The Bee Gees Rhythm Machine was manufactured by Mattel in the wake of Saturday Night Fever. According to Q magazine, this portable battery-powered mini-keyboard branded with a Bee Gees logo never made it onto any records by the brothers Gibb, but it did find a place on Kraftwerk's song "Pocket Calculator." The innovation was immortalized in the lyric: "By pressing down a special key, it plays a little melody."
Kraftwerk issued several versions of the single in different languages: namely, German ("Taschenrechner"), French ("Mini Calculateur") and Japanese ("Dentaku").
The first portable calculator was placed on sale by Texas Instruments in 1971. It weighed two-and-a-half pounds and cost a mere $150.
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