Disco's last big year in the UK was 1980, with songs like The Whispers 'And The Beat Goes On', Lipps Inc's 'Funky Town', Kelly Marie's 'Feels Like I'm In Love', Stephanie Mills 'Never Knew Love Like This Before' and Stacy Lattisaw's 'Jump To The Beat'. I'm not quite sure how it compared with the years 1978, and 1979, but i wouldn't say there was a noticeable decline in its profile. 1981, proves to be rather different though, and one gets the sense that although the hits hadn't quite run dry, disco began to feel increasingly marginalised. Strangely, Ottowan actually had one of the biggest disco hits of the year with 'Hands Up, Give Me Your Heart', which reached no3 in august 1981, so i'm not quite sure 'DISCO' quite administered the fatal blow. The difference i'd say with 1981, compared with the previous few years, was that disco was just another genre among many that were vying to be noticed. The days when disco was a force to be reckoned with had finally gone.
All those songs you mentioned were good and a decent sign off for the genre. However, by 1981 disco was largely dead and the synth bands had taken over on the dancefloors. Also there was that much maligned genre jazz funk.
In case anyone is thinking I'm anti disco, I'm not and do like quite a lot of disco songs. However, trends have to move on and I think like punk, disco began to be seen as last decade by 1980. Actually Abba moved away from a disco sound around the same time into ballads and intense love songs.
Another one is perhaps 'I Am What I Am' from 1983, by Gloria Gaynor.
I think those songs that have a ten + years distance from the the early eighties period (when disco began to lose its grip), is a slightly different scenario, because those artists are using a level of nostalgia, and hindsight to re-acquaint the audience, and themselves, with a genre, that had seemed for a considerable time, really rather lost. Most things have a tendency to come full circle after a while.
All those songs you mentioned were good and a decent sign off for the genre. However, by 1981 disco was largely dead and the synth bands had taken over on the dancefloors. Also there was that much maligned genre jazz funk.
Yes. Spot on!
There was quite a shift in pop in 1981, with disco, of course, and not to mention punk,/new wave too, both genres of which began to dissipate at around that point. Jazz-funk didn't hold the profile of either, but watching those old Top Of The Pops repeats from 1981, groups like Spandau Ballet, Linx, Haircut One Hundred, and Modern Romance, actually shared a common (and popular at the time) musical jazz/funk fusion, for a while. The 'big' production sounds of disco (heavily orchestrated with the familiar disco beats), and some of the more overblown ELO type pop extravaganzas (like 'Horace Wimp'), slowly began to give way to a much leaner (more simplified), and less bombastic type musical production. ELO went back to rock 'n' roll basics with 'Hold On Tight' (which was perhaps an early indication of what Jeff Lynne would be doing later with the Travelling Wilbury's), and the soul dance style of disco, would transform itself into synth pop/soul (with more traditional instrumentation like funky bass lines etc, too, but with less emphasis on a traditional disco beat). 1981 marked the beginning of a significant change in the landscape of british pop - not to mention the New Romantics (Visage, Duran Duran, etc.) !
I've long had a ten minute version of The Crown by Gary Byrd & The GB Experience in my digital collection. I firmly recall it in summer '83, in a stable of other similar types of sizeable hits of that same time, such as this fantastic one from Booker Newberry III, Love Town, provided below. Disco? Funk?
All those songs you mentioned were good and a decent sign off for the genre. However, by 1981 disco was largely dead and the synth bands had taken over on the dancefloors. Also there was that much maligned genre jazz funk.
There was a big disconnect at the time between what mainstream clubs played (and therefore what filled the 'disco' charts as listed in Record Mirror etc, ) and what more alternative clubs would play. You'd not see the disco charts full of Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Visage and A Flock of Seagulls but you would hear those played in every city's 'hip' club catering more to art students and the 80s equivalent of 'hipsters'. The mainstream disco charts were indeed full of jazz funk and what was left of disco itself (Shakatak, George Benson, Level 42 etc).
Interestingly the Billboard dance/disco chart was far more eclectic and there UK synth bands were regular features: Yazoo in particular were darlings of the US dance crowd (Situation, the B side to Only You topped the US dance charts..it was followed by the B side to Nobody's Diary called State Farm and the single Don't Go.). You'd even get the Clash, the Cure and Joy Division charting on that chart!
