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  • Disco hits that have vanished

    The thread about KKUA's top 69 hits of 1978 made think about some disco songs that were HUGE hits when they first came out. But as time has gone on, they have seemingly vanished. You seldom hear them anywhere on the radio, in movie soundtracks, TV commercials, dance clubs, nada. If you want to hear it, you have to seek it out on your own.

    Here's some that come to my mind.

    Disco Duck (Rick Dees)
    Let's All Chant (Michael Zager Band)
    Flashlight (Parliament)
    Goodnight Tonight (Paul McCartney & Wings)
    Dance With Me (Peter Brown)
    Don't Let Go (Isaac Hayes)

    Does anyone else remember any disco hits from the late '70-early '80s era that has become obscure?
    This post may contain an opinion that may conflict with your opinion. Do not take it personal. Polite discussion of difference of opinion is welcome.

  • #2
    Re: Disco hits that have vanished

    Plenty of them live on at Finetune.com.

    Here is my recently created Finetune Disco Mix:

    http://www.finetune.com/playlist/2242073

    But speaking of songs long gone that you rarely hear....

    Tahiti Tahiti - Voyage - can't seem to find it on CD or download. My 12" is pretty banged up.

    Get Off - Foxey
    Bridge Over Troubled Water - Linda Clifford
    Once Upon a Time - Donna Summer (one of her most underrated tracks)
    With Your Love - Donna Summer
    Let's All Chant - Michael Zager Band (I like the 12" inch version) - agree it is lost.

    Goodnight Tonight - Paul McCartney & Wings - commonly available on several McCartney reissues. Rarely played on the radio.

    Hands Up - Ottawan
    DISCO - Ottawan

    Stars on 45 Beatles Medley - Stars on 45

    Disco Duck - Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots (agree with vanished - this song went to #1 on Billboard in 1976 and makes an appearance in the movie Saturday Night Fever but is not featured on the soundtrack album.)

    He's The Greatest Dancer - Sister Sledge (I like it better than "We Are Family")

    Dance (Disco Heat)
    - Sylvester

    Dancing Man - Q

    Star Love - Cheryl Lynn

    Chattanooga Choo Choo - Tuxedo Junction

    I Was Made For Loving You - Kiss (they were label mates with Donna Summer on Casablanca)

    I could list more those are some that come to mind. Used to play many of these when I did some DJ work back in the olden days before rap took off.
    Last edited by mel; June 12, 2008, 11:47 PM. Reason: fix typos, added songs
    I'm still here. Are you?

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    • #3
      Re: Disco hits that have vanished

      Originally posted by mel View Post

      Tahiti Tahiti - Voyage - can't seem to find it on CD or download. My 12" is pretty banged up.


      I managed to find their greatest hits that has that song on CD via Amazon.

      Disco may be supposedly dead but it has nevah gone away. It spawned into different music genres and record labels do release re-issues and disco themed albums and those hard to finds on vinyl and cd at used record shops and online outlets advertised on the internet.

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      • #4
        Re: Disco hits that have vanished

        Originally posted by DannyWilliams View Post
        I managed to find their greatest hits that has that song on CD via Amazon.

        I have to admit, I haven't looked for the track in a long time. OK, Amazon.com.
        I'm still here. Are you?

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        • #5
          Re: Disco hits that have vanished

          The Bee Gees!!! I used to dance to all of their songs:
          Stayin' Alive
          Night Fever
          Jive Talkin'
          Disco Inferno
          ...to name a few. Now...where are my bell bottoms?

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          • #6
            Re: Disco hits that have vanished

            Walter Egan's Magnet & Steel was always one of my favorites, I HATED Anita Ward's Ring My Bell or Amil Stewart's Knock on Wood. Nails screeching on a chalkboard sounded better than those songs.

            How about David Naughton's Makin' It, I have some of the actual tv shows on beta, remember that one, he was the Dr. Pepper guy?

            Peter McCann's Do You Want to Make Love?

            I dont hear I just want to be your everything by Andy Gibb, I hear Shadow Dancing on radio more often.

            Oh another favorite of mine was Starbuck's Moonlight, Feels Right.....

            Aj

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            • #7
              Re: Disco hits that have vanished

              Two songs I really liked from Donna Summer's Bad Girls double album was "Our Love" and "Sunset People".

