Dance Movies

Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 film starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, a troubled Brooklyn youth whose weekend activities are dominated by visits to a local discothèque. While in the disco, Tony is the king, and the visits help him to temporarily forget the reality of his life: a dead-end job, clashes with his unsupportive and squabbling parents, tensions in the local community, and his associations with a gang of dead-beat friends.

A huge commercial success, the movie significantly helped to popularize disco music around the world and made Travolta a household name. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, became the best selling soundtrack at that time and held the record until 1999 when the soundtrack to The Bodyguard overtook it. The film is also notable for being one of the first instances of cross-media marketing, with the tie-in soundtrack’s single being used to help promote the film before its release and the film popularizing the entire soundtrack after its release.

The story is based upon a 1976 New York magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn, “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night.” In the late-1990s, Cohn acknowledged that the article had been fabricated. A newcomer to the United States and a stranger to the disco lifestyle, Cohn was unable to make any sense of the subculture he had been assigned to write about. The characters who were to become Tony Manero and his friends was based on Mods, an English youth movement that also placed great importance on music, clothes and dancing. The film also showcased aspects of the music, the dancing, and the subculture surrounding the disco era: symphony-orchestrated melodies, haute-couture styles of clothing, sexual promiscuity, and graceful choreography.

Filming locations include

• Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
• Phillips Dance Studio
• 2001 Odyssey, which was later renamed Spectrum (a Gay club) in 1987 before being demolished in 2005. The club was located at 802 64th Street, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York.
• Six Brothers Hardware and Paints formerly located at 7309 5th Ave in Brooklyn was the backdrop for Tony’s place of employment. The store was owned and operated by a father and his six sons of the Albergo Family. It became a popular tourist stop after the release of the movie. The father was Giuseppe (Joseph Sr.) and the six brothers were Joseph, Domenic, Marco, Peter, Angelo, and Ralph. The owners have since sold the store and have retired.

Soundtrack

1. “Stayin’ Alive” performed by Bee Gees – 4:45
2. “How Deep Is Your Love” performed by Bee Gees – 4:05
3. “Night Fever” performed by Bee Gees – 3:33
4. “More Than a Woman” performed by Bee Gees – 3:17
5. “If I Can’t Have You” performed by Yvonne Elliman – 3:00
6. “A Fifth of Beethoven” performed by Walter Murphy – 3:03
7. “More Than a Woman” performed by Tavares – 3:17
8. “Manhattan Skyline” performed by David Shire – 4:44
9. “Calypso Breakdown” performed by Ralph MacDonald – 7:50 (*)
10. “Night on Disco Mountain” performed by David Shire – 5:12
11. “Open Sesame” performed by Kool & the Gang – 4:01
12. “Jive Talkin’” performed by Bee Gees – 3:43 (*)
13. “You Should Be Dancing” performed by Bee Gees – 4:14
14. “Boogie Shoes” performed by KC and the Sunshine Band – 2:17
15. “Salsation” performed by David Shire – 3:50
16. “K-Jee” performed by MFSB – 4:13
17. “Disco Inferno” performed by Trammps – 10:51

Trivia

• Saturday Night Fever was the favorite movie of the late film critic Gene Siskel, who claimed to have seen it 17 times. He liked the movie so much, he bought the famous white disco suit (worn by Travolta in the movie) at a charity auction for $17,000.
• According to the DVD commentary for this movie, the producers wanted to use the song “Lowdown” by Boz Scaggs for use in the rehearsal scene between Tony and Annette in the dance studio. Representatives for Scaggs’ label, Columbia Records, refused to allow the song, as they wanted to pursue another disco movie project, which never materialized. David Shire had to compose a song to match the dance steps demonstrated in the scene, as it was done with “Lowdown” in mind. However, it does not appear on the movie’s soundtrack.
• Donna Pescow was almost considered ‘too pretty’ for the role of Annette. She corrected this by putting on 40 pounds and training herself back to her native Brooklyn accent, which she trained herself away from while she was studying drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After production ended, she immediately lost the weight she gained for the role and dropped the accent.
• John Travolta’s mother Helen and sister Ann both appeared in minor roles in this movie.
• Bobby’s C’s car is a 1964 Chevrolet Impala.
• Madonna’s video for her 2005 hit single “Hung Up” is an homage to a scene from Saturday Night Fever, when Tony first approaches Stephanie at the rehearsal studio. In the video, Madonna is wearing almost exactly the same leotard and tights set that Stephanie wears in the film, and there is wood paneling and a wooden barre much like in the rehearsal space Stephanie uses for this scene. Madonna also did a remix during the Confessions Tour in 2006, following her successful album Confessions on a Dance Floor. The remix was the instrumental of “Disco Inferno” from Saturday Night Fever mixed with Madonna’s hit song “Music” from 2000. Madonna’s appearance and dance moves during “Music Inferno” were similar to Travolta’s in the film.
• The song “K-Jee” was used during the dance contest with the Hispanic couple that competed against Tony and Stephanie. Some VHS cassettes used a more traditional Latin-style song instead. The DVD restores the original recording.

Cast

• John Travolta – Tony Manero
• Karen Lynn Gorney – Stephanie Mangano
• Barry Miller – Bobby C.
• Joseph Cali – Joey
• Paul Pape – Double J.
• Donna Pescow – Annette, a former girlfriend of Tony, still in love with him
• Bruce Ornstein – Gus
• Julie Bovasso – Flo Manero, Tony’s mother
• Martin Shakar – Frank Manero Jr., Tony’s brother
• Sam Coppola – Dan Fusco, paint store owner, Tony’s boss