Another one is perhaps 'I Am What I Am' from 1983, by Gloria Gaynor.
I think those songs that have a ten + years distance from the the early eighties period (when disco began to lose its grip), is a slightly different scenario, because those artists are using a level of nostalgia, and hindsight to re-acquaint the audience, and themselves, with a genre, that had seemed for a considerable time, really rather lost. Most things have a tendency to come full circle after a while.
So you agree there are songs after 1981 that could be described as disco.
And you said it would be difficult. You should have more faith.
There was a big disconnect at the time between what mainstream clubs played (and therefore what filled the 'disco' charts as listed in Record Mirror etc, ) and what more alternative clubs would play. You'd not see the disco charts full of Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Visage and A Flock of Seagulls but you would hear those played in every city's 'hip' club catering more to art students and the 80s equivalent of 'hipsters'. The mainstream disco charts were indeed full of jazz funk and what was left of disco itself (Shakatak, George Benson, Level 42 etc).
Interestingly the Billboard dance/disco chart was far more eclectic and there UK synth bands were regular features: Yazoo in particular were darlings of the US dance crowd (Situation, the B side to Only You topped the US dance charts..it was followed by the B side to Nobody's Diary called State Farm and the single Don't Go.). You'd even get the Clash, the Cure and Joy Division charting on that chart!
In the early 1980s Record Mirror introduced two new dance charts in an attempt to cater for nightclubs that didn't always play mainstream "disco", In 1982 there were three charts - the main Disco chart, a Nightclub chart that included amongst its number 1's 'Don't You Want Me' by the Human League, 'The Model' by Kraftwerk, 'Love Plus One' by Haircut 100, 'Poison Arrow' by ABC, 'Fame' by Irene Cara, 'Come On Eileen' by Dexy's Midnight Runners and 'Young Guns (Go For It)' by Wham. The third club chart was the awkwardly named Boys Town chart which was aimed at clubs who played Hi NRG music. The chart was renamed to the Hi NRG chart in 1984 and in 1985 it became the Hi NRG / Eurobeat chart and a year later simply the Eurobeat chart.
In the early 1980s Record Mirror introduced two new dance charts in an attempt to cater for nightclubs that didn't always play mainstream "disco", In 1982 there were three charts - the main Disco chart, a Nightclub chart that included amongst its number 1's 'Don't You Want Me' by the Human League, 'The Model' by Kraftwerk, 'Love Plus One' by Haircut 100, 'Poison Arrow' by ABC, 'Fame' by Irene Cara, 'Come On Eileen' by Dexy's Midnight Runners and 'Young Guns (Go For It)' by Wham. The third club chart was the awkwardly named Boys Town chart which was aimed at clubs who played Hi NRG music. The chart was renamed to the Hi NRG chart in 1984 and in 1985 it became the Hi NRG / Eurobeat chart and a year later simply the Eurobeat chart.
yes dance music was very tribal in those days, hip kids dancing to electronic music sneered at the naff 'soul boys' and their jazz funk while the latter rejected synth pop as not being 'soulful' or worthy of inclusion in their clubs' playlists. While gay clubs were increasingly dancing to their own very different (and much faster) beat.
What I admired about the Billboard dance/disco chart was how democratic and open minded it was in comparison: put simply, if it had a beat that you could dance to, it was in, be it the B52s, Afrika Bambaata, Cabaret Voltaire or Michael Jackson. There seemed little if any crossover between the established UK dance club scene and its charts and what was being played, say, at the Hacienda in the early 80s or other cutting edge nightclubs around the country. I do remember one oddity: Hi NRG was basically played only in gay clubs in England but in Scotland mainstream clubs would play it because the further North you went the faster punters wanted their dance music! I think this helps explain how house music took off first in the Midlands and North while London was still listening to much slower dance music and hip hop.
Disco's last big year in the UK was 1980, with songs like The Whispers 'And The Beat Goes On', Lipps Inc's 'Funky Town', Kelly Marie's 'Feels Like I'm In Love', Stephanie Mills 'Never Knew Love Like This Before' and Stacy Lattisaw's 'Jump To The Beat'. I'm not quite sure how it compared with the years 1978, and 1979, but i wouldn't say there was a noticeable decline in its profile.
