“Nights on Broadway” (Bee Gees)

Just as you can’t talk disco without Donna Summer (yesterday’s classic song of the day, “Hot Stuff“), you also can’t talk disco without the Bee Gees. Unfortunately, I’m not a huge disco-era Bee Gees fan—except for this one tune. The brothers Gibb released “Nights on Broadway in September 1975 and it shot to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Cash Box Top 100.

“Nights on Broadway,” given its pre-Saturday Night Fever release and lack of a four-on-the-floor bass drum, may not be the best example of a disco tune, although it’s definitely a dance tune. Plus there’s that slower ballad part in the middle, which definitely ain’t disco. Still, the track has an extremely funky beat, which is what got my attention, reminiscent of what Bernard Purdie was doing at the time with Steely Dan and others. (It wasn’t Pretty Purdie on drums, however, but rather the group’s regular drummer, Dennis Bryon, who incorporated a lot of Purdie-like syncopated hi-hat chicks, which I really dug.)

The song was written by the three Gibb brothers—Barry, Robin, and Maurice. That falsetto exclamation in the choruses was brother Barry, who really hadn’t done anything like it before:

“It came to me in a dream, there was a request by Arif Mardin, who was like an uncle to us, he was a great record producer during the song ‘Nights On Broadway,’ for the Main Course album, which is previous to the ‘Fever’ syndrome. And he said, ‘Can any of you scream, scream in falsetto?’ So, you know, give us an ad lib or a scream at the end. So from screaming, it turned into things like ‘blamin’ it all’.”

As anybody who liked to boogie back then knows, the Bee Gees were one of the driving forces behind the disco explosion of the ’70s, thanks in no small part for their contributions to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. They racked up twenty-four Top 20 singles over the course of a rather long career, including “New York Mining Disaster 1941” (#14, 1967), “To Love Somebody” (#17, 1967), “Holiday” (#16, 1967), “Massachusetts” (#11, 1967), “Words” (#15, 1968), “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” (#8, 1968), “I Started a Joke” (#6, 1968), “Lonely Days” (#3, 1970), “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” (#1, 1971), “My World” (#16, 1972), “Run to Me” (#16, 1972), “Jive Talkin'” (#1, 1975), “Nights on Broadway” (#7, 1975) “Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)” (#12, 1976), “You Should Be Dancing” (#1, 1976), “Love So Right” (#3, 1976), “Boogie Child” (#12, 1977), “How Deep is Your Love” (#1, 1977), “Stayin’ Alive” (#1, 1977), “Night Fever” (#1, 1978), “Too Much Heaven” (#1, 1978), “Tragedy” (#1, 1979), “Love You Inside Out” (#1, 1979), and “One” (#7, 1989). Their fortune kind of faded at the end of the disco era but for a time everything they touched turned to gold.

The Bee Gees sold more than 250 million records worldwide over the course of their career. They were inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. They won a total of 8 Grammy Awards, including the Legend Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award, and (for the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack) the Hall of Fame Award. Obviously, a lot of people liked them.

Maurice Gibb passed away in 2003, age 53. His brother Robin passed away in 2012, age 62. Barry is still performing and recording today, age 77.