Disco Ball Days

-
Picture by Murat Koc
We're going back to the Disco Ball Days! ‘Fast Freddie The Roller Disco King’ by The Imperials (just like ‘Superfunk’ in my previous mix) is from a brand new compilation album, called 'Disco: A Fine Selection of Independent Disco, Modern Soul and Boogie 1978-82' that is released on Soul Jazz Records. It's a collection of rare and independent tracks from the heyday of disco (1978 to 1982), expertly compiled by Disco Patrick. Blurring the musical lines between disco, modern soul and boogie this double album features many exclusive and hard to find records from the era. Included here are in demand classics, such as The Fantastic Aleems featuring Leroy Burgess, John Gibbs and the US Steel Orchestra, rare P&P productions, Jessie G and 'The Easton Assassin' by The Sunburst Band (a 12” given out free at boxing matches!).

The album goes with the massive new 360-page deluxe hardback book 'Disco – An Encyclopedic Guide To The Cover Art of Disco' that features over 2,000 album cover designs as well as over 700 12” sleeves, including sections on roller disco, disco instruction albums and more. There are also interviews and introductions by Tom Moulton, Nicky Siano, Mel Cheren (West End Records), Ken Cayre (Salsoul) and Marvin Schlachter (Prelude). This book is compiled by Disco Patrick and Patrick Vogt, text by Claes Widlund.

'I love the to love' by Tina Charles was a massive hit in 1976. It was written by Biddu. He also wrote 'Kung Fu Fighting', which became a classic by Carl Douglas (although the song was originally a b-side) and hits for 5000 Volts and Jimmy James & the Vagabonds ('I'll go where the Music takes me'). British new wave band The Buggles was founded by two of Biddu's former session musicians, Trevor Horn (then partner of Tina Charles) and Geoff Downes. They are most famous for their hit song 'Video killed the radio star' in 1979. Trevor Horn later became a much in demand producer and is sometimes called 'the man who invented the 1980s' (Yes, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, ABC, Marc Almond, Seal, Art of Noise, Propaganda and just recently Billy Idol). By the way, the beat of 'I love to love' with the off-beat tom tom and the sixteens on the hi-hat is borrowed from 'Rock the boat' by Hues Corporation and the rhythm box sounds almost exactly the same as in 'Rock your baby' by George McCrae. Those two songs were an inspiration for more disco songs at the time. They turned out te be the foundation of disco (Source: Glitter Suits & Platform Boots).


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disco Knockouts!

-
Image
Apart from the picture of Sharron Davies, there are two songs that inspired me to make this mix. One of them is a recent track from Duck Sauce. The repetition of the female vocals reminded me of Stars On 45 (I believe they both sampled 'Gotta Go Home' by Boney M). The other one is from Dutch singer Dee Dee. I heard ‘I put a spell on you’ on a recent episode of Tim Sweeney’s ‘Beats in space’. In the accompanying video she looks a little bit like a sex doll, but I love the song! I like the closing track from soul veterans the Drifters, but isn’t it strange to hear guys who were in their thirties at the time sing about schoolgirls? Different times, I guess, when no one had heard of R. Kelly yet... One of my personal favourites is ‘Night time’ from Maggie MacNeal. I bought the 7” which was produced by Michael Lloyd (known for his work for the Osmonds, Lou Rawls and Solomon Burke) way back in 1979. Maggie MacNeal was one half of successful Dutch duo Mouth & MacNeal. Their bigg
Read more

The Smooth Operators Present Classic Yacht Rock

-
Image
Unsplash The Smooth Operators (Martijn Soetens and I) introduce you to yacht rock songs that you must have heard at least once in your life! We present some real yacht rock classics and yacht rock songs that we think should have been classics. Harden My Heart by American pop/rock group Quarterflash was written by guitarist Marv Ross and included on the band's debut album, Quarterflash (1981). The song was originally released as a single in early 1980 by Seafood Mama, Quarterflash's predecessor band. Quarterflash's version became a top-10 hit in the United States, peaking at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1982. Guitarist and songwriter Marv Ross remembered that a friend of his had given him the title and that he came up with the lyrics very quickly. Last Monday Michael McDonald, front man of the Doobie Brothers, celebrated his 72th birthday: "Emerging from the laid-back California rock scene of the '70s, McDonald found his niche in a unique blend of
Read more

West Coast Sundown: Yacht Rock, Late Night Pop & Sunset Soul

-
Image
Unsplash Enjoy the soundtrack to a West Coast sundown! 😊 The closing track by Matt Duncan is brand new, by the way. It sounds like a lost recording from The Nightfly sessions by Donald Fagen. At the time critics sometimes called David Cassidy’s music bubblegum pop. That was simply defined  music manufactured to sell as much records as possible and it was mostly aimed at a very young audience. Bubblegum's classic period ran from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies. At that point disco music took over the single market. However, David Cassidy certainly made some very good records, although in later years he found it difficult to shake off his teen idol image. “His wispiest, breathiest hit was called ‘I Am A Clown’. Poor, sweet, forlorn sexy David – marshmallows could’ve bruised this sound.“ (Bob Stanley in his book Yeah Yeah Yeah )  Midas Shadow by Al Stewart is from his classic 1976 album The Year Of The Cat . The message of this song is that when a successful businessman stops
Read more