BIB - in addition to the five songs quoted above, plenty more disco records entered the UK Top Thirty throughout 1980 from the likes of Sheila B. Devotion, Diana Ross, Change, Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, The Jacksons, Brothers Johnson, Jimmy Ruffin, Narada Michael Walden, Crown Heights Affair, Average White Band, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, Teena Marie, Odyssey, Gap Band, Leon Haywood, Queen, Ottowan, Shalamar and Coffee as well as jazz funk crossover artists such as George Benson, Linx and Tom Browne.
Between them I reckon all these acts managed 34 top thirty hits in 1980 (the vast majority of which went top ten). I wonder if any more (or less) disco records broke into the thirty in 1978, and 1979 ?
Although Chic released nothing under their own name in 1980 they wrote and produced three hits for Diana Ross (not forgetting 'Spacer') and the Bee Gees wrote 'Hold On To My Love' which became a top ten hit for Jimmy Ruffin.
The first time I heard the bassline on 'You're Lying' by Linx in October 1980 I was immediately struck by its uncanny resemblance to 'I Shoulda Loved Ya' which had been a top ten hit for Narada Michael Walden just five months earlier.
B.A. Robertson's career seemed to take a turn for the worse when the ITV "World In Action" programme which was focussing on chart hyping by his label that I mentioned above was aired in August 1980. His label boss quit and it was almost like a new broom swept through WEA in the aftermath with some acts pushed to one side. Though another record that was alledged in the same programme to have been hyped into the charts by the same label - 'Brass In Pocket-by The Pretenders - didn't seem to hurt their career...
BIB - IIRC the 'World In Action' documentary was aired in February 1980.
'Brass In Pocket' entered the UK chart on 1 December 1979 at No. 49 - thereafter its chart run was 33 - 30- 10- 5 - 3 - 1.
I suspect the alleged hyping took place during the week between 15 and 22 December when the song suddenly and inexplicably leapt 20 places up the chart three weeks after its first and (at that time) only promotional appearance on TOTP. I believe WEA were concerned 'Brass In Pocket' was going to follow a similar path to the previous two singles 'Stop Your Sobbing' and 'Kid' which stalled at 34 and 33 respectively so they took direct action to avert this by offering bribes to chart return stores to falsify sales logs in a desperate attempt to hype the single up the chart and raise the band's profile. It certainly paid off as the Pretenders scored not only a No. 1 single in January 1980 - but a No. 1 album off the back of it.
Yes, but the fact that i had to think about it is significant, when considering the disco domination from the pre 1981 period.
Even in me saying 'I Am What I Am' is a disco song, it isn't really, if i was to put it alongside the disco hits from the 1977-80 period. However, there's definite connection in terms of its grandness (as in the bombast of the way it expresses itself), and the fact that Gloria Gaynor is singing the hit single version. It (and 'It's Raining Men'), are perhaps the closest we get to disco post 1982. But really it is more the spirit that is reminiscent of disco, rather than them possessing a truly authentic disco sound.
You mean - they digressed BACK TO ballads & love songs!! I seem to remember they had a few of them on their first Greatest Hits LP and Arrival too!
Abba actually picked up on the disco craze very strongly, with some of their 1978/79 releases (among some of their more typical sounds), but what they were ultimately doing with songs like 'Summer Night City' 'Voulez Vous', and 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' was pretty typical of many of the established artists from that period. The Bee Gees got there before most in around 1975, when their previous orchestral ballad style had begun to stall. Of course, later there was a strong sense with artists like The Rolling Stones (with 'Miss You'), Rod Stewart (with 'Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?'), and maybe Barbra Steisand (with 'No More Tears (Enough Is Enough')), that they were all jumping on the disco bandwagon hoping that the disco fervour would result in success for them,
The Bee Gees could not have really known just how groundbreaking it would all prove for them. They always had a tendency to dismiss the 'disco' tag put on them, and liked to think they were recording r+b/blue eyed soul (which they were predominantly). I think they had already realised by the recording of the Spirits Having Flown album in 1978, that they would have to be careful not to associate too exclusively with a disco sound, after the Saturday Night Fever phenomenon. When something gets that big, they were well aware there was likely be be a backlash, and they didn't want to find themselves in the likely position of going down with the sinking ship. There wasn't much flat out disco on Spirits Having Flown, (nothing like for example Abba's 'Voulez Vous' single), although there were disco elements a little in 'Tragedy', and maybe 'Love You Inside Out'. However, the Bee Gees couldn't prevent the tide turning against the disco sound, they contributed so much to as in its mainstream success. Their own career stalled in 1981, with 'Living Eyes', but they did find a great new forte in writing, and producing for other artists.