              Don't hear those tunes at all anymore, but it still sounds great!
              sigpic The Tasty Island

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              • #8
                Re: Disco hits that have vanished

                Born To Be Alive - Patrick Hernandez
                The Best Disco In Town - Ritchie Family
                Disco - That's Where The Happy People Go - The Trammps
                A Fifth Of Beethoven - Walter Murphy
                More, More, More - Andrea True Connection
                Cut The Cake - Average White Band
                Work To Do - Average White Band
                Dynomite - Bazuka
                Movin' - Brass Construction
                Dazz - Brick
                Strawberry Letter 23 - Brothers Johnson
                Do It Till Your Satisfied - BT Express
                Machine Gun - The Commodores
                Rock Your Baby - George McCrae
                Rockin' Chair - Gwen McCrae
                Angel In Your Arms - H.O.T.
                Ain't Gonna Bump No More(With A Fat Woman) - Joe Tex
                Disco Lady - Johnnie Taylor
                Back In Love Again - L.T.D.
                Do It Any Way You Wanna - People's Choice
                Up In A Puff Of Smoke - Polly Brown
                Float On - The Floaters

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                • #9
                  Re: Disco hits that have vanished

                  Originally posted by Kalihiboy View Post
                  Walter Egan's Magnet & Steel was always one of my favorites,
                  "Magnet & Steel" is one of my favorite tracks from 1978. Anyone who was a Fleetwood Mac fan back then knew that Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks played on this song and several other tracks on Egan's Not Shy album. The album is one of my favorites too. And while this is not a disco hit, it was a good one for "slow dance".

                  Originally posted by Kalihiboy View Post
                  How about David Naughton's Makin' It, I have some of the actual tv shows on beta, remember that one, he was the Dr. Pepper guy?
                  Yep, that one could get some people on the dance floor. More pop than dance it was still popular for a while.

                  Originally posted by Kalihiboy View Post
                  Peter McCann's Do You Want to Make Love?

                  I dont hear I just want to be your everything by Andy Gibb, I hear Shadow Dancing on radio more often.

                  Oh another favorite of mine was Starbuck's Moonlight, Feels Right.....
                  All gems from 1976 to 1978, and most rarely played on radio today. "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" was the top selling song of 1977, and "Shadow Dancing" the single of the year for 1978, outselling the singles released by the Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever album. Not all bad since Andy was a brother and they all recorded for the same record label, RSO Records.

                  And more Bee Gees related: "Emotion" by Samantha Sang, a #1 hit in 1978, "Grease" by Franki Valli was kind of popular on the dance floor along with "You're the One That I Want" with Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta.... all form the soundtrack and movie. The Robert Stigwood Organization was certainly flying high with their movies and soundtracks for 1977 - 78.

                  About the only thing that stained them was the Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts' Club Band movie bomb that featured Beatles music remade by other artists including the Bee Gees. They probably expected another big SNF and Grease soundtrack hit with the double Sgt. Pepper movie soundtrack album. The album did not sell very well and was in the discount bins about 2 years later.

                  It did however spawn a huge Earth, Wind & Fire dance hit... "Got to Get You Into My Life" and probably one of the better rock remakes of a Beatles' song, Aerosmith's "Come Together".

                  And from the Saturday Night Fever movie and album, Hawaii's own Yvonne Elliman scored her biggest hit with the Gibb brother's penned "If I Can't Have You." That went to #1 around the same time "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever" were still on the Billboard Top 10 charts.

                  And lastly a group called Player figured into all of this as they had a #1 hit with "Baby Come Back" in late 1977 or early 1978... can't remember when.. but all of the above were recorded on the RSO label for the movies or various record albums.

                  Very lastly, a year later, folk singer John Stewart, also on the RSO label scored his biggest top 10 hit with "Gold" another track that also featured Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

                  Disco was beginning to fizzle out as rock and new wave were making a huge push in 1979 when hits such as the dance oriented "Heart of Glass" by Blondie topped the charts, and The Knack's "My Shrona" became a #1 hit on Billboard for 6 weeks in the summer of that year.

                  One of the funniest records that I played at a disco dance for the first time was The B-52s "Rock Lobster". Half the people loved it, and probably more than half hated it.

                  It's around this time popular music started to become more and more fragmented.
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                  • #10
                    Re: Disco hits that have vanished

                    Originally posted by mel View Post
                    Goodnight Tonight - Paul McCartney & Wings - commonly available on several McCartney reissues. Rarely played on the radio.
                    Well, the version originally issued on the 45 rpm is easy to find on CD. But hunting down the extended edit of Goodnight Tonight on 12" is a much tougher task.

                    BTW, when I said disco hits that have "vanished," I'm not necessarily talking about recordings that are out of print and next-to-impossible to find. I'm well aware that most of the material from this era can be located on CD compilations, reissues or online. But the point is,... that one has to actively seek them out. I'm talking about songs that, while perhaps available via CD or downloads, are rarely heard today on radio and other mainstream media outlets.

