Let’s Start The Dance: Glorious Days Of Disco

Jacob Owens

Not only a tribute to disco and the late Patrick Juvet, but also to the inventor of the cassette, Lou Ottens, who passed away last month. Without him the mixtape on cassette that would become immensely popular in the 1970s and 1980s, probably never would have existed. 

In 1963 the first tape was presented to the world at an electronics fair in Berlin with the tagline “Smaller than a pack of cigarettes!” In the 1980s Ottens was also involved in the development of the compact disk, from which more than 200 billion have been sold worldwide to date. But even after the CD replaced vinyl in the late 1980s, cassettes remained the only way to easily record music for portable consumption until rewritable CDS and MP3s took over around the turn of the millennium. 

Last week I felt sad when I read the news that Swiss singer Patrick Juvet, who looked and sounded like a combination of disco divas Barry Gibb and Sylvester, was found dead in his apartment in Barcelona. He started to make a name for himself as a singer of French chansons in the early 1970s. He had the honour to represent his home country at the Eurovision Song Contest 1973 with Je Vais Me Marier, Marie, ending up at number 12 in the competition. When Juvet entered the disco scene with synthesizer wizard Jean-Michel Jarre to record Où Sont Les Femmes a few years later, things changed internationally. He met disco producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, who also worked with Village People and The Ritchie Family, and with them he recorded Got A Feeling and I Love America. These songs led to a big worldwide breakthrough. The decline of disco meant a personal decline as well. He began to struggle with alcoholism and suffered from depressions. After the heyday of seventies disco he was not able to build a lifelong career and he only occasionally performed on stage, until his tragic death on the first of April. 

Tracklist:

Grey & Hanks – Now I'm Fine (1983)
Debra Laws – Meant For You (1981)
Pratt & McClain – Whachersign (1976)
Pointer Sisters – American Music (1982)
Crackin' – Double Love (1978)
Satin, Silk & Lace – Your Love (1986)
Double Exposure ‎– My Love Is Free (1976)
Chemise – She Can't Love You (1982)
Mr. Morse & His New Alphaband – S.O.S., I'm In Love (1977)
General Johnson – Can't Nobody Love Me Like You Do (1979)
Richard Hewson Orchestra – Love Bite (1976)
Tina Charles ‎– I Love To Love (1976)
5000 Volts ‎– I'm On Fire (1975)
Hamilton Bohannon ‎– Let's Start The Dance (1978)
Patrick Juvet – Où Sont Les Femmes? [Full Length Disco Version] (1977)
Odia Coates & Paul Anka ‎– Make It Up To Me In Love (1976)
Dimitri From Paris & Fiorious – Music Saved My Life (2021)
Sylvester – I Need You [Dim's Super Disco Blend] (2006)