50 albums: 1977 - Saturday Night Fever soundtrack

In 1978, when Saturday Night Fever arrived in the UK, I was 14. In May 1978, for my 14th birthday I was given a record player for my bedroom and a few records, The Story of The Who, Harvest by Neil Young, and a couple of Rock 'n' Roll compilations. This was the direction I was moving in and Saturday Night Fever was the other direction, that was the road my brother took. Music needed to be partisan, particularly when you're 14, and that meant I had no time for The Bee Gees falsetto harmonies and music that was designed to make you dance. I didn't dance. I still don't.

Saturday Night Fever, the film, received an X certificate which means I never got to see it then, and have actually never seen it. The music however is of course ridiculously familiar, partly because of my brother having and playing the record (I shared a bedroom with him - it was hard to avoid hearing it), and partly because of its ubiquity. And, now that I'm grown up, I'm happy to concede that it's not that bad - and in places rather good. There's some laughable nonsense - notably the disco "classics" A Fifth of Beethoven and Night on Disco Mountain - but even that seemed oddly appropriate. But for all that it sounds like music that was made for someone else.

(play on YouTube)