What are your favorite Disco "Classics"?

It's really Funk but close.

Parliament Funkadelic - Give Up The Funk​

Donna Summer was Hot Stuff!

My favorite disco song? John Cage's 4'33.

morrobay said:

I was surprised to find out that only two of the members actually sang on the records.
They were put together as a dance troupe rather than singing group.
The producer wrote the tracks and sang the male vocals.

I always thought this band was silly as a kid. The same way Gary Glitter and Alvin Stardust were silly. This is a great track though.

Kiss "I was made for loving you." 1979

Blondie - Heart of Glass 1978

I clicked to check I had the right version and watched the whole thing.
Disco aside, this is just so good.
They look so cool the way they move and are not in synchronisation, they have their own thing or it looks that way.

ABBA -Dancing Queen 1976.

Fashion is funk post punk not disco so I have removed it.

Sylvester - You make me feel (mighty real) 1980

Heatwave - Boogie Nights 1976

Stretching it again, funky disco?

The Crusaders - Streetlife 1979

Jazz funk disco!?

Definitely disco.

Michael Jackson - Rock with you 1979

Earth Wind and Fire -Boogie Wonderland 1979.

I checked on "September" first and tried to count the band members. I think there was 9, some psychedelics going on so difficult.


In this video there are all those members plus 3 female backing singers!
Rehearsals must have been a nightmare!

If you put me on the spot and asked me if I liked Disco I would probably said, "not particularly" but once you dig a little you find all sorts of gems.
Like this one. Lots of tension in the melody which why I like it.
No idea what she said till I googled the words.

Odyssey -I'm a native New Yorker 1977.

The four seasons - December 1963 (Oh what a night) 1975

The Bee Gees wrote this and released it in 1975, funky pop. By the time Candi Staton did the version I would lump it with Disco. Slightly faster, straighter me.

Lights on Broadway 1977

Last one (so many good tracks!)

There is so much going on this song. I tried the live version but it is way too fast.

Well, one person seems to be dominating.

I might mention Baby Face, by the Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Orchestra. I won;t post a link lest I be charged with crimes against humanity. If you heard it before, you don't need to hear it again, and if you haven't, trust me, it's better that way. It's impressive how they could take a song popular for half a century and make it unpopular for at least that long.

Trivia: one of the credited singers is the same as a famous Star Trek actress. Two different people. Or at least that's what she's saying. I'd be saying that too, no matter what.

pinball1970 said:

Last one (so many good tracks!)

There is so much going on this song. I tried the live version but it is way too fast.

Summer Night City is one of my absolute ABBA favorites (besides Eagle, which is not disco but rather progressive rock/art rock according to Wikipedia, a bit unusual for the band).

I think there's a strange, mystical feeling in Summer Night City which I love (and the same with Eagle, actually).

Though, if I remember correctly, ABBA themselves weren't satisfied with Summer Night City for some reason. I don't understand why .

Well, can we really have a disco thread without:



?

Miami Beach

I like to play Laura Branigan's Gloria. It has really good chords. It's about a friend who is going nuts. What to do?

Hornbein said:

I like to play Laura Branigan's Gloria. It has really good chords.

I really like that song too!

Actually played in discos. Long songs so links set part way into videos.

I'm old enough to have started going to discos starting in 1975. My first impression was how clean and powerful the sound systems with very tight bass were at some of the discos (especially compared to loud and high distortion often heard from rock cover bands). The disco records were meant to be played at those venues and a lot is lost if you only hear them on the average home stereo system Decent headphones will help, but you won't "feel" the bass. A lot of the disco songs, especially the early ones, were fairly long, some over 15 minutes, something people would dance to, but would seldom listen to in a home setting. Also the early ones were "promo" 12 inch singles, 33 1/3 or 45 rpm, with deeper and wider grooves to allow more dynamic range with needles that could handle the range.

Cerrone - Je Suis Music

A year prior to Disco Inferno (1976), Where The Happy People Go (1975):

Trammps - Where The Happy People Go

Donna Summer - I Feel Love (8 minute disco single version)

Donna Summer - Sunset People

Disco era balads:

Isley Brothers - Living For The Love Of You

Rose Royce - Love Don't Live Here Anymore

Brothers Johnson - I'll Be Good To You

Manhattan Transfer - Mystery

rcgldr said:

Actually played in discos. Long songs so links set part way into videos.

I'm old enough to have started going to discos starting in 1975. My first impression was how clean and powerful the sound systems with very tight base were at some of the discos (especially compared to loud and high distortion often heard from rock cover bands). The disco records were meant to be played at those venues and a lot is lost if you only hear them on the average home stereo system Decent headphones will help, but you won't "feel" the base. A lot of the disco songs, especially the early ones, were fairly long, some over 15 minutes, something people would dance to, but would seldom listen to in a home setting. Also the early ones were "promo" 12 inch singles, 33 1/3 or 45 rpm, with deeper and wider grooves to allow more dynamic range with needles that could handle the range.

Cerrone - Je Suis Music

A year prior to Disco Inferno (1976), Where The Happy People Go (1975):

Trammps - Where The Happy People Go

Donna Summer - I Feel Love (8 minute disco single version)

Donna Summer - Sunset People

Yeah, I don't like the flabby boomy sound of those tube subwoofers in particular. Gimme the Acoustic 360.

Hornbein said:

Yeah, I don't like the flabby boomy sound of those tube subwoofers in particular. Gimme the Acoustic 360.

