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

My no.4, love it. Might've been my no.1, but finding the 12" version cooled me on it slightly.

It did? Why?

I felt like it doesn't take the 7" any further, somehow - this is one tune that feels more like a killer pop song than a killer groove.

"Ring My Bell" was the #1 song the week I was born. I wish I loved it.

My Dr. Buzzard's vote went to "I'll Play the Fool." But any Darnell presence in the top 100 is crucial.

First time I heard Ring My Bell the DJ hinted that the title was taken from a very dangerous sexual practice. I've never found out what it was.

and mine to "Sunshowers."

That's odd, my opinion is pretty much the opposite, I feel "Ring my Bell" is one of the least pop-song like among the big disco hits... I mean, the beat remains steady and proto-housey throughout, there are no solos or anything, the instruments just play the groove all the way through, the verses are kinda insignificant and the chorus eventually descends to pure mantra (ring-a-ling-a-ling)... So it feels very much designed for the dance floor, it's doesn't really have a pop song structure IMO.

(x-post to Ismael)

"Ring My Bell" was the #1 song the week I was born. I wish I loved it.

Hey, me too! Are we the same age?

First time I heard Ring My Bell the DJ hinted that the title was taken from a very dangerous sexual practice. I've never found out what it was.

I think someone on ILM suggested it's an euphemism for cunnilingus... I guess that's possible, the song definitely is about sex of some sort.

Not that cunnilingus is very dangerous, at least in my experience.

no like "Let'em In" it's really about a doorbell.

But the person Anita Ward is talking about is already "home" when she asks him/her to "ring my bell". Why would that person need to ring the bell if s/he was already inside the house?

It's the other kind of bell.

One of the biggest missed chances in my early years revolved around a girl who offered to let me ring her bell, but I. Did. Not. Get. It.

hurray for the Buzzard! if we ranked the disco albums that debut would have been my number one.

don't rate Ring My Bell but it's presence here is justified with this "missed chances" post.

Hey, me too! Are we the same age?

Are you talking #1 in U.S. charts, tho?

My Dr. Buzzard's vote went to "I'll Play the Fool." But any Darnell presence in the top 100 is crucial.

― Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.)

That's the one I went with too. I'd be happy to say this album is my favourite disco album ever made.

And I'm gonna go to school again, boy, just to get my equivalency diploma.
+
I'll grow a tail or two, for you. Spend the rest of my days locked up in a zoo.

'Ring My Bell' wins even if only for that tone.

Skatt Bros. track reminds me of that movie "the warriors"...even though it wasnt on the sdtk for "the warriors", if that makes sense

Anita Ward; best artwork so far. amazing that.

I love "Cherchez la Femme" sososo much. Incredible writing, playing, arrangement and production. I worked at a MOR radio station in 1976, and I played this song pretty much every night for a year and a half and never tired of it. Still haven't.

The world in which 'Walk The Night' places in any kind of top 40 countdown is the world we deserve. Well done, ILM.

Haunted; best Beyonce song i've ever heard.

(oops wrong thread. but hey)

Images of Beyonce covering Skatt.

or "Ring My Bell"

Beyonce, "Anita My Skatt"

Sheila & B. Devotion - Spacer (1979)
311 points, 8 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-534033-1129161336_zpsbe06885f.jpeg

http://youtu.be/lrKjawtXY3s8 (music Video)
http://youtu.be/RrMwzfFDU_M (12" version)

'Spacer' by Sheila B Devotion (produced by Edwards and Rodgers and therefore classic)

― avery keen-gardner (avery keen-gardner), 12. syyskuuta 2005 1:40

and it's funny that he mentioned sheila b & devotion - i spent some time on an island frequented by many euros and at one of the resorts there were these europeans doing pool exercises accompanied by a cranking remix of 'spacer'. i also heard it in the supermarkets and i was quite sure that some euro or other has released remixes of 'spacer' every year since 79

― jaime, 16. heinäkuuta 2008 7:48

Plus "Singin' In The Rain" (ick) by Sheila B. Devotion, whose 1980 Nile Rodgers-produced self-titled LP with the immortal "Spacer" on it I've always filed under the S's rather the D's since i'ts credited to Sheila & B. Devotion instead, which made me think B. Devotion was the name of her band, pictured with matching spacesuits on the back cover.

― xhuxk, 18. tammikuuta 2009 17:49

Chic were well recieved at the time, albeit grudgingly. I just found the long version of "Spacer" on napster. It totally rocks.

