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

28. Bee Gees - Night Fever (1978)
356 points, 8 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-1711642-1342120107-2493_zps40a7f414.jpeg

http://youtu.be/-ihs-vT9T3Q

"night fever" is FABULOUS, the string arranging is brilliant and it's so well composed (with three distinct parts).

― fred solinger, 6. kesäkuuta 2001 3:00

Man, have you ever got up and shook yo ass to "Night Fever?" It's gold. Pure gold. Seriously, play that tune really loud in your room and boogie, and see if you don't feel the power.

― Gage-o, 23. joulukuuta 2001 3:00

I can't help but love every single track from the SNF soundtrack -- I mean the movie on its own kills me, but goddamn so many good Bee Gees songs on there (not to mention the others).

I get a good feeling from this song.

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), 20. kesäkuuta 2012 18:56

Fun fact about "Night Fever": looped sections of its rhythm track are the basis for "More Than a Woman" and "Stayin' Alive" (and according to the engineer, "Woman In Love" on the Streisand record, but I'm not sure I believe that). Less fun fact: it's because the drummer's dad died and he had to leave the sessions for a few days.

― Naive Teen Idol, 20. kesäkuuta 2012 20:02

27. Grace Jones - Pull up to the Bumper (1981)
359 points, 11 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-17639-1304886940_zpsa63b396e.jpeg

http://youtu.be/Tc1IphRx1pk (music video)
http://youtu.be/oNyo-I6OF2Y (12" version)

How can you not bump to this? That bassline - Sly & Robbie

"Percussive frothy funk, knee-deep in sexual metaphor" “Pull up to my bumper baby/ And drive inbetween” The attraction in this case is less the instant/immediate thrills but more a long held admiration of the icon that is Grace, notwithstanding that this is one hellova jam, especially the longer Larry Levan mix. Basically, its the sex appeal, the amazonian stature of Grace (her vocals alone convey this); most times this song makes me horny and that in itself makes it a significant choice.

― Tannenbaum Schmidt, 14. marraskuuta 2009 21:06

i didnt know, but i never know these things. i learned every single one from ilm like how 'pull up to the bumper' is abt anal sex. i think its because i learned to love music thru classical music and it took me ages to learn how to listen to lyrics

― minna (minna), 4. syyskuuta 2005 11:59

"Grace Jones - Pull Up To The Bumper"

My parents bought this single saying:"She's cool! You have to listento this!"

Of course I never did. Until a few years ago. *sigh*

― nathalie's baby (stevie nixed), 14. toukokuuta 2005 20:04

DJed "Use Me" and "Nightclubbing" and "Pull Up to the Bumper" on Friday night. what's great about those tracks is that they can really spring you into just about anywhere (weird rock, funk, dub, disco) afterwards.

― beta blog, 27. heinäkuuta 2008 18:54

Such an interesting point. Whereas some music leads you very firmly in one direction, Grace Jones' music is supple and genre-shifting enough for that simply not to be an issue.

― Daniel Giraffe, 30. heinäkuuta 2008 12:02

I don't think I voted for a Grace Jones track, but I'm glad she's in the mix.

26. Donna Summer - I Feel Love (Patrick Cowley Megamix) (1980)
362 points, 8 votes, two 1st place votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-62697-1319727150_zpsb750e947.jpeg

http://youtu.be/xSTf0B-9laQ

The 15-minute version is indescribably great. Better than the original. One of the best remixes ever.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), 19. joulukuuta 2003 3:38

It's pretty amazing. I like starting it in the middle where it's just the Cowley part so you can't even tell it's I Feel Love at first.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), 19. joulukuuta 2003 3:46

HA, this thread amuses me as someone who's been away from the board for a couple years but whenever listening to Patrick Cowley (which is quite often), wants to start a "TS: Patrick Cowley vs. Giorgio Moroder" thread, which I feel is a more appropriate matchup than Russell. The teacher vs. the student, burning out vs. fading away, etc.

So what does ILM have to say about THIS particular matchup? Moroder's peaks (From Here to Eternity, "The Chase", "I Feel Love", No. 1 in Heaven, fucking inventing this shit) definitely beat Cowley's, but I can't help but wonder if Patrick hadn't died so young (wasn't he the first celebrity AIDS casualty?), what would he have accomplished? I mean, did Moroder do anything worth a shit in the 25 years since Cowley died?

― mikeohhh, 23. elokuuta 2007 0:43

I love the 12" and album mixes of I Feel Love, but Cowley's mix is an entirely different beast, more like a mixture of the original and an entirely new Patrick Cowley epic.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), 3. kesäkuuta 2004 21:04

Rocking the 15 minute Patrick Cowley megamix of "I Feel Love" as I type. So great.

― Soccer mom, hopeless and lost, in utter despair (Dan Peterson), 17. toukokuuta 2012 19:30

The Larry Levan mix of "Pull Up To The Bumper" is so good : http://youtu.be/U3RCPNKHBRs

Pull Up To The Bumper was in my top 5. Perfect song from one of the best albums of all time.

