"Nights on Broadway" is a song by the Bee Gees from the Main Course album released in 1975. The second single released from the album, it immediately followed their number-one hit "Jive Talkin'". This track was credited to Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb.
Recording
Recording this track started on 20 January 1975 and continued on 30 January, when they started to record songs for the album: "Jive Talkin'" (finished 2 February), "Songbird", "Fanny (Be Tender with My Love)" (finished 19 February), "All This Making Love" and "Edge of the Universe".
Barry Gibb talked about "Nights on Broadway" on The Larry King Show on 2 February 2002:
<blockquote>"It came to me in a dream, there was a request by Arif Mardin, who was like an uncle to us, he was a great record producer during the song 'Nights on Broadway,' for the Main Course album, which is previous to the 'Fever' syndrome. And he said, 'Can any of you scream, scream in falsetto.' So, you know, give us an ad lib or a scream at the end. So from screaming, it turned into things like 'blamin' it all'." According to Allmusic critic Donald A. Guarisco, the melody is more streamlined than in previous Bee Gees' hits and the melody's "taut rhythmic swing mirrors the urgency of the lyrics." The 45 was also faster and runs 4:26.
Cash Box called it a "hard-hitting r&b effort," saying that "the Gibbs brothers wrap more incredible harmonies around the rock and roll mind." Rolling Stone critic Stephen Holden said that it "boast[s] spacious disco arrangements against which the Bee Gees overdub skillful imitations of black falsetto."
Chart performance
Weekly charts
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
!Chart (1975–1976)
!Peak<br />position
|-
!scope="row"|Australia (Kent Music Report)
|align="center"|67
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|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
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!scope="row"|US Billboard Adult Contemporary
|align="center"|16
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!scope="row"|US Cash Box
|align="center"|4
|-
!scope="row"|US Record World
|align="center"|7
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
!Chart (1975)
!Position
|-
!scope="row"|Canada Top Singles (RPM)
|align="center"|35
|-
!scope="row"|Netherlands (Single Top 100)
|align="center"|92
|-
!scope="row"|US Cash Box
|align="center"|58
|}
Cover versions
In 1977, Candi Staton released a version of the song, for her, Music Speaks Louder Than Words album. Her version peaked at no. 6 on the United Kingdom Singles Chart in the late summer of that year, and at no. 4 in Ireland.
Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake parody the song as the theme song of their recurring Saturday Night Live sketch The Barry Gibb Talk Show.