The Making of “Stayin’ Alive”
Remember “Stayin’ Alive”? We thought it was time to share a little behind the scenes on how we put the video together and what the music means to us.
In trying to both stay safe and stay connected as an office team, we decided to put our phones to work and splice together a digital jam, banging on a mix of instruments and household items. We chose the song “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees because it felt super relevant to the situation we all find ourselves in. Even though the tune has a groovy, up-tempo beat, the lyrics speak to a challenging reality. According to Barry Gibb, "the subject matter of 'Stayin' Alive' is actually quite a serious one; it's about survival in the streets of New York."
“The juxtaposition of danceability and desperation inspired our creativity. ”
Julian, Director of Operations, on violin
The juxtaposition of danceability and desperation inspired our creativity. The video starts with Madeline practicing her new hobby of tap dancing; the taps set up the basic percussion loop of the track. On top of Madeline’s tap dancing, we add in more household objects and found sounds one by one: Remy crunching carrots and getting his belly rubbed, salt shakers, and tea kettles.
Our method of building a loop as the basis of the song is a callback to the drum loop in the original recording. As Bee Gees’ producer Albhy Galuten explained, “everyone knows that it's more about feel than accuracy in drum tracks. We chose a bar that felt so good that we ended up using that same loop on 'Stayin' Alive,' and 'More Than a Woman,' and then again on Barbra Streisand's song 'Woman in Love.'”
The video’s intro concludes with Mr. Boo playing with a squeaky toy (no effects here, this is the actual melody that he somehow squeaked out!) We doubled the squeaks with violin, and stretched the audio of Amanda‘s perfume spray leading into the famous groove. Julian’s violin playing takes us on a musical journey through the body of the song, and the video concludes with Scott singing “I’m going nowhere, somebody help me, I’m stayin’ alive.”
Unfortunately, the Bee Gees are often overlooked and underappreciated. The band has expressed mixed feelings about the success of “Stayin’ Alive,” admitting that the single brought them tremendous fame while simultaneously pigeonholing them as a disco act.
Scott, the founder of SpeechLess, singing in our “Stayin’ Alive” performance.
Yet it’s undeniable that the song has been wildly successful. “Stayin’ Alive” held the number one spot for four weeks, broke chart records previously held by the Beatles, and as Stereogum put it, “has come to “tower over the rest of [the Bee Gees’] catalog and to dominate their legacy.” We think the reason the song has endured is because of the way it turns hardship and pain into a cathartic party. Dancing the night away is good medicine, and we are very much looking forward to bringing the party to you sometime soon.
If you like the music of our office team, you will absolutely love the music that our stage performers create! Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more.