Another Use For 'Stayin' Alive': Staying Alive

(Soundbite of song "Stayin' Alive")

SCOTT SIMON, host:

If this song has been running through your head for the last 30 years or so, there may finally be a good reason. A study by the University of Illinois College of Medicine has found that the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" has the utterly perfect beat for performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The 1977 disco hit contains 103 beats per minute. That's close to the recommended chest compression rate of 100 beats every 60 seconds.

Dr. David Matlock watched his 15 doctors and students perform CPR on mannequins as they listened to the song, then again a few weeks later when they were told to just keep this song in their heads. "It drove them and motivated them to keep up the rate," he told the Associated Press. Imagine, the song is so invigorating, it revives mannequins.

Now, "Stayin' Alive" is one of our Twitter entries this week. Twitter is a free social networking site that lets users send instant updates. Each message, known as a tweet, is like a blog post, but tweets are only 140 characters long. To find out how to follow our Twitter feed, visit our blog at npr.org/soapbox. Keep on tweeting.

(Soundbite of song "Stayin' Alive")

BEE GEES: (Singing) Got the wings of heaven on my shoes. I'm a dancing man and I just cant lose. You know its all right, its OK, I'll live to see another day. We can try to understand the New York Times effect on man. Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother, You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Feel the city breaking and everybody shaking, And were staying alive, staying alive...

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