Wtf. Here's that vote split I was worried about :(

As I think I mentioned in the nominations thread, have never, ever, ever gotten the love people have for that specific remix.

the grace jones disco lp i have is muse, from 1979, and im kinda underwhelmed by it... pull up to the bumber such a classic tho

astonishing how Night Fever beat Stayin Alive by so many votes but glad to see it there anyway.

amazes me how the original *extended DJ mix* of Stayin Alive eluded me for so many years. didn't even know it existed until last year.

I voted another Grace Jones track into my top 10, but there's no way in hell it's gonna place here. Her first album Portolio is her most disco-ish.

Portfolio that is

if carrie lucas doesn't make it I just won't know what to say

YES. I voted for both the original and the Cowley mix, and I'm stoked Cowley's version made it. At this point I'm assuming the original will be a top fiver here.

Night Fever lost out due to my 'three per artist' limit. It is so slick, but other than the title phrase section I can't really love it.

The Pull Up To The Bumper rhythm track is extraordinary. I could listen to just that on an endless loop, but the track is so sparse that I kind of am. I had been uneasy about nominating it in case it wasn't really disco as such, but listening to the 12" it clearly is. It pulls the genre into some weird shapes.

25. Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out (1980)
373 points, 8 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-652069-1348057436-7241_zps8df6402c.jpeg

http://youtu.be/4rKJcA3I5Fg

Now "I'm Coming Out" might give IFL a run. One of the best singles of the 80s.

― Mark (MarkR), 23. kesäkuuta 2006 12:51

Who cares about the verses. The beginning has that guitar and just the 3 words of the title and it's plenty. Actually, my favorite part might just be 2 words--Diana's 'I'm coming' (with no 'Out').

― Carlos Keith (Buck_Wilde), 23. kesäkuuta 2006 13:18

I think part of what makes Diana Ross such an awesome figure for me is her place in gay history: in the mode of Judy Garland & Liza Minelli & Babs, Ross spends a fair bit of her career acknolwledging her core audience (sometimes gigantic-stage-winkingly as on "I'm Coming Out," sometimes with slightly more code in place a la "It's My Turn"). Donna Summer also knew which side her bread was buttered on, but doesn't seem to have had as much fun with it. I think Ross engaging her public like this (if you accept that that's what she was doing, which naturally you needn't) makes her one of those transcendent pop figures in the mode of Garland or Streisand: somebody whose material is both awesome on its own & rich as social text.

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), 23. kesäkuuta 2006 21:10

i actually don't know the difference between mixes, &c, but the first minute of this is such a teasing triumph, and the moment it kicks in as satisfying as most anything

― (oboe interlude) (schlump), 3. elokuuta 2011 14:31

I do think that "I'm coming out" by la Diana is one of the best dance tunes ever written. Best tunes ever written, period, but, hey, its purpose really is dancing. And I'm not even gay. But I just feel so good everytime I hear...

― Simon, 11. syyskuuta 2001 3:00

According to the Nile Rodgers autobiography, Diana Ross had no idea at the time that "coming out" had a gay meaning. But Nile did, of course.

all right. made some calculations and it's official: several major classics will be left out completely. which ones I have no idea

"I'm Coming Out" obviously fantastic, was a casualty of my one-track-per-artist rule but glad it could join us.

That whole Diana album is perfect. I ended up going with My Old Piano but would be surprised if that placed over this and Upside Down which I'm assuming is still to come. There's still around 10 Chic songs/Productions I can still see making it.

24. Blondie - Heart of Glass (1979)
384 points, 10 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-358367-1322679506_zpsda902670.jpeg

http://youtu.be/WGU_4-5RaxU (music video)
http://youtu.be/Jy8U1ExvunM (12" version)

i have nothing but love for "heart of glass".

― stirmonster, 11. maaliskuuta 2009 4:28

Heart of Glass is pretty much a perfect song, guys. That neat beat-missing trick is some good icing, too.

― a passing spacecadet, 11. maaliskuuta 2009 11:59

Clem Burke's drumming in "Heart of Glass" outro = best ever.

― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), 12. maaliskuuta 2009 17:59

When I was quite young I really really liked Blondie's "Heart of Glass" but didn't hear it that often. It got played on the radio and I was too slow to tape it off the radio and I cried and cried because I was convinced I'd never get to hear it again..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), 14. toukokuuta 2003 5:1

Is this a perfect song? It sounds that way to me. From the minute Debbie Oo oo oo ohs us into it it is apparent that you're in for something pretty special. Then the tune kicks in and we're off, flying on the wings of Harry.. The lyrics may be equivocal - he's a pain in the arse, but, sometimes, what I find is pleasing...love is so confusing - but the tune? Sunshine, or ice cream, or both together.

