“Night Fever” is a song written and performed by the Bee Gees. It first appeared on the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, and was the third single by the group taken from the album, going on to top the Billboard Hot 100 and remaining at #1 for eight weeks.
“Night Fever” was the #1 song in the U.S.A. on the day I just happened to be born. However, being Canadian I was curious as to whether or not the same song was #1 in my actual country of birth – so I checked and it was this:
Nope, me neither. But after reading up on it, turns out it was not only written by Barry and Robin Gibb, but Barry also performs harmony and background vocals (very obvious if you make it to the chorus). I have no memory of this song1 though apparently it was a hit more than once: Destiny’s Child recorded a version that was released as a single and subsequently hit the top ten in December 2001. 2
Incidentally, on the very same date in 1978, the #1 hit in the U.K. was “Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush, and the #1 hit in Australia was “Isn’t It Time” by The Babys. I was able to make these interesting (well, to me anyway) discoveries via mybirthdayhits.com by simply selecting one of those four countries, typing my birth date into the appropriate space, and clicking on “Find Hits”. Doing so not only provides the #1 hit in the selected country for your date of birth, it also shows what was #1 on your birthday each subsequent year after that up to the present, and it also automatically generates a Spotify playlist of all those songs if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s fun, it’s easy – and best of all it’s NOT full of advertisements and other annoying pop-ups!
OPTIONAL DISCUSSION PROMPT: What was the #1 song on your birthday?
Have a Great Night Thread, Avocado!