This week in 1978, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever started a 24-week run at #1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The disco-centric set went on to sell more than 15 million copies, making Saturday Night Fever the second best-selling soundtrack album of all time. Only 1992’s The Bodyguard beats it with 17 million sold.

Saturday Night Fever is, of course, closely associated with the Bee Gees. The trio recorded four original songs for the film, “Staying Alive,” “How Deep Is Your Love,” “Night Fever,” and “More Than A Woman,” plus two previously released #1 songs, “Jive Talkin'” (1975) and “You Should Be Dancing” (1976). “More Than A Woman” appeared twice on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, also recorded by Tavares, and the Brothers Gibb penned Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You.”

I wasn’t even in Kindergarten when Saturday Night Fever premiered, but I was definitely captivated by the soundtrack, which we’d checked out from the local library (and renewed at least once or twice beyond its original due date). I still haven’t seen the movie, so I wasn’t aware that one of my favorite Bee Gees songs on the album, “Jive Talkin’,” doesn’t even appear in it.

In 1987, Boogie Box High released a cover of “Jive Talkin’.” The brainchild of George Michael‘s cousin, Andros Georgiou, Boogie Box High enrolled some famous artists and studio musicians. The demo for “Jive Talkin'” featured Nick Heyward (Haircut 100) and Mick Talbot (Style Council), plus members of George Michael’s studio band, including David Austin and Deon Estus, with whom he’d recorded Faith. Once Andros played George the completed demo, George took the tapes into a studio and added his own lead and background vocals.

Though much of the singing on the completed “Jive Talkin'” single was umistakably his, George Michael wasn’t credited on the song for contractual reasons (he could only record for Sony). But thanks to this thinly veiled mystery, Boogie Box High’s cover did quite well in the UK, reaching #1 and selling a million copies. An album, Outrageous, followed in 1989 (with less involvement from George), though neither release made much of a ripple here across the pond. One assumes Sony used its massive leverage to quash the thought of major U.S. airplay.

Last year, Andros Georgiou resurrected the Boogie Box High master tapes, issuing “Jive Talkin'” to iTunes and other services. In addition to the original demo and 7″ version, there are unreleased remixes by John “Jellybean” Benitez and two new club mixes by Spreadlove. All of these have also been compiled on a limited-edition CD single. Here’s the 7″ hit version of “Jive Talkin'”

In 1995, Andros and George teamed up for yet another cover, recording Dead Or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” with former Wham! backup singer, Lawrie “Pepsi” Demacque. George’s record-label troubles intervened once again, so the single was instead credited to Infamy featuring Lawrie Demacque and went nowhere. But like “Jive Talkin’,” Andros has created a limited-edition CD single with a bevy of remixes (there’s no digital release).

Purchase Boogie Box High feat. George Michael – “Jive Talkin'” (Bee Gees cover) via iTunes, Amazon MP3.

But wait, there’s a second cover of “Jive Talkin'” that’s worth a listen. In 1994, alt-rockers The Judybats — who, for reasons unfathomable to me, never quite got the respect they deserved — included the Bee Gees song on their fourth album, Full-Empty.

The Knoxville, Tennessee band had once dubbed their own music “hillbilly disco,” so perhaps taking on the kings of the glitterball genre was simply inevitable. I couldn’t get enough of it at the time, giving their cover of “Jive Talkin'” regular spins on my college radio show. I’m not sure the whole thing holds up to that hype today, but I still dig the 15-second intro and the underwater guitar effect that surfaces several times:

Purchase The Judybats – “Jive Talkin'” (Bee Gees cover) via iTunes, Amazon MP3.