― Amiii Stewart (Amiii Stewart), 28. toukokuuta 2005 19:39

Great drumming, yes. Same on Atomic.

huh

I've never really been into to Blondie, and I never considered this to be disco, but now that I listen to it... I guess it is? Nice tune, but didn't vote for it, I guess I still feel it's out place in this poll, as irrational as that is.

when one hears the pre mike chapman version of "heart of glass" it's fairly apparent that it was a blatant disco bandwagon jump, but it's a glorious one. 100% disco.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS_6LLam0Qs

yeah one for the they weren't disco but they went disco s/d thread. there's a disco ball at the start of the video and suchlike..

is there any hope that machine's "there but for the grace of god go i" polled?

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be much room left for the underground monsters, but I deeply hope that one polls highly. It was near the top of my ballot.

It must place. Doesn't even have a wikipedia entry though ffs.

i missed the actual polling for this (as I seem to do w/ every ILM poll, since I tend to go away from the board for weeks/months at a time) but yeah that one would make my top 3 easily.

also did the poll allow slow jams/ballads from disco acts (which are more just R&B than "disco" I guess) because:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HeqAqmsBIo

machine probably made it and Darnell is already represented twice (and thank god he is). I'm more worried about shalamar. since no one agrees what is their greatest song top 20 seems unlikely.

Worried about Sylvester & MFSB as well as Shalamar re: vote-splitting. I guess Cerrone or Hot Chocolate are the last Euro-ish things to have a chance of placing.

Also,

It's pretty amazing. I like starting it in the middle where it's just the Cowley part so you can't even tell it's I Feel Love at first.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), 19. joulukuuta 2003 3:46

is excellent advice.

no chance of You To Me Are Everything by The Real Thing as this stage i'm guessing.

yeah, no more room for the Brits I presume. Sylvester probably wasn't hurt by vote-splitting, his key song is pretty obvious isn't it?

I fear for Manilow at this point

Sylvester probably wasn't hurt by vote-splitting, his key song is pretty obvious isn't it?

Not really. I voted for "Over and Over," which came in second in djhistory.com's poll of the 25 greatest disco tracks ever.

Some huge hits showing up. I never found the time to vote so I can't complain, but I hope people love "More, More, More" as much as I do.

23. Chic - Everybody Dance (1977)
395 points, 9 votes, one 1st place vote.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/chic-everybody-dance-atlantic-2_zpsa87aa7a9.jpg

http://youtu.be/czvtXjj4tqk

"Everybody Dance" might be my favorite song ever.

― djdee2005, 21. huhtikuuta 2004 6:28

i love the 'doo doo doo doo' hook on "Everybody Dance" so much

― some dude, 24. elokuuta 2012 4:03

Think I might have to go for Everybody Dance, that bassline is unbeatable.

― Kitchen Person, 20. elokuuta 2012 6:40

So faultless it's hard to think of anything to say about it.

xp Re: I'm Coming Out, I love this story I got from Nile Rodgers:

Did Diana know I’m Coming Out was a gay song?
No, of course not! She brought it up and we denied it. The last thing I want to do is lie to my artist but it was so brilliant. I always say I’m hired to give you the record you want, not the one that I want — even if you don’t know this is the record you want. I’m Coming Out happened as an accident. In the course of interviewing Diana we never once said, well Diana, how do you feel about being part of that gay, diva, idol-worship culture? But when I went out to this transvestite club one night, The Gilded Grape, I’m at the urinal and there are three of four Diana Rosses around me. I kept thinking, this is some message. The next day I told Bernard, man, you won’t believe what happened last night. I explained it in detail and we’d laugh and he’d say, great let’s write that. It’s a hysterical story and it makes sense.

Nile Rodgers has a wonderful story about the reaction that an acetate of Everybody Dance got in a New York club. Go to the last 4 paras on this page - http://www.waxpoetics.com/features/articles/the-hitmaker-part-1- then open the second page for the end of the story.

and the Chic onslaught begins

mike, thanks for the link. that is great. nile <3

should probably post this on the actual Chic thread, but I don't think I've ever been as happy since early childhood as I was this summer when I saw Chic live.

I saw Chic at The Forum in June. It was a birthday treat for my sister. Amazingly enough, she was... oh, hang on, I'll save this story until the track in question places (which it most surely will).

Did Diana know I’m Coming Out was a gay song?
No, of course not! She brought it up and we denied it.

This would contradict what Mike T-Diva mentioned about Rodgers' autobiography though, that he said Ross didn't even know "coming out" had a gay connotation... I thought that sounded kinda unlikely; maybe your average Joe wouldn't have known what "come out" means back then, but for someone who worked in the music business and was doing disco music at the time, it seems a bit weird she would've been totally ignorant of the term.

Also, I could easily imagine Ross knew it was a gay song, but for whatever reason she let Rodgers and Edwards think they'd pulled a prank on her.

I was there Matt...I think I know how your story ends! How did you find Nicky Siano's set beforehand?

xpost Well, I might have misremembered - I don't have the NR autobiog to hand - but happy to yield to DL's first hand account!

Dwight: Nicky Siano's set would have been fine (if a tad predictable), if his sound system hadn't been so screwed. It looked as if he wasn't too happy with it either. Especially annoying, as the previous DJs had used separate kit, which sounded perfectly OK. Perhaps that why Siano's reverted to obvious choices, in a bid to rescue the floor.