"Saturday Night Fever" started at Christmas 1977 and was so hot that the fifth single issued Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You" peaked at #1 for the week ending May 13, 1978 and became the first album to produce five #1 hits. It also became the fourth #1 written by Barry Gibb breaking the record set by John Lennon & Paul McCartney who had three consecutive #1 hits in 1964.
It was the the sixth consecutive #1 single for RSO Records that started with "How Deep Is Your Love" followed by Player "Baby Come Back", then "Stayin' Alive", Andy Gibb's "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" and then eight weeks of "Night Fever" when Yvonne's biggest hit spent one week at the top. No other label had had more than two consecutive #1 hits in a row.
Yvonne was born December 29, 1951 in Honolulu, Hawaii and learned to play the piano from her father. In high school she joined We Folk group and then moved to London to make it in the music business. One night during a gig at The Pheasantry, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice who were developing a rock opera based on the life of Jesus Christ and offered her the part of Mary Magdalene. Her original recording of "I Don't Know How To Love Him" was overshadowed by a cover by Helen Reddy who got a #13 pop hit while Yvonne's version faltered at #28.
The touring company of "Jesus Christ Superstar" took her to New York City famed Broadway where she met and married Bill Oakes, who worked with Robert Stigwood. She got hired by Eric Clapton for her background vocalizing for "I Shot The Sheriff" and she was brought on to Eric's big comeback tour.
Her first LP "Rising Sun" produced by Steve Cropper did not produce any hits but her second, "Love Me" contained the Freddie Perren produced Bee Gees written "If I Can't Have You". She was originally brought on to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack to contribute "How Deep Is Your Love" since her voice "does not lend itself to screaming and prefers to sing love ballads. I'm a complete romanticist as well, I like appealing to women and pulling their heartstrings." However Stigwood was adamant that the Bee Gees sing "How Deep Is Your Love" and gave Yvonne the chance to sing the uptempo disco anthem "If I Can't Have You" and the rest is history.
At the time Bill Wardlow was compiling the Billboard Hot Album and Hot100 weekly surveys and in his informative book "And Party Every Day" Larry Harris, the top executive of Neil Bogart's Casablanca Records was wooing Wardlow to ensure that the "Thank God It's Friday" soundtrack would finally reach #1 on the Album chart and get known forever as the album that deposed "Saturday Night Fever" winning a disco battle. The two albums were in the Top 2 positions with Fever leaving Casablanca in the dust. Wardlow was on board at first but when the survey was issued, "Saturday Night Fever" kept the #1 position and Yvonne's "If I Can't Have You" hit #1 at the same time.
Harris was not aware the Al Coury the top man at RSO Records had gone to a music conference in Venice, Italy not to participate but to sit next to Bill Wardlow on the plane and talk to him about ensuring Saturday Night Fever and Yvonne's song would both be #1 giving the label the historic win. Harris was furious with this turn of events and eviscerated Wardlow on the phone. Casablanca was overreaching at this time, full of entitlement and Wardlow eventually forgave Harris.
12 май 2022