Abba, were luckier, because their musical palate was quite broad in the late seventies, and contemporary disco had only been a very small part of their identity at the time.
Last Thursday the 2nd August 1979 Peter Powell fronted edition was shown and in two weeks it will be the 30th August episode fronted by Kid Jensen but the other two August 1979 is Yewtre'ed and the 16th August which was meant to be Mike Read was cancelled because of a BBC Strike.
So it's three weeks of TOTP 1979 then a week off for The Sky At Night and cycle begins again.
It that's happens the run will finish either in October or November.
The 1979 Top Of The Pops episodes remaining and will show on BBC Four.Dates from original transmission on BBC 1.
30th August ,
6th September and 20th September
4th,11th and 25th October,
1st,15th and 29th November,
6th and 13th December
BIB - IIRC the 'World In Action' documentary was aired in February 1980.
'Brass In Pocket' entered the UK chart on 1 December 1979 at No. 49 - thereafter its chart run was 33 - 30- 10- 5 - 3 - 1.
I suspect the alleged hyping took place during the week between 15 and 22 December when the song suddenly and inexplicably leapt 20 places up the chart three weeks after its first and (at that time) only promotional appearance on TOTP. I believe WEA were concerned 'Brass In Pocket' was going to follow a similar path to the previous two singles 'Stop Your Sobbing' and 'Kid' which stalled at 34 and 33 respectively so they took direct action to avert this by offering bribes to chart return stores to falsify sales logs in a desperate attempt to hype the single up the chart and raise the band's profile. It certainly paid off as the Pretenders scored not only a No. 1 single in January 1980 - but a No. 1 album off the back of it.
The World In Action programme aired on 18 August 1980 - 11 days after Top Of The Pops had returned after the Musicians Union strike.
One record that is mentioned in the programme, 'Hey Girl' by the Expressos didn't chart until June 1980 and the Music Week Top 75 Singles chart page that shows that title climbing from number 67 to number 60 is from the issue dated 28 June 1980. However most of the examples of hyping given in the programme are certainly from mid to late 1979. My guess is that most of the programme was made several weeks, possibly even months, prior to broadcast but the programme was deliberately held back from broadcast until Top Of The Pops returned to give the revelations maximum impact.
Interesting to see that they didn't show the full length version last night! Any reason for this? Good job I had recorded the late night repeat on Thursday.
Interesting to see that they didn't show the full length version last night! Any reason for this? Good job I had recorded the late night repeat on Thursday.
Is it the same edit as Thursday 730pm?
That's not the first time they've cocked up there.
And now the bassline that launched a thousand rap songs as well as 'Another One Bites The Dust' by Queen. 'Good Times' indeed- an excellent song. 'Good Times' was recorded by Chic in the same studios at the same time as Queen who were recording 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love'. John Deacon and Bernard Edwards hung out together during the recording sessions and Deacon picked up on the bassline to 'Good Times' and after getting permission from Edwards used it as the bassline on the song he had written, 'Another One Bites The Dust'. At least he got permission, the Sugarhill Gang just went ahead and stole it note for note and ended up losing Sugar Hill Records a fortune.
BIB - Deacon certainly hung out with Edwards, but both Edwards and Nile Rodgers were less amused by 'Another One Bites The Dust' than you suggest from everything I've read, both in Rodgers' autobiography and also in this excellent book about Chic in which group members are extensively quoted … http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everybody-Dance-Chic-Politics-Disco/dp/1900924560
I suspect the alleged hyping took place during the week between 15 and 22 December when the song suddenly and inexplicably leapt 20 places up the chart three weeks after its first and (at that time) only promotional appearance on TOTP. I believe WEA were concerned 'Brass In Pocket' was going to follow a similar path to the previous two singles 'Stop Your Sobbing' and 'Kid' which stalled at 34 and 33 respectively so they took direct action to avert this by offering bribes to chart return stores to falsify sales logs in a desperate attempt to hype the single up the chart and raise the band's profile. It certainly paid off as the Pretenders scored not only a No. 1 single in January 1980 - but a No. 1 album off the back of it.
