For weeks after we bought it with our allowance, my sister and I played the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack almost every Saturday night, dancing our heads off and misunderstanding lyrics to songs we were probably too young
to be listening to in the first place. (We were seven and eight, respectively.)So many years later, I still listen and dance to this awesome album, but I notice that it's not as light-hearted and "Oh God, not disco!" (an attitude I had about the album all through the 80s) as I remember.
The tracks are more intensely driven than they seemed when I was a little girl and some sound as if they have been brushed by a little bit of panic. On "You Should Be Dancing" (Bee Gees, for anyone who may have forgotten) there's a fierce guitar you don't often find in disco. The song reminds me of Flashdance's "Maniac," which came out a few years later, in that you're not dancing because you want to dance, you're dancing because you have to dance.
On "Night on Disco Mountain" there's a mania that's downright scary. It sounds like someone's life is about to end...which may be why this song is played during a scene in which Tony and his reckless friends are playing around high up on the Brooklyn bridge.
Even "Disco Inferno" (so amazing for a really great work-out number!!) is fierce and commanding. Lighter fare (such as "Boogie Shoes" by K.C. and The Sunshine Band and the somewhat geeky, but totally lovable "Open Sesame" by Kool and the Gang) is definitely as I remember it, but Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You" somehow sounds sadder than ever!
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