Song of the Day 8/26: Tavares, “More Than a Woman”

Guest post by Nathan Arizona

Now that “Saturday Night Fever” (maybe) and the Bee Gees (probably) have been rehabilitated by the cool kids, think back to the soundtrack. Did you notice, maybe just vaguely, that “More Than a Woman” shows up twice? Not one version that plays twice, but two groups doing the same song.

One is by the Bee Gees, of course. The other is by the R&B/soul group Tavares. That’s the one that got played on the radio and became a hit. The Bee Gees wrote it but never released it as a single, although it did become a regular part of their act.

The versions are similar enough and so far apart on the soundtrack that it might not be obvious that two groups are involved. The Tavares version was just a little rougher, the rhythm a little more insistent, the tempo a little quicker. They were brothers and had that “brother” harmony like the Bee Gees.

The Tavares version plays during the studio scene where John Travolta’s Tony and Stephanie from “the city” dance together for the first time. The Bee Gees version plays when they take what they’ve learned to the disco. The dancing’s a little smoother and so is the song they dance to.

The Bee Gees were working on a few tunes they planned for a new album.when they were asked if they could come up with some songs for a movie about a Brooklyn kid who learns life lessons in a disco. They could, and they had a head start.

But the movie didn’t exist yet, so in the meantime the Bee Gees recruited Tavares to record one of those songs, “More Than a Woman.”

The group had already hit the R&B/soul charts with other tunes, including a version of “She’s Gone” by Hall and Oates, who had already released it on the “Abandoned Luncheonette” album without much fanfare. After seeing what Tavares did with it they tried again and landed a hit.

There are also two versions of the whole “Saturday Night Fever” movie. It was rated R when it first came out. But the kids wanted to see it so they made a few quick edits and released it again as PG. The Tavares version of “More than a Woman” is on both movie cuts, but it’s on only the soundtrack album that came out with the PG version.

Tavares did some dancing of their own when performing “More Than a Woman.” It’s hard to imagine the Bee Gees making these moves (though it’s sort of fun to try). And their performance is almost completely falsetto-free.

Here’s the Bee Gees version as seen in the movie. Note that Travolta is not actually a great dancer, but he pulls it off thanks to attitude and good camera work.

This is the Tavares scene. You’d think it would hard for Travolta to dance in high heels. But Ginger Rogers did it.

Now Tavares with “She’s Gone.” I bet Daryl Hall secretly wished he looked like this when he sang about the “carbon and monoxide.”