"Disco Lady" | ||||
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Single by Johnnie Taylor | ||||
from the album Eargasm | ||||
B-side | "You're the Best Girl in the World" | |||
Released | January 1976 | |||
Recorded | 1975 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:02 (Promo Version) 4:28 (Album Version) | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Songwriter(s) | Harvey Scales, Albert Vance, Don Davis | |||
Producer(s) | Don Davis | |||
Johnnie Taylor singles chronology | ||||
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"Disco Lady" is a 1976 single by American singer Johnnie Taylor that went on to become his biggest hit. It spent all four weeks of April 1976 at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and six weeks atop the Billboard R&B chart in the U.S. [3] It was also the first single to be certified platinum by the RIAA; [4] ultimately it sold over 2.5 million copies. [5] Billboard ranked it as the No. 3 song for 1976; Cash Box had it the year's No. 1 song [6]
The single was Taylor's first for Columbia Records, where he signed after his long-time label, Stax Records, went bankrupt. The song was produced by Taylor's long-time producer, Don Davis. [7] Among the guests on the song were four members of Parliament-Funkadelic: bassist Bootsy Collins, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, guitarist Glenn Goins, drummer Tiki Fulwood, and background vocals by BRANDYE (Cynthia Douglas, Donna Davis, Pamela Vincent).
"Disco Lady" was the first Hot 100 No. 1 hit with the word "disco" in the title. The single also reached No. 25 on the UK Singles Chart. [8]
In the finale of the 1976, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, Paul Lynde and the entire cast sing Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" (gender-neutralized to "Disco Baby"). [9]
It earned Taylor his second Grammy Award nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
In 1998, a remake of the song "Disco Lady 2000" (along with a "radio slam" remix) can be heard on the album Taylored to Please released by Malaco Records.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
All-time charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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Canada (Music Canada) [21] | Gold | 75,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [22] | Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Johnnie Harrison Taylor was an American recording artist and songwriter who performed a wide variety of genres, from blues, rhythm and blues, soul, and gospel to pop, doo-wop, and disco. He was initially successful at Stax Records with the number-one R&B hits "Who's Making Love" (1968), "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone" (1971) and "I Believe in You " (1973), and reached number one on the US pop charts with "Disco Lady" in 1976.
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But Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" wasn't a disco song. Instead, it was a sweaty, swampy soul-groove.