a pale imitation of the fluid John Travolta disco moves from the film. It's doubtful if any other collection of songs plugs into the national psyche with such instant impact.

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Q.� The Bee Gees are mega-hip now aren't they -�Queen's Honours, the works.

A.� They are now, but this is another case of the rose-tinted nostalgia market forgetting the truth of the matter. Along with Abba, while making some of the best loved and longest lasting pop singles ever recorded, The Bee Gees were a national laughing stock�- their falsetto vocals and toothy smiles had them pegged as archetypal medallion men, ripe for parody and considered too musically lightweight to be taken seriously by music fans of the day.

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Q.� What 'day' was that

A.� This was the mid-1970's�- progressive rock ruled, punk was just beginning, and suddenly out of nowhere came mainstream disco music, everyone was dancing to it, and some even bought white suits to do the job properly.

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Q.� How big was Saturday Night Fever

A.� The entire package was a phenomenon. Blockbuster movies are common and regular, but blockbuster soundtracks are rare indeed, as evidenced by the length of time that the album ruled as the greatest selling soundtrack album ever. Apart from the music, the cultural impact of the film was equally enormous, kick starting a disco boom in the UK just as the whole genre was starting to die out in the US. Suddenly, it was hip to like The Bee Gees, an attitude that has remained and grown with their ever-increasing list of hits for themselves, and a variety of other singers.

Q.� Did The Bee Gees know that this would be their masterwork

A.� The band cheerfully admits that they had no idea of the impact their songs would create. They were drafted in to provide some r 'n' b songs to accompany a movie project based on a magazine article defining the weekend craze for disco dancing among American blue collar youth. The film was an instant massive hit, and the music became embedded in the subconscious of a nation, and remains there to this day.

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Q.� Why is it so good

A.� Because The Bee gees are master songwriters. People laugh at their teeth, their falsetto vocals, their hairy chests, but you cannot deny that they are writers and craftsmen of some of the most memorable songs in pop history. Their six contributions to this album were all hit singles and are guaranteed to fill dance floors at parties and clubs anywhere. The impact of the sound is instant, the hook lines are unforgettable, and the grooves are perfect. It is pure disco, and pure pop, and pure r n' b and The Bee Gees are masters at boundary crossing.�This album was the start of the whole thing.

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Q.� Are there any duff tracks

A.� Some of them do creak a bit�- the novelty of Walter Murphy's take on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony has paled over the years, and David Shire's contributions do not stand up without the film segments for which they were written. The extended version of The Trammps' disco classic Disco Inferno borders on tedious, but the album is worth enjoying for The Bee Gees' renditions of their songs, plus the Tavares and Yvonne Elliman offerings.

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Q.� So The Bee Gees can laugh at everyone who laughed at them

A.� It's apparent that the Gibb brothers have always been aware of their awesome talent, and have been able to share in the humour of some of their more outr� visual incarnations, but they have their record sales and the respect of their peers to remind them that Saturday Night Fever is a superb album, and they have been a major influence on music and culture for more than thirty years. No wonder they smile so much!

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Andy Hughes

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