...AND THE BEAT GOES ON! The GRAND ILM DISCO POLL results are revealed!

too busy w/Velvets to bother with this, but curious about results

like this one a lot too -- i spent a decent portion of my childhood dancing to shit like this at bar mitzvahs

― wee-based god (J0rdan S.), 22. tammikuuta 2011 10:12

haha <3

Don't know much about this genre, but Relight My Fire seems well low.

92. Village People - Y.M.C.A. (1978)
176 points, 4 votes.

― Tuomas, Thursday, December 5, 2013 4:59 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You guuuys!

Damn, missed that this started.

DAMN, you guys, the Jones Girls are about 90 slots too low!

Great start to the list.

I didn't end of voting for any KC & The Sunshine but these two songs were in my first draft of possible contenders. I especially like Keep It Comin' Love being the last song on their Part 3, such a great way to end an album.

Bumblebee Unlimited's Lady Bug was one of the last 10 songs I cut from my list. Great song and great album too. I'm really hoping Patrick Adams makes a good showing on this list. Would especially love to see some Cloud One make it.

I did think about losing Kid Creole & The Coconuts from my list I wasn't sure it could be classed as disco (and I was desperate at that point) but in the end I just had to include as it's an incredible song from one of my favourite albums ever.

I really wouldn't be surprised if Chic and their related projects take up about a quarter of this poll. Didn't vote for At Last I Am but it's a stunning song, they just have too many and I really wanted to give other bands more of a chance on my list.

This is awesome, thank you Tuomas! Love reading the blurbs, even if they're just "plain old" ecstatic enthusing.

I really wouldn't be surprised if Chic and their related projects take up about a quarter of this poll.

Chic are obviously awesome but I really hope this doesn't happen.

"Spank" is the shit, glad it made it.
"Just An Illusion" is at least a 9.5 out of 10 but I went ultra purist with my ballot.

The Brooklyn Express cover of "Spank" is really cool too, it's probably on youtube.

i love the tossed-off uniqueness of the euro pic sleeves here - but the american-style(?) die-cut generic record company sleeve, e.g. the iconic TK Disco "beachside palms" (seen at sunset or sunrise, depending on the time of night), offers an appealing blend of anonymity and universality which suits nicely the "in the mix" idiom of disco and nightclubs.

^Yes. Those generic sleeves looked great and have sentimental value for people who are familiar with them from flipping through stacks of 12" singles.

89. Dennis Parker - Like an Eagle (1979)
181 points, 5 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-750976-1376547099-4665_zpsadea1e6d.jpeg

http://youtu.be/ujbSkWKTuHo (French music video)
http://youtu.be/y87RLJ0M2E8 (12" version)

Okay, this might fall under the "beardo" designation even though it was a semi-hit (IIRC) on Casablanca, but ever since Radio Slave's Eskimo mix reminded me of its existence, Dennis Parker's "Like an Eagle" has been absolutely slaying me.

― Telephone thing, 19. huhtikuuta 2007 19:12

Dennis Parker is said to have been an adult film star at the time he released the Jacques Morali produced "Like An Eagle" in 1979.

― deej, 20. huhtikuuta 2007 3:40

i played 'like an eagle' at a party last year and drunk girls were reeling around, arms outstretched. it was a treat. cryingeagledrunkgirl.jpg, never forget.

― haitch, 20. huhtikuuta 2007 3:46

That 9/11 montage definitely needs a little Dennis Parker.

― matt2, 20. elokuuta 2007 20:42

12" version of like an eagle >> LP version >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> most other songs in the world

― gr8080, 23. toukokuuta 2008 6:35

Not on Spotify, but the original 12" mix is on Disco Discharge: Disco Fever USA, so I've linked to the MP3 on the playlist.

88. Peech Boys - Don't Make Me Wait (Larry Levan Mix) (1982)
183 points, 5 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-50240-1355736857-6185_zps2e9cdbf9.jpeg

http://youtu.be/QXCSYeNb10Y

Condens aan de muur en zweet op de dansvloer. Check ook zijn remix van Peech Boys' 'Don't Make Me Wait'.

― Arien, 4. toukokuuta 2002 3:00

Don't Make Me Wait - Peech Boys
(influential, pioneering, soulful early electro-funk)

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), 7. lokakuuta 2005 16:34

ive never been to new york but in my head it sounds like ze records or nyc peech boys

― plaxico (I know, right?), 22. helmikuuta 2010 18:26

"Don't Make Me Wait" is even better than I remember. Don't know if I'd put it in the "Hip Hop/Rap" category though. It's really the basis for House to my ears...obviously not a House beat, but the orgasmic moans, the repetitive groove with piano vamps, with the overt disco influence, all distinctly House. And of course, Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles had a close relationship...don't know if Knuckles actually played at the Paradise Garage, but I'm sure he spent some time there.

― viborgu, 7. lokakuuta 2005 19:58

Doesn't fit my definition of disco, but I have loved this track to death for the past 31 years.

That said, this is the first time I've heard this particular Levan remix - it wasn't on the original UK 12" release (which was produced by Levan in the first place). It's not radically different, but it sounds smoother, less stark... a touch more disco, then.

Oh man, wish I could be taking part in this poll but for one reaosn or another (work) i can't.

Must say I do love the 'brand' names on this scene - Tom Moulton, Larry Levan, Nicky Siano, Paradise Garage, etc - and how they've never meant anything to me before but are instantly this mark of quality as well as evocative of a magnificent lost world.

Great to see Just An Illusion up there. Has anyone ever done a 10 minute long edit / remix? That song by Jamie Woon from a couple of years ago gave it more than a passing nod.

hope to see a fair bit of Ze Records. Plaxico OTM, it's how I imagine (or want to imagine) New York sounding like.