                    So yeah, if you want your fix of all the hits from the Ritchie Family, you can hunt it out on CD. It's just that you're not likely to hear it being played on the radio, store PA system, TV commercial, and so forth.
                    This post may contain an opinion that may conflict with your opinion. Do not take it personal. Polite discussion of difference of opinion is welcome.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Disco hits that have vanished

                      Disco music matched best with women's vocals such as Donna Summer, Ami Stewart, Gloria Gaynor, Sister Sledge, A Taste of Honey, The Pointer Sisters, and Alicia Bridges. And a guilty pleasure of "Dancing Queen" by Abba thrown in for an equal opportunity mix.
                      Last edited by Walkoff Balk; June 13, 2008, 07:06 PM. Reason: add

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                      • #12
                        Re: Disco hits that have vanished

                        Originally posted by Frankie's Market View Post
                        It's just that you're not likely to hear it being played on the radio, store PA system, TV commercial, and so forth.
                        Agreed generally, especially on the radio aspect. Radio is supposed to hit the biggest demographic possible to get the ads heard. Disco has probably become more of a niche genre mainly for people who remember and want to hear and dance to those songs again.

                        Disco hits can be heard on radio formats that skew 70s to early 80s, but they are mixed in with everything else. And probably only the most popular tracks by the major artists are in heavy rotation.

                        Probably the best places to catch disco music from the 70s without laying out much money for it is online at places such as finetune.com and other streaming websites. Also one of Oceanic Cable's digital music channels plays all disco/dance music. In both instances, you are more or less tied to a computer or a device connected to the cable.

                        Otherwise some dance clubs do feature 70s/disco nights and I'm sure those records/tracks/CDs get played... maybe even the Ritchie Family..
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                        • #13
                          Re: Disco hits that have vanished

                          I don't know if it's sad or scary but I actually have at least half of the tracks listed either on CD or in MP3 format.
                          You can take the boy out of Hilo but you can't take the Hilo out of the boy!

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                          • #14
                            Re: Disco hits that have vanished

                            Originally posted by mel View Post
                            Disco hits can be heard on radio formats that skew 70s to early 80s, but they are mixed in with everything else. And probably only the most popular tracks by the major artists are in heavy rotation.
                            Wasn't that the format KQMQ had until they became 93.1 The Zone a couple of years back?

                            Originally posted by mel View Post
                            Probably the best places to catch disco music from the 70s without laying out much money for it is online at places such as finetune.com and other streaming websites. Also one of Oceanic Cable's digital music channels plays all disco/dance music. In both instances, you are more or less tied to a computer or a device connected to the cable.
                            You're absolutely right. But once again, that's making a conscious effort to seek out such music.

                            In sharp contrast to the songs that have continued to emerge and live on in the mainstream media, like Dancing Queen, Y.M.C.A., and Funky Town. Trust me, someone does not need to access some specialized musical outlet on the internet/digital cable to run into those aforementioned songs, one way or another.

                            More songs to add to add to the list of disco hits that are now scarce.

                            Dynomite (Bazuka)
                            Livin' It Up (Bell & James)

                            Does anyone else remember Mr. Jaws (Dickie Goodman). Not a disco song, per se. It was a novelty record, but it did sample some disco cuts. Now, I've not heard that one get airplay in ages, even though it was hugely popular when it first came out.
                            This post may contain an opinion that may conflict with your opinion. Do not take it personal. Polite discussion of difference of opinion is welcome.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Disco hits that have vanished

                              Great comments by all, yes "Magnet & Steel" is not disco but I consider it from that era, I remember the song being played at the roller disco, heck even Waylon Jennings Dukes of Hazzard song they would play sometimes.

                              John Stewart who sang GOLD, sadly died recently, he wrote a big hit that the Monkees or Neil Diamond recorded cannot think of it at the moment.

                              Speaking of Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, former Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch had a couple hits around that time with "Sentimental Lady" and "Ebony Eyes". I was looking over the old California Jam I have on beta tape and on stage Stevie performs "Ebony Eyes" with Welch. "Sentimental Lady" was originally a Fleetwood Mac tune from the early 70's that never was a big hit, it was re-recorded a few years down the road and the tempo was changed and it became a big hit.

                              RSO Records, i.e. Robert Stigwood basicially put their fortunes into the failed "Sgt. Peppers" movie and that helped bring down that company some have said.

                              I just was looking over an old beta tape from 1978 and saw a performance by Samantha Sang doing "Emotion", anything the Gibb Brothers touched back then turned gold it seemed.

                              I wrote a story on Yvonne Elliman a few weeks back:

                              http://starbulletin.com/2008/06/02/f...flashback.html

                              Not sure offhand if Andy Gibb ever did a show here, but he did introduce Yvonne in person at the Blaisdell for her sold out shows in 1978.

                              I remember Player also had another hit "This Time I'm in it for Love", one of the members of the band became a soap opera star. Another band I liked back then was Ambrosia.

                              Are the rumors true about Andrea True of the "More, More, More" fame?

                              Oh how about Alicia Bridges "I love the Nightlife", I liked Chic too, I don't hear "Good Times" played that often rather "Le Freak" it seems.

                              Aj
                              Last edited by Kalihiboy; June 14, 2008, 12:28 AM.

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