It has to be said that WEA's, ahem, aggressive marketing strategy did have some impressive results - did anyone else notice the chart countdown on the TOTP before last, where four of the Top 5 were marketed and distributed by WEA …? ;-)
BIB - in addition to the five songs quoted above, plenty more disco records entered the UK Top Thirty throughout 1980 from the likes of Sheila B. Devotion, Diana Ross, Change, Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, The Jacksons, Brothers Johnson, Jimmy Ruffin, Narada Michael Walden, Crown Heights Affair, Average White Band, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, Teena Marie, Odyssey, Gap Band, Leon Haywood, Queen, Ottowan, Shalamar and Coffee as well as jazz funk crossover artists such as George Benson, Linx and Tom Browne.
Between them I reckon all these acts managed 34 top thirty hits in 1980 (the vast majority of which went top ten). I wonder if any more (or less) disco records broke into the thirty in 1978, and 1979 ?
Although Chic released nothing under their own name in 1980 they wrote and produced three hits for Diana Ross (not forgetting 'Spacer') and the Bee Gees wrote 'Hold On To My Love' which became a top ten hit for Jimmy Ruffin.
The first time I heard the bassline on 'You're Lying' by Linx in October 1980 I was immediately struck by its uncanny resemblance to 'I Shoulda Loved Ya' which had been a top ten hit for Narada Michael Walden just five months earlier.
All very true.
Disco never died in the UK - the 'Disco sucks' campaign meant absolutely nothing over here - and the music just evolved, just as it had been evolving between 1974 and 1979 (as vauxhall1964 rightly says). By 1979, genres started to blur more and more: artists more usually associated with jazz began dabbling with disco (Roy Ayers, Herbie Hancock); soul/funk acts like Earth Wind & Fire put their own spin on disco to raise their profile; new wave acts like Talking Heads made tracks with disco tempos; and Blondie scored a number one with 'Heart Of Glass'. And just as those genres took from disco, they added to it, as well - and so while tempos dropped a bit and the superficial trappings may have faded, the essence of disco very much remained. It was just the 'D' word that got superseded by other labels.
Comments
Thanks for posting this, i remember liking this at the time, haven't heard this for absolutely ages, enjoying listening to it now
Another one is perhaps 'I Am What I Am' from 1983, by Gloria Gaynor.
I think those songs that have a ten + years distance from the the early eighties period (when disco began to lose its grip), is a slightly different scenario, because those artists are using a level of nostalgia, and hindsight to re-acquaint the audience, and themselves, with a genre, that had seemed for a considerable time, really rather lost. Most things have a tendency to come full circle after a while.
It's great isn't it?
Yes. Spot on!
There was quite a shift in pop in 1981, with disco, of course, and not to mention punk,/new wave too, both genres of which began to dissipate at around that point. Jazz-funk didn't hold the profile of either, but watching those old Top Of The Pops repeats from 1981, groups like Spandau Ballet, Linx, Haircut One Hundred, and Modern Romance, actually shared a common (and popular at the time) musical jazz/funk fusion, for a while. The 'big' production sounds of disco (heavily orchestrated with the familiar disco beats), and some of the more overblown ELO type pop extravaganzas (like 'Horace Wimp'), slowly began to give way to a much leaner (more simplified), and less bombastic type musical production. ELO went back to rock 'n' roll basics with 'Hold On Tight' (which was perhaps an early indication of what Jeff Lynne would be doing later with the Travelling Wilbury's), and the soul dance style of disco, would transform itself into synth pop/soul (with more traditional instrumentation like funky bass lines etc, too, but with less emphasis on a traditional disco beat). 1981 marked the beginning of a significant change in the landscape of british pop - not to mention the New Romantics (Visage, Duran Duran, etc.) !
You mean - they digressed BACK TO ballads & love songs!! I seem to remember they had a few of them on their first Greatest Hits LP and Arrival too!
http://youtu.be/oBd9-n-rRb4
Pearl Jam played the MK Bowl last night. Didn't hear a thing...the wind was in the wrong direction. Thank goodness!
