File this one under the “what the hell were they thinking” category. Let’s sponsor Disco Demolition Night during a baseball doubleheader where fans get in for less than a dollar, drink beer and watch a disc jockey blow up a bunch of disco records.
The idea worked only too well on July 12, 1979. The Chicago White Sox usually drew about 15,000 fans, so the Sox figured they would get 20,000 for the promotion. Instead, more than 50,000 people, mostly those hating the most popular music of the day, disco, attended.
“Saturday Night Fever” had won the Grammy for “Album of the Year.” Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor and other disco entertainers were dominating the charts.
Trouble began brewing even before the first game of the doubleheader was over. Mistake number one, there weren’t enough police to control the crowd. Disco records started flying around the stadium and onto the field like Frisbees.
DJ Steve Dahl, who lost his job at a Chicago station when it changed its format to disco, promoted the night, and he blew up a large crate of records between games.
Mistake number two, he used too much dynamite and left a crater in centerfield. About 7,000 spectators ran onto the field, tossing records, lighting fires and fireworks. Even the bases disappeared.
The White Sox forfeited the game. Disco Won, White Sox nothing.
“Stayin’ Alive” is an appropriate Song of the Day because that’s what Detroit’s outfielders were trying to do as records flew past them. The Bee Gees wrote and recorded the SOTD for “Saturday Nigh Fever” in 1977. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1978. It stayed there for four weeks.
Song of the Day is created by Sheldon Zoldan, and produced by Pam James for WGCU. To receive the Song of the Day in your inbox every day, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.
