page_title: A Night at Studio 54
section_title: Background, content and marketing
hierarchical_section_title: A Night at Studio 54 / Background, content and marketing
caption_attribution_description: English: Studio 54
context_page_description: A Night at Studio 54 is a compilation album issued by Casablanca Records in June 1979, featuring disco music played frequently at New York City's famous nightclub Studio 54. Conceived by the label and direct response television company I&M Marketing with the co-operation from Studio 54 founders Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, A Night at Studio 54 was also a double album, with its music segued between tracks by disc jockeys Marc Paul Simon and Roy Thode for continuous playing, reminiscent of the nightclub itself. The album was originally going to contain crowd noise recorded at the club too, but the idea was dropped before release as it brought a decrease in sound quality.
  Believing the album wouldn't sell with traditional promotion based on the album's content being readily available elsewhere, I&M Marketing's innovative campaign for the album saw them spend $100,000s on advertising on radio and television, tagging local retailers in different regions on the spot. The campaign was a success, and the album peaked at number 21 on the Billboard album charts.
context_section_description: Nightclub and discotheque Studio 54, located at 254 West 54th Street, between Eighth Avenue and Broadway in Manhattan, New York City, was founded and opened by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager in 1977, and by 1979 it had become a world-famous front for disco music. The genesis for A Night at Studio 54, a compilation featuring music from the club, came about when was Rubell and Schrager were looking to release spin-off products from the disco. With the co-operation of Studio 54 themselves, as Schrager and Rubell are credited as the album's executive producers, A Night at Studio 54 was conceived by disco label Casablanca Records and I&M Teleproducts, an early example of a direct response television music company founded in 1976 by Morris Levy and Ira Pittleman; naturally, I&M Teleproducts also marketed the album.
  A Night at Studio 54 is a double album that features 17 disco tracks popularized and played regularly at Studio 54; according to music critic Robert Christgau, the album includes all of disco's AM radio crossover successes "plus major floor hits." Rubell described the album as "the equivalent of a night at Studio 54." The songs on the album are mixed together by Studio 54 DJs Marc Paul Simon and Roy Thode for continuous playing reminiscent of a DJ set at the club. One account later noted it was unusual that Richie Kaczor did not sequence the album instead. Originally, the album was to feature crowd sounds recorded at Studio 54, but the idea was later dropped "because a comparison of two recordings led to the conclusion that better audio quality would be thus obtained."
  Since the album contained previously released hits, Pittleman and Levy, credited as the album's associate producers, decided that A Night at Studio 54 "wasn't going to get any airplay time–and people wouldn't be looking for it in the bins," as Pittleman later recalled, so in order to promote the album, they "spent hundred of thousands of dollars in TV and radio advertising and co-ordinated region by region with local retailers by tagging them in the spot." The album was advertised on the front of Billboard magazine as an "electrifying 2-record set" which includes the "hottest hits" from the artists featured.
caption: The location of Studio 54 in 2008.
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