Disco At Its Peak

1978 is arguably the peak year for Disco in terms of influence on popular culture as a whole and in terms of financial success. A number of firsts for Disco took place in 1978. A movie featuring the underground world of Disco itself would be one of the top moneymaking films of 1978 and one of the top 10 of the entire decade. The soundtrack to that film, a double album filled with Disco, would become the biggest selling album of all time. A Disco song featured in another 1978 movie would win the Academy Award for Best Song in a Motion Picture. A Disco group that debuted in 1978 would be the first Disco artists to win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Mainstream recording artists as varied as the Rolling Stones and Barry Manilow scored big with Disco records. Disco had become dominant.

The idea for the movie Saturday Night Fever originated with an article from New York magazine about the culture of New York City discos. Many of those from the New York City scene gave the movie credit for creating a reasonable depiction of the clothing, music, and atmosphere of real-world discos. The movie was cross-marketed with the soundtrack that featured new music by the Bee Gees including Staying Alive and Night Fever alongside their classics Jive Talkin' and You Should Be Dancing, the Trammps Disco Inferno, and Open Sesame by Kool and the Gang. Saturday Night Fever created a pop culture sensation. John Travolta, star of the movie but previously known only for a role in the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, became a superstar overnight. The soundtrack album would become the biggest selling album of all time, and the Bee Gees were instantly recast from a Pop group with a decade's worth of hits to Disco kings.

During the summer of 1978, Neil Bogart of Casablanca Records joined forces with Motown Records to release Thank God It's Friday, a Disco movie set in Los Angeles and intended to depict the west coast Disco world. The movie failed to take off like Saturday Night Fever, but the soundtrack was an instant success in clubs. By the time the Academy Awards rolled around in the spring of 1979, Donna Summer's key song from the film, Last Dance, was named Best Song in a Motion Picture.

The group A Taste Of Honey stood out from a host of other new Disco acts in 1978 partly due to featuring women on lead guitar and bass. Their first single Boogie Oogie Oogie caught the attention of club audiences and later radio with its insistent funky bass line. The single sold over 2 million copies and A Taste Of Honey later became the first Disco-oriented group to win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

As Disco continued its ascendance in popular music, a growing number of established recording artists experimented with creating Disco records. Two of the most successful, from quite different segments of the popular music spectrum, were the Rolling Stones and Barry Manilow. Perhaps feeling pushed by the growin