― Will, 31. toukokuuta 2001 3:00

Awesome tune, but I think the subservient dynamic between Sheila and three guys in her band is a bit dodgy; apparently they were originally called "Sheila & The Black Devotion", I wonder if that was changed because they figured out it was too dodgy?

Sorry, that number 36.

I didn't know this one, then was set on giving it massive points ... then I totally lost my nerve because I wasn't sure whether I actually liked it or whether it was the Alcazar tune I loved instead ... so I pulled it entirely. The title phrase is a bit weird. What dilemmas.

I fuckin' love this tune. MORE DISCO SONGS ABOUT SPACE, PLEASE.

very nice piano intro there.

35. Donna Summer - Last Dance (1978)
315 points, 7 votes, one 1st place vote.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/jabaralastdance_zps8053c467.jpg

http://youtu.be/A8xv1MXrwNc (music video)
http://youtu.be/VsQsdlYVPCw (12" version)

i'm thinking "Last Dance" without a doubt but will take a listen before voting.

― Bee OK, 21. heinäkuuta 2010 5:38

Does he remember Donna Sumer's "Last Dance"? We played that song together many times. Are you out there? Do you remember?

― Sister Reed (Bimble), 21. tammikuuta 2009 10:22

I have to say, I've always been just a wee bit mystified by what I think has become something of a cult around "I Feel Love." Don't get me wrong, I love Donna Summer, I like the song a lot, and I can understand how it's important, too (probably her most "important" moment), fusing as it does Munich machinery, bubblegum simplicity, and good ol' American disco-porn--and yeah, paving the way for trance, and impressing the hell out of Eno and Bowie in the process! But it's also a deliberately cold record (one of its charms, agreed), and I like a whole bunch of other Donna Summer records better, stuff where her voice actually has a personality. I mean, she has a great voice, but you wouldn't know it from "I Feel Love." Off the top of my head I'm thinking: "Hot Stuff" (Stones do Euro-klezmer-disco), "Could it Be Magic" (Manilow does Euro-opera-disco), "I Remember Yesterday" ("jazz" if it was invented by August Darnell and Stony Browder rather than Louis Armstrong or whoever the hell invented jazz), "Last Dance" and "Macarthur Park," two of the very few songs in rock 'n' roll history which get show music down right, the perfect duet "Heaven Knows," the (pre-Jesus) statement of faith, "On the Radio".... There are even a couple icy-electro moments I slightly prefer to "I.F.L." (or let's say which stand equal to it anyway): the amazing "Our Love" (without which I'm guessing early Depeche Mode wouldn't even exist), "The Wanderer" (coolest Elvis imitation by a black chick ever)...and oh yeah, the 3 hour mix of "Love to Love You Baby" is still pretty outrageous as well.

― dan fitz (danfitz), 26. helmikuuta 2003 5:08

I fuckin' love this tune. MORE DISCO SONGS ABOUT SPACE, PLEASE.

I once did a mix that's all space-themed disco... I might still have it somewhere on my computer, if you want me to share it?

Not that hard for me to fathom being the only one who put "Last Dance" at the top of their list, but stunned that only 6 other people (out of, what, 40 ballots?) voted for it.

xplease

Tuomas some of us might have a mild interest in such a thing, yes

I voted thrice for Summer: "Bad Girls", "Last Dance", and one more.

Damn, looks like I don't have that space disco mix anymore, it seems I never copied it from the hard drive of my previous computer. Oh well, if I ever do a new space mix, I'll let you know.

I once did a mix that's all space-themed disco... I might still have it somewhere on my computer, if you want me to share it?

― Tuomas, Friday, December 13, 2013 6:31 PM (12 minutes ago)

Oh yesssss. I know a fair few, but an entire mix sounds heavenly.

xpost CURSES

Pretty sure we could crowdsource a cool spacedisco playlist!

It's sort of amazing how we're so high up on the list with so little consensus yet.

I know there's absolutely no chance of either of my Donna votes making it, so I'll say now that they were:

"Could It Be Magic"
"I Remember Yesterday"

Could It Be Magic could yet make it?

Okay, with the next tune I have to admit I made a bit of a mistake... For some reason I thought it was from 1984, and it wasn't until I was counting the votes that I realized it was officially released as a single in 1985. (Though from what I've understood it did appear on some kind of private pressing before that, so I guess technically it predates 1985.) However, people voted for it and it's undeniably disco, plus it's an awesome classic, so I hope you can forgive my error...

No. Repoll.

https://lh3.ggpht.com/cUZ5cmriTQ_kyIPDss4vMqf4-pVWYDvJV8QiqsfBJyn4vkTXlJENDYiKRy9Et2ri17Y=w300