Producer Robert Stigwood struck a deal with Paramount Pictures to release a movie based on a New York magazine article called Tribal Rights of the New Saturday Night. They devised a plan to pack the soundtrack with as many great disco songs as possible. They approached the Bee Gees, who were in France working on their next album, and asked if they had any new material suitable for such a project. The Gibb Brothers replied by sending a cassette tape containing four songs that would eventually top the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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Stigwood was so excited about the soundtrack that he pushed for a single to be released before the movie, which was scheduled to be shown in 200 theaters across the U.S. He negotiated a deal with the movie company heads contingent on the results of the first single. If it reached the Top 20, more theaters would show the movie. If it reached the Top 10, even more locations would screen the film. “How Deep Is Your Love” hit No. 1 the week after the movie, now called Saturday Night Fever, was released. Let’s take a look at the story behind “How Deep Is Your Love” by the Bee Gees.
I know your eyes in the morning sun
I feel you touch me in the pouring rain
And the moment that you wander far from me
I wanna feel you in my arms again
And you come to me on a summer breeze
Keep me warm in your love, then you softly leave
And it’s me you need to show
Inspired by Chopin
The band was in France at Château d’Hérouville working on their next album when the request from Stigwood came. Keyboardist Blue Weaver remembers in the 2020 documentary How Can You Mend a Broken Heart how the song came to life. “We went into a room at the Chateau. Chopin had stayed there, so every time I looked at this piano, I envisioned Chopin playing,” he said. “I sat down at the piano and thought of his ‘Prelude In E-flat,’ and I knew Barry [Gibb] could sing in E-flat. … Through the stained-glass window came a beam of sunlight, and Barry sang, ‘I know your eyes in the morning sun.”
How deep is your love?
How deep is your love?
How deep is your love?
I really mean to learn
Cause we’re living in a world of fools
Breaking us down when they all should let us be
We belong to you and me
I believe in you
You know the door to my very soul
You’re the light in my deepest, darkest hour
You’re my savior when I fall
And you may not think I care for you
When you know down inside that I really do
And it’s me you need to show
Producer’s Suggestion
Weaver shared further memories in The Ultimate Biography of the Bee Gees: Tales of the Brothers Gibb: ”One morning, it was just myself and Barry in the studio. He said, ‘Play the most beautiful chord you know’, and I just played. What happened was, I’d throw chords at him, and he’d say, ‘No, not that chord’, and I’d keep moving around, and he’d say, ‘Yeah, that’s a nice one,’ and we’d go from there. Then I’d play another thing. Sometimes I’d be following the melody line that he already had, and sometimes I’d most probably lead him somewhere else by doing what I did. I think Robin [Gibb] came in at some point. [Producer Albhy Galuten] also came in at one point, and I was playing an inversion of a chord, and he said, ‘Oh no, I don’t think it should be that inversion, it should be this,’ and so we changed it to that, but by the time Albhy had come in, the song was sort of there.
How deep is your love?
How deep is your love?
How deep is your love?
I really mean to learn
Cause we’re living in a world of fools
Breaking us down when they all should let us be
We belong to you and me
Na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na
And you come to me on a summer breeze
Keep me warm in your love, then you softly leave
And it’s me you need to show
It Was Written for Yvonne Elliman
Stigwood insisted the Bee Gees record the song. It had been written for Yvonne Elliman, who was given another Bee Gees song, “If I Can’t Have You.” Barry Gibb talked about the process of recording “How Deep Is Your Love: “A lot of the textures you hear in the song were added on later. We didn’t change any lyrics, mind you, but the way we recorded it was a little different than the way we wrote in the terms of construction. A little different for the better, I think; the title ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ we thought was perfect because of all the connotations involved in that sentence, and that was simply it.”
How deep is your love?
How deep is your love?
How deep is your love?
I really mean to learn
Cause we’re living in a world of fools
Breaking us down when they all should let us be
We belong to you and me (na-na-na-na-na)
How deep is your love?
How deep is your love?
I really mean to learn
Cause we’re living in a world of fools
Breaking us down when they all should let us be
We belong to you and me (na-na-na-na-na)
In 1978, “How Deep Is Your Love” won the Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack took home the 1979 Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
How deep is your love?
How deep is your love?
I really mean to learn
Cause we’re living in a world of fools
Breaking us down when they all should let us be
We belong to you and me
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Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
