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

43. Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free (1976)
298 points, 9 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/candi-staton-young-hearts-run-free-warner-bros-2_zpsae909dff.jpg

http://youtu.be/SBcJR3jJ_zo

"Young Hearts Run Free" is clearly one of the better disco records.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), 31. heinäkuuta 2004 1:19

Also, I want to thank that show for shining a whole new light on "Young Hearts Run Free" for me. I never realized the circumstances surrounding that song with regard to her irl struggles, which makes it mean a hell of a lot more.

― Johnny Fever, 28. helmikuuta 2013 23:06

Lots of old soul shouters made great disco records -- Candi Staton's "Young Hearts Run Free" is inexplicably perfect.

― briania (briania), 1. lokakuuta 2004 19:11

Is there a more joyful song about being stuck in an unfulfilling relationship? Candi complains "just can't break awayyyyyy" and her voice, and the music soars. Instant happiness, as long as you don't think too much about what she's singing.

― Amiii Stewart (Amiii Stewart), 24. toukokuuta 2005 14:59

Classic example of a song I enjoyed (and DJed at weddings) for years without listening to the lyrics and then realised, damn it's bleak. Disco is so good at these.

Yeah, apparently the song was written about the abusive relationship Staton was in with some pimp guy at the time.

this Carly Simon song is crazy, never heard this before

Candi's perennial ubiquity at wedding discos shall forever be a source of mystery to me...

The Alicia Bridges instrumental track is generi-disco but even as a kid her diction astounded me; I'd never heard vowels pronounced that way.

AC-SHON!

OOOOOWWWWW YAAAY

My wife introduced me to the Carly Simon tune just a month ago and it's been stuck in my head since. Never knew about it. Was pretty amazed to learn it's '82.

Homer: "I hate that song."
Marge: "I do too."

OTM.

what Soulwax did on NY Lipps with FunkyTown really made me fall back in love with it again.

― piscesx, Wednesday, December 11, 2013 11:21 PM (Yesterday)

this is OTM, don't want to bog this poll down with 00's edits but:

http://youtu.be/UYESHbg36vs
http://youtu.be/GO7ux5oWSOQ

glad candi stanton made it, it slipped in as my #50, after tuomas emailed me to inform me that "aint no mountain" was on my list in two different places hahaha

42. Patrice Rushen - Haven't You Heard (1979)
301 points, 7 votes, one 1st place vote.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/img_340837_3663423_0_zps026d5281.jpg

http://youtu.be/QHxc3e2TJXc

Weird, I had a similar *devastated by music* moment in the car last week listening to Patrice Rushen's "Haven't You Heard" from the Levan "paradise" dbl CD. I had recently heard a gospel cover of "Haven't You Heard" that converts the "I've been looking for you" into an address to Jesus, and it was so bizarre-yet-comforting to return to the sexual and secular original and have it sound 10 million times better . . .

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), 20. huhtikuuta 2006 22:08

Last week I played this song approximately 80 zillion times.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), 20. huhtikuuta 2006 23:26

the new lcdss single kinda reminds me of a weird amalgam of the last three tracks on the first disc of the larry levan comp, but little tops "haven't you heard" by patrice rushen with which i regularly piss off my surfer neighbors.

― josh. (disco stu), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 00:20

Disco Stu himself!

I love I love the Nightlife.

This poll made me realize I need more Patrice Rushen in my life, so I bought all of her disco albums.

(Thankfully they're now available as two 2CD comps; a few years ago I tried looking for them and came up with nothing.)

Young Hearts Run Free and I Love the Nightlife are classics which don't generate much enthusiasm in me. they have to be here but maybe top 50 is pushing it. Haven't You Heard sounds good, didn't see that one coming.

"Haven't You Heard" is an absolutely heavenly song.

Oh, it's THIS one - only heard the Daddy's Favourite track which sampled it ("I Feel Good Things For You"), until now.

you can just loop Rushen singing the chorus and playing that piano part into infinity. I don't need the rest.

That's great. I've never heard it before.

I Love the Nightlife really doesn't resonate with me. Seems like old person disco/wedding disco.

41. ABBA - Dancing Queen (1976)
302 points, 8 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-1268701-1257779647_zps4df2a248.jpeg

http://youtu.be/xFrGuyw1V8s

If you're going to have bloody ABBA recs at bloody office parties, 'Dancing Queen' is abt the best you can get, I find.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), 15. joulukuuta 2002 21:59

'Dancing Queen' is good because it is the saddest song. Hearing sad songs too many times is quite sad too, in a tired of life sense. And parties, specifically christmas/office parties are very sad, frustrated occasions. The whole thing amounts to melancholy overload. It is wonderful.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), 16. joulukuuta 2002 2:58

I always thought it was their best song, in terms of
structure and uniqueness.The sectional changes are
neat, as the verse builds dynamically/harmonically into
the chorus, which is elaborate for the Abba standard.

― James R., 21. elokuuta 2005 11:37

It's weirdly slow for a song about dancing.

The best thing in the song is the weird mode of address, "You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen" etc. where you are put in the position of being a seventeen year old girl whether you like it or not. Are there any other songs like this?

I also love the line "Feel the beat of the tambourine." Tambourines do not get enough praise.

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), 21. elokuuta 2005 14:16

'Dancing Queen' always struck me as one of the saddest hit singles ever. Partly because, yes, the "time of her life" is now, is gone. But also the knowledge that 30 years later, dancing queen is working at the post office in some provincial town listening nostalgically to 'Dancing Queen'.

