Boogie Nights by Heatwave

Album: Too Hot To Handle (1977)

Charted: 2 2

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Songfacts®:

This was written by Heatwave's keyboardist Rod Temperton; it was the first song he ever wrote on his own. The song got the attention of producer Quincy Jones, who brought Temperton in to write songs for Michael Jackson. It was a very fruitful collaboration, as Temperton wrote three of Jackson's biggest hits: "Off The Wall," "Rock With You" and "Thriller." Other Temperton-written hits that Jones produced include "Give Me The Night" by George Benson and "Baby, Come To Me" by James Ingram.
This song is about the groovy evenings out dancing in the disco era, as depicted in the film Saturday Night Fever. The song's writer, Rod Temperton, was British but formed Heatwave with two Americans. He spent a lot more time in the studio than in the discos, but had a talent for capturing the feeling of heading out for a night of dancing (as did some other British songwriters: the Gibb brothers, who wrote many of the songs for Saturday Night Fever). Temperton died in 2016 at age 66.
The phrase "Boogie Nights" became ingrained with the disco era, and in 1997 a film with that title was released starring Mark Wahlberg that was set in 1977, the same year this song came out. The song was not part of the film.
In February 1979, a van struck Heatwave's lead vocalist Johnny Wilder Jr.'s car when he was visiting family in Ohio, permanently paralyzing him from the neck down. The next year Heatwave had a #9 hit in the UK with the ballad "Always And Forever."
The British comedy group The Barron Knights did a send-up of this song called "Boozie Knights."
This spent two weeks at #2 in the US, held off the top spot both weeks by Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life."
Disco songwriters adopted the word "boogie" as a synonym for dance, and it inspired an endless string of song titles throughout the era, including "Boogie Fever," "Boogie Shoes," "Boogie Oogie Oogie" and "Boogie Wonderland." The term had been around for a long time, notably in the boogie-woogie blues rhythm that became popular in the 1920s. Lots of artists paid tribute to the style, including the Andrews Sisters with "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" (1941), which in turn was covered by Bette Midler, whose version hit the charts in 1972 as disco was heating up and the meaning of "boogie" was shifting.
Although the song didn't earn a spot on the Boogie Nights soundtrack, it's had a handful of other media placements. It was used in these movies:

I Believe In Miracles (2015)
The Break-Up (2006)
What Ever Happened To Harold Smith? (1999)
Summer Of Sam (1999)
Skatetown U.S.A. (1979)
Eyes Of Laura Mars (1978)

And these TV shows:

Black Mirror ("Be Right Back" - 2013)

Comments: 9

Ro from Pembroke Pines"Dance with the boogie get high"

I always thought that the lyrics were "Dance with the boogie get down."

You live and you learn.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyPer: http://www.oldiesmusic.com/news.htm {10-31-2017}
Keith Wilder, lead singer and co-founder of Heatwave with his late brother Johnny, died Sunday (October 29th, 2017) at the age of 68...
The Dayton, Ohio native joined Johnny (who had been performing in Germany) in England in 1975. Signed to GTO Records there (and distributed by Epic Records in the US), they hit the charts with funk hits like "Boogie Nights" (#2* in 1977), "The Groove Line" (#7 in 1978) and the ballad "Always And Forever" (#18 in 1978)...
Keith continued to perform in various incarnations of the group over the years, even after the paralysis and later death of Johnny...
May he R.I.P.
* "Boogie Nights" peaked at #2 {for 2 weeks} on Billboard's Top 100 chart, the two weeks it was at #2, the #1 record for both those weeks was "You Light Up My Life" by Debby Boone...
Richard Antony from Leeds,united KingdomRod Temperton. Without doubt the best songwriter to come out of UK.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn July 17th 1977, "Boogie Nights" by Heatwave entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #93; and on November 6th, 1977 it peaked at #2 (for 2 weeks) and spent over a half-year on the Top 100 (27 weeks, and for 9 of those weeks it was on the Top 10)...
On October 2nd, 1977 it entered the Top 10 at #7, then it worked its way to #2 step by step, when to #6, #5, #4, #3, and finally #2 for 2 weeks, the following week it dropped down to #4...
The two weeks it was at #2 on the Top 100, the #1 record for both those weeks was "You Light Up My Life" by Debby Boone...
The septet had two other Top 100 records; "Always and Forever" (at #18 in 1978) and "The Groove Line" (at #7 in 1978).
Camille from Toronto, OhI agree with Keith, of Philadelphia. This song, well, it's okay, but I like Groove Line better and it's nowhere on Songfacts!
Keith from Philadelphia, PaRod Temperton one of the greatest songwriters ever.............
Chris from San Bernardino, Ca"Always And Forever" didn't hit the UK charts until 1980? Wow lol...
Reed from New Ulm, MnNot much into disco, but this has got to be a fave.
Al from New York, NyJohnnie Wilder was the group's lead singer, but Rod Temperton was the group's main songwriter, having written "Boogie Nights, The Groove Line and Always and Forever."

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