CSPC: Bee Gees Popularity Analysis

Physical Singles Sales – Part 5

Saturday Night Fever (1977) – 5,943,000 equivalent albums

Stayin’ Alive – 6,470,000
How Deep Is Your Love – 4,890,000
Night Fever -5,520,000
More Than a Woman – 20,000
(Yvonne Elliman) If I Can’t Have You – 2,360,000
(KC and the Sunshine Band) Boogie Shoes – 550,000

Spirits Having Flown (1979) – 3,951,000 equivalent albums

Tragedy – 5,050,000
Too Much Heaven – 5,640,000
Love You Inside Out – 2,360,000
Spirits (Having Flown) – 120,000

Living Eyes (1981) – 258,000 equivalent albums

Living Eyes – 290,000
He’s a Liar – 570,000

At 4,89 million, How Deep Is Your Love is the weakest seller of the five classics from `’77 – ’81. This shows how utterly massive they were at the time. All four of Stayin’ Alive, Night Fever, Tragedy and Too Much Heaven moved over 5 million units.

So far, the only album which generated more than 15 million singles sales is the 1978 RSO Soundtrack Grease at 24,4 million. It was alone in this stratosphere up to now, but Saturday Night Fever comes close at 19,8 million. Please note this tally includes 2,91 million sales which do not belong to the Bee Gees, while it excludes sales of hits part of the track list, but which were released years before, like the group’s own Jive Talkin’ and You Should Be Dancing.

Among non-Soundtracks, the biggest album studied so far is Make It Big by Wham!, an album in which its singles sold 14,4 million units. Spirits Having Flown at 13,17 million takes the runner up spot.

Superb results for those two albums imply absolute disaster for an album responsible for a mere 860,000 singles a couple of years later. That’s how terrible Living Eyes did.