― baaderonixx, 20. kesäkuuta 2007 18:31

Abba's Dancing Queen: A Unique Song?

I'm still hoping for some song from 1979 that I've totally forgotten about that will instantly transport me back in time.

Have never heard this Patrice Rushen song, as far as I recall.

I'm burned out on Dancing Queen, for life, at this point. (Please someone else post.)

not a fan of Abba but I was always impressed by this one. ended up putting it in my bottom 10.

surprised this is so low!

Sorry I missed the voting and discussion so far. "Young Hearts Run Free" is an epic track. I love her vocal delivery and the chorus has stayed in my head for days. Doesn't seem all that danceable though.

well top 40. shit is getting tight. there are still 40 songs on my ballot and all of them are essential. have no idea how this will work out.

Disco reminds me of what my life might have been had I not movedfrom Northeast Philadelphia, after seventh grade, to some quasi-rural neo-Nazi suburb. (Hint: I think it would have been better.)

I think I had two ABBA songs in the top ten (they are my favorite group) but neither was Dancing Queen. It is still rather wonderful though. The one I was most tempted to vote for but didn't was If It Wasn't For The Nights which always stood out as one of their best disco efforts.

It's strange but Abba didn't move me at all in the context of this poll. I ended up cutting them back to one song (not this, which I've never liked much) and even then I regret it because I think I picked the wrong one. I just can't imagine dancing to them.

did anybody do like a walter gibbons style extended cut of "dancing queen"? I could maybe see it working... total euphoria.

the B side is incredible too.

40. Skatt Bros. - Walk the Night (1979)
307 points, 7 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-2778880-1300641742_zps44d10118.jpeg

http://youtu.be/MdtXhRiGNms

What is the Gayest Song Ever?

"Walk The Night" by Skatt Bros. takes the prize. (Soul)Seek if you dare.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), 18. helmikuuta 2004 0:54

And compared to the Skatt Bros., LEATHER NUN were straight as an arrow.

― chuck, 1. lokakuuta 2004 0:50

As xhuxk alluded to earlier, there is a disco subgenre known as morning music (also known as "sleaze" to some). This website will tell you all about it:

http://www.discomusic.com/forums/disco-music-70s-80s/8822-morning-music-vs-sleaze-debate.html

I love how sleaze is distinguished from the merely sleazy, i.e. The Skatt Bros. magisterial "Walk The Night"

― Kevin John Bozelka (Kevin John Bozelka), 3. syyskuuta 2006 1:06

One of last years most played: Skatt Bros' 'Walk the Night'

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), 18. toukokuuta 2005 17:55

According to their Discogs.com profile, the Skatt Bros. were marketed as the "straight Village People", which sounds pretty incredible if you just listen to "Walk the Night" once.

I've always kinda thought DJ Hell was heavily influenced by this tune in his own music and in the whole International Deejay Gigolos aesthetic.

Oh, yay, finally another of my votes! Love this track.

Great track. Didn't even consider it but yeah, totally deserves its place.

I know "Life At The Outpost", but hadn't heard this before (and it's not on Spotify either, BTW). It reminds me of the brutally alienating gay disco scenes in Cruising and American Gigolo, which alarmed me so much as a teenager. I've never heard music like this in an actual gay disco, though.

Good record. Reminds me of Joy Division.

this record is one of the many high points of Optimo's Psych Out mix

At least one of those Skatt guys looks likes a Saddam Hussein double.

I've never heard of the band or the song but would vote for it based on the cover alone.

had no idea the policeman from Allo Allo was in a 70s disco band.

According to their Discogs.com profile, the Skatt Bros. were marketed as the "straight Village People"

are you sure it didn't actually say "Village People that can & will actually murder you in an open street"?

centre guy looks like Paul Morley with a very dubious moustache

haha i thought so too.

39. A Taste of Honey - Boogie Oogie Oogie (1978)
307 points, 10 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/a-taste-of-honey-boogie-oogie-oogie-capitol_zpsd623f743.jpg

Seems like this has been completely blocked in Youtube, but here's the tune in Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/24425764

David - what did you think of Taste of Honey's "Boogie Oogie Oogie" then?

― dave q, 28. huhtikuuta 2002 3:00

Is that a trick question? I love it - brilliant bass line. I'm surprised it hasn't had more sample-action (or maybe it has but it hasn't crossed over enough for me to notice it).

― David, 28. huhtikuuta 2002 3:00

"boogie oogie oogie" by taste of honey - absolutely INTERGALACTIC!

― bob snoom, 5. heinäkuuta 2002 3:00

xpost Yes!!! GET DOWN BOOGIE OOGIE OOGIE! I just rediscovered that song only like a month ago or whatever since my childhood. Fantastic fucking song!

― Lucking Faptop (Bimble), 11. huhtikuuta 2009 23:01

decided to go for "Boogie Oogie Oogie" because it always puts me in a good mood no matter what : )

― but hey, that would be going into sexual details ... (The Reverend), 25. kesäkuuta 2009 5:45

"Walk The Night" was one of my top choices, and one of the disco songs I've actually danced to most in the past 8 years or so, being as it is dropped so regularly at more underground-ish gay club nights. I think I said upthread or maybe in the nominations thread that when the song breaks into actual scatting I've seen so many people on the dancefloor get this "oh my god I don't know what it is going on here but it totally awesome" look on their faces.

Speaking of Cruising there is a youtube clip of the song which marries it to footage from the film to somewhat unsettling effect.