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Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars.
LaDonna Adrian Gaines, known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer, songwriter and actress. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music gained a global following.
Giovanni Giorgio Moroder is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the "Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance music, and his work with synthesizers had a huge influence on several music genres such as Hi-NRG, Italo disco, new wave, house and techno music.
Scherrie Ann Payne is an American singer. Payne is best known as the last lead singer of the R&B/Soul vocal group The Supremes from 1973 until 1977. Because of her powerful voice and petite stature (5'2"), Payne is sometimes referred to as "the little lady with the big voice." Payne is the younger sister of singer Freda Payne. Payne continues to perform, both as a solo act and as a part of the "Former Ladies of the Supremes" (FLOS).
Casablanca Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Republic Records. Under its founder Neil Bogart, Casablanca was most successful during the disco era of the mid to late 1970s. The label currently focuses on Dance and Electronic music under the direction of Rob Stevenson and Brett Alperowitz.
Jean-Marc Cerrone is a French disco drummer, composer, record producer and creator of concert shows. Cerrone is an influential producer of 1970s and 1980s disco songs. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, including over four million copies in France, and eight million copies of Supernature, The single "Love in C Minor" (1976) reached No. 3 and was in the charts for two months, selling three million copies. With "Supernature" (1977), Cerrone merged symphonic orchestration with synthesizers. At the 1978 Billboard Disco Forum, Cerrone received six awards including Disco Artist of the Year.
"I Want You" is a song written by songwriters Leon Ware and Arthur "T-Boy" Ross and performed by singer Marvin Gaye. It was released as a single in 1976 on his fourteenth studio album of the same name on the Tamla label. The song introduced a change in musical styles for Gaye, who before then had been recording songs with a funk edge. Songs such as this gave him a disco audience thanks to Ware, who produced the song alongside Gaye.
"Night Fever" is a song written and performed by the Bee Gees. It first appeared on the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever on RSO Records. Producer Robert Stigwood wanted to call the film Saturday Night, but singer Robin Gibb expressed hesitation at the title. Stigwood liked the title Night Fever but was wary of marketing a movie with that name. The song bounded up the Billboard charts while the Bee Gees two previous hits from Saturday Night Fever soundtrack were still in the top ten. The record debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart at #76, then leaped up 44 positions to #32. It then moved: 32–17–8–5–2–1. It remained at #1 for eight weeks, and ultimately spent 13 weeks in the top 10. For the first five weeks that "Night Fever" was at #1, "Stayin' Alive" was at #2. Also, for one week in March, Bee Gees related songs held five of the top positions on the Hot 100 chart, and more impressively, four of the top five positions, with "Night Fever" at the top of the list. The B-side of "Night Fever" was a live version of "Down the Road" taken from the Bee Gees 1977 album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live.
Love & Kisses is a 1970s disco group assembled by European producer Alec Costandinos, with a variety of male and female singers.
Alec Rupen Costandinos, is a French composer, music producer, songwriter and singer of the 1970s, famous for his contributions to the disco music. His father was Armenian and his mother was Greek. Costandinos dominated the disco and Euro-disco genres in the late 1970s. He began his career as a publisher and producer for various artists, including French pop star Claude Francois and chanteuse Dalida. After co-writing Cerrone's "Love in C Minor" (1976), Costandinos was signed to Barclay Records. He released his first album, Love & Kisses, in 1977, which featured the hit track "I Found Love ". Costandinos went on to release a number of wildly successful records under the prominent American disco label, Casablanca. His album, Romeo & Juliet has been credited for bringing the concept album to dance music. He also wrote "Thank God It's Friday," the theme track to the disco film by the same name.
Sphynx is a dance music act who hit #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1995 with the song "What Hope Have I". Lead vocals on this track were sung by Sabrina Johnston, a female dance singer from New Jersey. Johnston also has US dance chart entries as a solo artist.
Thank God It's Friday is a 1978 American musical disco comedy film directed by Robert Klane and produced by Motown Productions and Casablanca FilmWorks for Columbia Pictures. Produced at the height of the disco craze, the film features The Commodores performing "Too Hot ta Trot", and Donna Summer performing "Last Dance", which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1978. The film features an early performance by Jeff Goldblum and the first major screen appearance by Debra Winger. The film also features Terri Nunn, who would go on to fame in the 1980s new wave group Berlin. This would be one of several Columbia Pictures films in which the studio’s “Torch Lady” came to life in the opening credits, showing off her moves for a few seconds prior to the start of the film.
Voyage was a French disco and pop group, consisting of André "Slim" Pezin (guitar/vocals), Marc Chantereau (keyboards/vocals), Pierre-Alain Dahan (drums/vocals) and Sauveur Mallia (bass), together with British lead vocalist Sylvia Mason-James, who sang on the group's first two albums, Voyage (1977) and Let's Fly Away (1978).
"I Feel Love" is a song by Donna Summer. Produced and co-written by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, it was recorded for Summer's fifth studio album, I Remember Yesterday (1977). The album concept was to have each track evoke a different musical decade; for "I Feel Love", the team aimed to create a futuristic mood, employing a Moog synthesizer.
"Thank God It's Friday" is a 1978 disco song by the studio disco group Love & Kisses, popularized as the theme song of the film by the same name. It was written by European composer and producer Alec R. Costandinos. Along with the tracks: "Last Dance" by Donna Summer, "After Dark" by Pattie Brooks, and "Take it to the Zoo" by Sunshine, "Thank God It's Friday", peaked at #1 on Billboard's Disco charts. On other US charts, "Thank God It's Friday" went to #23 on the Hot Soul Singles chart and #22 on the Hot 100.
"If I Can't Have You" is a disco song written by the Bee Gees in 1977. The song initially appeared on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in a version by Yvonne Elliman, released in November 1977. The Bee Gees' own version appeared a month later as the B-side of "Stayin' Alive".
Linda Clifford is an American R&B, disco and house music singer and actress, who scored hits from the 1970s to the 1980s, most notably "If My Friends Could See Me Now", "Bridge over Troubled Water", "Runaway Love" and "Red Light".
Romeo & Juliet is a debut studio album by disco musician Alec R. Costandinos and the Syncophonic Orchestra released in 1978. It was recorded at Trident Studios, London in September 1977 and released by Ibis in France and Casablanca Records in US.
References
- ↑ Joel Whitburn's Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003, 2004