Most of the early discos were using 800 watt Altec power amps. I don't recall which pre-amps were popular. Although Cerwin Vega made mediocre home speakers, they made some high end disco speakers. They made 8 or so custom disco speakers, 4 of which went to a club in Florida, another 4 to Destiny II (which later became the first Chippendales) in California. The speakers were tri-amped with custom cross-overs at the pre-amp to power-amp stage. The speakers were 3 way, with 15 inch acoustic suspension woofers (very tight bass), and over 3 inch throw (1.5 inch either way), with cross-over at 500 hz. To keep the sound clean and isolated, the speakers cabinets were internally damped, covered in padded Naugahyde, and suspended by chains from the ceiling, with rubber cushioned support for the chains at the sides of the speakers. Each side had two support points to control vertical speaker angle. While waiting outside to go in after-hours, you could feel the outdoor brick walls thumping to the bass, but since loud low frequencies can be tolerated, despite feeling the thump in your chest, you didn't leave with your ears ringing. Another club, Bahama Mamas had a neon palm tree hooked up to a power amp with low band pass filter feeding the power amp, which would change brightness instantly with the sound. Crescendo had 10,000 watts total power, but used theater speakers which were boomy, not a tight bass. They had a 10 watt green laser aimed at a prism and mirrors to form a huge laser beam star across ceiling, which would vibrate like a string since the sound vibrated everything in the room. The New York Hustle couples dance was dominant at some clubs, and later became a ballroom competition dance. Unrelated to discos, some companies used Altec power amps to drive small shake tables (solid metal plates), one channel per dimension.

Snippets of Try Me and Trouble Maker, good tests for a tight bass. Have to imagine what this sounded and felt like in the old discos:

https://rcgldr.net/disco/tryme.mp4

https://rcgldr.net/disco/trblmkr.mp4

rcgldr said:

Disco era balads:

Isley Brothers - Living For The Love Of You

Rose Royse - Love Don't Live Here Anymore

Brothers Johnson - I'll Be Good To You

Manhattan Transfer - Mystery

It's Rose Royce ;)

My sister plagued me with black music continually in the 1970s (sounds bad hear me out) She loved all the disco and softer soulful stuff and reggae but she never played anything else on her stereo.
The really cool stuff like Hendrix she hated! Soul, disco, reggae or nothing. Forget the Beatles and Deep Purple was right out!
I look back with affection now because I would not have heard Bob Marley, Chic, Heatwave, Gladys Knight, Candi Stanton, Tavares (over and over and over....)

They were on the radio but intermittent.
W.r.t. Earth Wind and Fire I did not need educating. Great then great now.

rcgldr said:

Disco era balads:

Isley Brothers - Living For The Love Of You

Rose Royce - Love Don't Live Here Anymore

Brothers Johnson - I'll Be Good To You

Manhattan Transfer - Mystery

Manhattan transfer were simply brilliant. Punk, Disco, new wave, pop? Forget that, how about some close harmony jazz?
A little street in Singapore, fantastic arrangement.
Birdland. Just crazy! Loved it.

pinball1970 said:

It's Rose Royce ;)

Typo, I fixed it. I use URLs to avoid "video unavailable watch on youtube". I use media for the ones that can be embedded.

pinball1970 said:

My sister plagued me with black music continually in the 1970s (sounds bad hear me out) She loved all the disco and softer soulful stuff and reggae but she never played anything else on her stereo. ... Tavares ...

I listened to a mix of music back then. Went to some clubs that had switched to DJ's, but it wasn't until 1975 that the clubs with really good sounds systems opened up. Tavares is one of those bands that needed the high end disco sound systems to appreciate the sound quality. In addition to the funk style disco music, you also had what I called New York Hustle music, like Cerrone - Je Suis Music, Voyage (entire albums), Patrice Rushen - Forget Me Nots, ... . Disco had a grip on the music scene back then except for Fleetwood Mac with Rumours. If it wasn't for Risky Business, probably few would have remembered Old Time Rock and Roll.

One thing I forgot to mention with the good disco sound systems was absolute no hum despite high volume levels, and using curtains on walls and|or carpet around the dance floor to dampen unwanted sound. However with a crowded dance floor, the presence of people did a good job of dampening the sound.

In the 1980's I also started to listen to smooth jazz, at first on KJLH (Los Angeles), in their "radio vision" days, then KTWV (the wave). The last venue my wife and I went to for club dancing shut down in 2012, and at the time we had passes to Disneyland (before prices went ballistic), and we started swing dancing at Carnation Plaza at Disneyland (despite a 60 year history of bands there, they stopped having bands once Covid started and never brought them back). Now we go to club or swing venues when they show up, usually 2 or 3 times a month.

One of the better fusion | funk cover bands in our area:

Brothers Igniting A Groove - snippets of Never Too Much and The Bird

I hated disco. In those days I listened to 60s rock and old blues - Howlin Wolf, John Lee hooker, muddy waters. Some jazz, a roommate was really into that.

gmax137 said:

I hated disco. In those days I listened to 60s rock and old blues - Howlin Wolf, John Lee hooker, muddy waters. Some jazz, a roommate was really into that.

Do you hate it now though?

ABBA were fantastic song writers and they used Disco as a vehicle but you would never consider them as disco pop.

pinball1970 said:

ABBA were fantastic song writers and they used Disco as a vehicle but you would never consider them as disco pop.

I never once heard any song by ABBA at the disco's I went to (Los Angles + Orange County California). Maybe they were played in other cities. I do recall some obscure songs played at the discos (sort of a competition between DJ's to find little known songs).

Mighty Clouds Of Joy - Mighty High

gmax137 said:

I hated disco.

Initially I wasn't sure, but the first time I went to a disco with a high end sound system is what did it for me. Another issue is much of the music played at discos in 1975 and early 1976 were promo 12 inch singles that never got any radio time.

- - -

From a dance studio.

Old video of Buddy Schwimmer and Lynn Vogan doing Latin Hustle, a precursor to New York Hustle