In February 1978 John Travolta strutted down the street to this immortal song. One of the most instantly recognizable songs from that era, it defined his image for decades
.It was been copied and parodied countless times. But on the 45 anniversary I present this, one of the best renditions.
So I absolutely love the back story to Saturday Night fever. It’s based on a New York Magazine article about disco which basically brought disco into the mainstream (with the help of the movie of course), but the thing is the article was absolutely bullshit.
Disco in NY at the time was a largely underground, gay, culture, more similar to 90s rave culture in terms of the clothing style etc than what we think of as “disco”. But tracking down underground disco clubs to research and is hard work, and who has time for that? So actually what Nik Cohn, the author of the article, described is the nightlife he was familiar with, namely the mod scene in London. So that is what became “disco” in the public eye, even though it never was originally.