And Then There Was... Disco!
Three Degrees: Rolling Stone journalist Vince Aletti first spoke of ‘disco’ in 1973. So we are celebrating 40 years of disco this year! This mix is a selection of the early years. The tracks I chose made the (disco) ball rolling. In 1973, for instance, 'Girl, you need a change of mind' was one of the first songs with a (disco) break and 'The love I lost' was probably the first song that had an uptempo disco beat, because of the hi-hat pattern played by drummer Earl Young (Source: A House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul ). One year later, 'Rock the boat' (that started to use the off-beat tom tom ) and 'Rock your baby' were the first disco hits that reached the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100: “Considered by some to be the first disco hit, the Hues Corporation's funky 1974 hit "Rock the Boat" is certainly a key track in the style's development. Certainly the song's hypnotic structure -- aside from two br...