There was a big disconnect at the time between what mainstream clubs played (and therefore what filled the 'disco' charts as listed in Record Mirror etc, ) and what more alternative clubs would play. You'd not see the disco charts full of Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Visage and A Flock of Seagulls but you would hear those played in every city's 'hip' club catering more to art students and the 80s equivalent of 'hipsters'. The mainstream disco charts were indeed full of jazz funk and what was left of disco itself (Shakatak, George Benson, Level 42 etc).
Interestingly the Billboard dance/disco chart was far more eclectic and there UK synth bands were regular features: Yazoo in particular were darlings of the US dance crowd (Situation, the B side to Only You topped the US dance charts..it was followed by the B side to Nobody's Diary called State Farm and the single Don't Go.). You'd even get the Clash, the Cure and Joy Division charting on that chart!
So you agree there are songs after 1981 that could be described as disco.
And you said it would be difficult. You should have more faith.
Yes, but the fact that i had to think about it is significant, when considering the disco domination from the pre 1981 period.
I will miss watching Top Of The Pops in the coming weeks.
yes dance music was very tribal in those days, hip kids dancing to electronic music sneered at the naff 'soul boys' and their jazz funk while the latter rejected synth pop as not being 'soulful' or worthy of inclusion in their clubs' playlists. While gay clubs were increasingly dancing to their own very different (and much faster) beat.
What I admired about the Billboard dance/disco chart was how democratic and open minded it was in comparison: put simply, if it had a beat that you could dance to, it was in, be it the B52s, Afrika Bambaata, Cabaret Voltaire or Michael Jackson. There seemed little if any crossover between the established UK dance club scene and its charts and what was being played, say, at the Hacienda in the early 80s or other cutting edge nightclubs around the country. I do remember one oddity: Hi NRG was basically played only in gay clubs in England but in Scotland mainstream clubs would play it because the further North you went the faster punters wanted their dance music! I think this helps explain how house music took off first in the Midlands and North while London was still listening to much slower dance music and hip hop.
The last surviving member died today.
BIB - in addition to the five songs quoted above, plenty more disco records entered the UK Top Thirty throughout 1980 from the likes of Sheila B. Devotion, Diana Ross, Change, Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, The Jacksons, Brothers Johnson, Jimmy Ruffin, Narada Michael Walden, Crown Heights Affair, Average White Band, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, Teena Marie, Odyssey, Gap Band, Leon Haywood, Queen, Ottowan, Shalamar and Coffee as well as jazz funk crossover artists such as George Benson, Linx and Tom Browne.
Between them I reckon all these acts managed 34 top thirty hits in 1980 (the vast majority of which went top ten). I wonder if any more (or less) disco records broke into the thirty in 1978, and 1979 ?
Although Chic released nothing under their own name in 1980 they wrote and produced three hits for Diana Ross (not forgetting 'Spacer') and the Bee Gees wrote 'Hold On To My Love' which became a top ten hit for Jimmy Ruffin.
The first time I heard the bassline on 'You're Lying' by Linx in October 1980 I was immediately struck by its uncanny resemblance to 'I Shoulda Loved Ya' which had been a top ten hit for Narada Michael Walden just five months earlier.
BIB - IIRC the 'World In Action' documentary was aired in February 1980.
'Brass In Pocket' entered the UK chart on 1 December 1979 at No. 49 - thereafter its chart run was 33 - 30- 10- 5 - 3 - 1.
I suspect the alleged hyping took place during the week between 15 and 22 December when the song suddenly and inexplicably leapt 20 places up the chart three weeks after its first and (at that time) only promotional appearance on TOTP. I believe WEA were concerned 'Brass In Pocket' was going to follow a similar path to the previous two singles 'Stop Your Sobbing' and 'Kid' which stalled at 34 and 33 respectively so they took direct action to avert this by offering bribes to chart return stores to falsify sales logs in a desperate attempt to hype the single up the chart and raise the band's profile. It certainly paid off as the Pretenders scored not only a No. 1 single in January 1980 - but a No. 1 album off the back of it.
He was the last surviving original member.
