Billboard Disco Action Top 25 – December 4th 1976 (Mixcloud Exclusive)

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Pexels

Enjoy this week’s Billboard Disco Action Top 25 ranked from 25 to 1, as published in Billboard Magazine on the 4th of December 1976. Around that time disco somehow sounded like sped up soul and danceable funk. The next year it would all change when Donna Summer introduced the electronic beat with I Feel Love. Disco became a different genre from then on.

It took months before Cherchez La Femme by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band reached the Dutch charts (May 14th 1977), but it eventually became a big hit and stuck at number 3. The band was formed by brothers Stony Browder Jr. and Thomas Browder (aka August Darnell/Kid Creole) in 1974. They started with singer Cory Daye, drummer Mickey Sevilla, and percussionist Andy Hernandez (Coati Mundi). The concept of the group was the re-creation of a 1930s jazz-swing band à la Cab Calloway, with witty lyrics, a disco beat and lush disco arrangements and orchestrations. DJ Dimitri From Paris later named their style 'cocktail disco'. Van McCoy's Soul Cha Cha and Love Unlimited's Brazilian Love Song would also fit this category. Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band was disbanded in 1979. Thomas Browder/August Darnell and Andy Hernandez/Coati Mundi went on to form Kid Creole & The Coconuts and Elbow Bones & The Racketeers in the 1980s. In 1979, singer Cory Daye released her album Cory And Me. The single Pow Wow from the LP peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at #76. The track Wiggle And Giggle All Night reached number 14 on the Dutch pop charts. Last year songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer filed a copyright lawsuit against Dua Lipa claiming that her song Levitating infringed on Wiggle And Giggle All Night.To be honest, I do not hear many similarities.

Tracklist:

Bumblebee Unlimited – Love Bug
Honey Bees – Dream Express
Arthur Prysock – When Love Is New
Brass Construction – Ha Cha Cha
Brick – Dazz
D.C. LaRue – Don’t Keep It In The Shadows
Emotions – I Don’t Wanna Lose Your Love
Boney M – Daddy Cool
Vicki Sue Robinson – Should I Stay / I Won't Let You Go
Van McCoy – Soul Cha Cha
Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band – Cherchez La Femme / Se Si Bon
Eddie Kendricks – Goin’ Up In Smoke
Love Unlimited Orchestra – Brazilian Love Song
Supremes – You’re My Driving Wheel
Grace Jones – Sorry
Undisputed Truth – You + Me = Love
Carol Douglas – Midnight Love Affair
Thelma Houston – Don’t Leave Me This Way
Crown Heights Affair – Dancing
Glitter Band – Makes You Blind
Mass Production – Welcome To Our World Of Merry Music
Rose Royce – Car Wash
Stevie Wonder – Another Star
Originals – Down To Love Town
Donna Summer – Winter Melody

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