I must have told this story somewhere before, but maybe now's a good time to repeat it. My stepmother's third husband was responsible for importing the concept of BPMs/beat-mixing to the UK, via his weekly Disco column in Record Mirror, as a direct result of seeing Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage in 1978. In fact, he was so knocked out that he brought several of his fellow DJs out to NYC shortly afterwards, to witness Levan for themselves.

TBH there seems to be a few different mixes of that tune floating around; the version have (on the Grand 12-Inches 9 comp) sounds a bit starker too, and it lasts for 8.5 minutes. But apparently the 7 minute version is the one that was on the original 12" single.

(xpost to Mike)

Has anyone ever done a 10 minute long edit / remix? That song by Jamie Woon from a couple of years ago gave it more than a passing nod.

Check my post a few posts below the Imagination entry; I linked to an 8 minute remix of the tune... Apparently it was made in France in the 90s, but it's pretty faithful to the original, the drums are a bit harder though.

(He also started telling me about all the gay sex that was going on in dark corners, but my stepmother shut him up - "Michael doesn't need to hear that!" For a libertine, she had quite a prudish streak.)

I must have told this story somewhere before, but maybe now's a good time to repeat it. My stepmother's third husband was responsible for importing the concept of BPMs/beat-mixing to the UK, via his weekly Disco column in Record Mirror, as a direct result of seeing Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage in 1978. In fact, he was so knocked out that he brought several of his fellow DJs out to NYC shortly afterwards, to witness Levan for themselves.

That's a nice story. Having grown up with dance music and DJ mixing always around (I was born in 1979), I sometimes forget these things must've totally blown many people's minds back in the day.

Another "Like An Eagle" video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN0hlI3zizM

There's Lindstrom/Terje versions of "Just An Illusion" floating around, as well as the version on Night Dubbing. Sampled by Mariah in the mid-aughts!

Was hoping "Spank" would be higher - always a treat to play out, and I've never understand the problem people have w/the vox.

xxpost thanks tuomas

I didn't vote for Peech Boys because it doesn't feel like disco to me - think of it alongside Let the Music Play - but boy is it great.

The Spotify playlist of the results is behaving all wrong for me. Up top the "including artists" list is right, but not all the songs are showing up in the playlist itself. (incl Kid Creole, Moroder tracks)

That's odd. Could it be a different territories thing? I'm compiling it from the UK. The only omission is Dennis Parker, unless you have the Disco Discharge MP3.

I misspoke about Moroder, but the Dan Hartman, Kid Creole and Jones Girls songs aren't showing for me. So weird! I've looked them up individually on Spotify and all three can be found/aren't grayed out for US users.

Hmm. Album-wise, the Dan Hartman is on Boogie Nights (1999 comp), Kid Creole is on Tropical Gangsters and the Jones Girls is on Philadelphia International Records 12" Singles. Are those albums available in the US?

Ah, I think that's it. Those albums don't come up in searches for me.

OK, I've made the playlist collaborative, so US alternatives can be added.

Very happy to see Like an Eagle make it. It's all about those incredible strings that come in for me.

86.(tie) Tavares - More Than a Woman (1977)
186 points, 5 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-563667-1368910427-2153_zps15f80bb7.jpeg

http://youtu.be/zXu0MR-_cJw

The Bee Gees' version sounds like a half-hearted demo. I'll take the Tavares, such an underrated group they were.

(both get a dud demerit for rhyming "myself" with "itself," though.)

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), 14. syyskuuta 2005 8:06

It should be noted, however, that Tavares PWNED the Bee Gees on "More Than a Woman."

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), 20. huhtikuuta 2005 16:04

Tavares - More Than A Woman

probably my favorite thing related to the Bee Gees not called "Night Fever"

― gospodin simmel, 25. huhtikuuta 2012 20:44

WilliamC, the version of "Vertigo/Relight" which you added is a later instrumental remix.

Dang. That's the only one that comes up in a search.

That's such a lovely, elegant track. That and "Open Sesame" were the only two from the SNF soundtrack I even remotely considered.

Also, just an observation and not (as yet) a slam, but this list is a great deal more mainstream than I was expecting this early in the game. Then again, I guess disco WAS mainstream for a good run of years, so that's not a big surprise.

I recently expressed a stronger sentiment ("gospodin simmel" was my first nick here): "sometimes I feel like the Tavares version of More than a Woman is one of my favorite songs ever. the Bee Gees original pales in comparison imo"

which Eric H followed with: "Totally; the Tavares one is transcendent. The Bee Gees is karaoke time."

I stand by that 100 percent.

People are obviously forgetting the classic 911 version of this, perhaps the definitive version for me.

wonder why the Bee Gees version of If I Can't Have You isn't on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack? it's on a B side from the era iirc.

Yikes - because of the way I did my ballot, I never reached the Tavs' version, but I placed the Gees' ^high^. I may have cost this one a good twenty places.

wonder why the Bee Gees version of If I Can't Have You isn't on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack? it's on a B side from the era iirc

Wikipedia says it was originally meant to be - and Yvonne Elliman was supposed to sing "How Deep Is Your Love," but Robert Stigwood decided to switch that up.

I have never heard "Like An Eagle" before. Wow, really great!

OMG at that Jimmy Bo Horne record cover.

― Tim F, Thursday, December 5, 2013 5:05 PM (Yesterday)

the LP cover is great as well

http://i.imgur.com/KWXTiQC.jpg

xp hats off to Robert Stigwood then! smart dude. Bee Gees version (even though it pales next to Elliman's) woulda been huge mind.