Even in me saying 'I Am What I Am' is a disco song, it isn't really, if i was to put it alongside the disco hits from the 1977-80 period. However, there's definite connection in terms of its grandness (as in the bombast of the way it expresses itself), and the fact that Gloria Gaynor is singing the hit single version. It (and 'It's Raining Men'), are perhaps the closest we get to disco post 1982. But really it is more the spirit that is reminiscent of disco, rather than them possessing a truly authentic disco sound.
Abba actually picked up on the disco craze very strongly, with some of their 1978/79 releases (among some of their more typical sounds), but what they were ultimately doing with songs like 'Summer Night City' 'Voulez Vous', and 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' was pretty typical of many of the established artists from that period. The Bee Gees got there before most in around 1975, when their previous orchestral ballad style had begun to stall. Of course, later there was a strong sense with artists like The Rolling Stones (with 'Miss You'), Rod Stewart (with 'Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?'), and maybe Barbra Steisand (with 'No More Tears (Enough Is Enough')), that they were all jumping on the disco bandwagon hoping that the disco fervour would result in success for them,
The Bee Gees could not have really known just how groundbreaking it would all prove for them. They always had a tendency to dismiss the 'disco' tag put on them, and liked to think they were recording r+b/blue eyed soul (which they were predominantly). I think they had already realised by the recording of the Spirits Having Flown album in 1978, that they would have to be careful not to associate too exclusively with a disco sound, after the Saturday Night Fever phenomenon. When something gets that big, they were well aware there was likely be be a backlash, and they didn't want to find themselves in the likely position of going down with the sinking ship. There wasn't much flat out disco on Spirits Having Flown, (nothing like for example Abba's 'Voulez Vous' single), although there were disco elements a little in 'Tragedy', and maybe 'Love You Inside Out'. However, the Bee Gees couldn't prevent the tide turning against the disco sound, they contributed so much to as in its mainstream success. Their own career stalled in 1981, with 'Living Eyes', but they did find a great new forte in writing, and producing for other artists.
Abba, were luckier, because their musical palate was quite broad in the late seventies, and contemporary disco had only been a very small part of their identity at the time.
So it's three weeks of TOTP 1979 then a week off for The Sky At Night and cycle begins again.
It that's happens the run will finish either in October or November.
The 1979 Top Of The Pops episodes remaining and will show on BBC Four.Dates from original transmission on BBC 1.
30th August ,
6th September and 20th September
4th,11th and 25th October,
1st,15th and 29th November,
6th and 13th December
One record that is mentioned in the programme, 'Hey Girl' by the Expressos didn't chart until June 1980 and the Music Week Top 75 Singles chart page that shows that title climbing from number 67 to number 60 is from the issue dated 28 June 1980. However most of the examples of hyping given in the programme are certainly from mid to late 1979. My guess is that most of the programme was made several weeks, possibly even months, prior to broadcast but the programme was deliberately held back from broadcast until Top Of The Pops returned to give the revelations maximum impact.
Is it the same edit as Thursday 730pm?
That's not the first time they've cocked up there.
BIB - Deacon certainly hung out with Edwards, but both Edwards and Nile Rodgers were less amused by 'Another One Bites The Dust' than you suggest from everything I've read, both in Rodgers' autobiography and also in this excellent book about Chic in which group members are extensively quoted … http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everybody-Dance-Chic-Politics-Disco/dp/1900924560
It has to be said that WEA's, ahem, aggressive marketing strategy did have some impressive results - did anyone else notice the chart countdown on the TOTP before last, where four of the Top 5 were marketed and distributed by WEA …? ;-)
All very true.
Disco never died in the UK - the 'Disco sucks' campaign meant absolutely nothing over here - and the music just evolved, just as it had been evolving between 1974 and 1979 (as vauxhall1964 rightly says). By 1979, genres started to blur more and more: artists more usually associated with jazz began dabbling with disco (Roy Ayers, Herbie Hancock); soul/funk acts like Earth Wind & Fire put their own spin on disco to raise their profile; new wave acts like Talking Heads made tracks with disco tempos; and Blondie scored a number one with 'Heart Of Glass'. And just as those genres took from disco, they added to it, as well - and so while tempos dropped a bit and the superficial trappings may have faded, the essence of disco very much remained. It was just the 'D' word that got superseded by other labels.