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

For the longest time, my only exposure to "Rock Me Baby" was the Finnish cover version, which didn't do a straight Finnish translation of the chorus but changed it to the phonetically similar "Rokkibeibi" ("rock'n'roll baby"). It was only 10 years or so ago when I found out it wasn't an original composition by the Finnish band.

Tbf it's better than Kung Fu Taistelee.

Haha, I guess it is! But not as good as "Jeesus Kristus", the best Finnish disco cover:

http://open.spotify.com/track/3kbueEzLyW9fXwW94qkBk9

love "rock your baby" but "i get lifted" had better come in higher

Never liked Rock Your Baby. My in-laws though, it's their song, and I feel somehow quite bad about that.

Risco connection "ain't no stopping is now" is so great, is the rest of the Risco Connection lp anywhere near as good?

I can't imagine hearing the Marvin record in an actual disco, it seems much too vague to work on a dancefloor?

"Rock Your Baby" is snoozytime to me.

"Got To Give It Up" is the extreme opposite.

Agreed. Never got the love for "Rock Your Baby."

17. Donna Summer - Love to Love You Baby (1975)
465 points, 12 points.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/donna-summer-love-to-love-you-baby_zpse7b1c344.jpg

http://youtu.be/VRI1yzn2ugA

Ooooh.... 'Love To Love You, Baby' by Donna Summer. More orgasmotronic than erection section. Maybe that's just me...

― Johnathan, 25. kesäkuuta 2001 3:00

what can one say that hasn't been said? the pouting melodies interlock and pile, the beat throbs, the voice shifts from pure air to laughs to pants for over 16 entrancing minutes.

― sund4r subramanian, 19. elokuuta 2001 3:00

And Giorgio Moroder's hypnotic hardcore trance synth line in Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby" ruuuulzzz with even more of an iron fist in a velvet jones.

― Neudonym, 4. huhtikuuta 2003 18:42

Actually, Music only lived during "Love to love you, baby" by Donna Summer in 1975. It died after the song was finished recording.

― donut bitch (donut), 14. toukokuuta 2004 6:0

This song had it ALL. A bassline that swaggered through the song, Donna's sublime vocals floating over the top and...the rest... is history. Very famous history, and rightly so. Donna's finest moment, as far as I'm concerned. The orgasm that granted the song its notoriety ties it all together. Everything builds slowly, slowing a little here, speeding up there and then, halfway through, it all just flows. Evidence that women really have more fun? Possibly. Donna certainly seems to.

Imagine the male equivalent...builds up, builds up, builds up, pulls a slightly odd face, groans a bit, ends. That's your lot.

Quite why this song didn't get 9870 more points is beyond me. The 17 minute version is a Thing Of Cosmic Splendour.

― Amiii Stewart (Amiii Stewart), 17. toukokuuta 2005 15:37

17-minute Love to Love You is so all-time awesome, such a groundbreaking recording

― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), 17. toukokuuta 2012 19:00

LOL at the Amiii Stewart commentary above. TS: Love to Love You Baby vs. Ravel's Bolero.

16. Dinosaur - Kiss Me Again (1978)
480 points, 10 votes, two 1st place votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-388115-1106743423_zpsc60d8184.jpg

http://youtu.be/6O92UBBaiI4

as for his disco moments - the 13 minute russell mix of 'kiss me again' - NOT the version on disco (not disco) - is possibly thee greatest dance record of all time.

― stirmonster, 4. maaliskuuta 2004 8:39

I walked around after a few tonight with "Kiss Me Again" blasting in my ears and it was glorious. It always is glorious, but it made me play all AR music once I was home and , goddamn, he's beautiful.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), 24. kesäkuuta 2004 4:48

Huh. I heard the World of Echo and other dreamy dub cello stuff first and thought it was great. Then I heard Kiss Me Again, Is It All Over My Face, and Tell You (Today) and really nothing tops those for me.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), 19. elokuuta 2005 1:57

I didn't really "get" the whole arthur russell thing until a few months ago, when I was walking home late one night and listening to the optimo psyche-out mix, and the version of "kiss me again" that dan's referring to came on. it was a revelatory moment.

― spruce bruce (haitch), 19. elokuuta 2005 7:09

About that guitar sound -- the ju-ju and highlife connections are possible but to me it sounds like a downtown-y (i.e. raw and angular a la Arto Lindsay, et.al) style of disco rhythm guitar playing. Am I stating the obvious? This kind of playing has just always sounded New York to me.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), 19. elokuuta 2005 17:30

I always loved how "Kiss Me Again" seemed to be at least partially striving to sound like a bunch of musicians just throwing down in a room (although of course it's FAR more intricately arranged than that - I re-ripped it to post on my blog a few weeks ago and the multitracking on the flipside in particular is magnificently well-done)

― jamescobo, 21. maaliskuuta 2008 18:03

cooooooool, i was worried we weren't going to see that since it's obviously all MASSIVE CLASSICS from this point on. (for which reason 'rock your baby' surprises me a bit, a nice enough track but i've never thought of it as anything special.)

Great groove on this one.

"Oh baby, is this the woman I want to be?"

cooooooool

OTM (tho I didn't vote for that one; I'll accept it in the "Wheel Me Out" slot)

15. Earth, Wind & Fire - September (1978)
480 points, 11 votes, one 1st place vote.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-969718-1272902137_zpsab357401.jpeg

http://youtu.be/Gs069dndIYk

September is most fun at a wedding.

― Mark, 14. joulukuuta 2009 8:32

yeah, was the year that amongst giants, Chic ran away with it, but over time, Earth, Wind & Fire - September

― PappaWheelie V, 13. helmikuuta 2009 3:30

I voted "September." This marks the first time what I've voted for on ILX actually won.

― Nurse Detrius (Eric H.), 14. helmikuuta 2009 3:09

I often wonder what had happened after a song has faded out. Had the musicians performed an alternate, more solid ending, and decided against it? Did the musicians trail off at their own rate, knowing it was going to be faded and that it wouldn't matter what they did once they'd played enough repeated choruses? Did the musicians start doing funny things for each other in the end, knowing no-one would hear them? There could be an album of good other-endings called "What Really Happened".

― Pangolino (ricki spaghetti), 7. lokakuuta 2004 5:49

As far as I'm concerned, Earth Wind & Fire are still performing "September".

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), 7. lokakuuta 2004 6:04

Her name was Lola...she was a showgirl, with yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to...
No just kidding... my theme song would haavvveee toooo beee........
"September" by Earth Wind and Fire

Cheers!

― Lola Falana, 28. kesäkuuta 2003 9:34

Gosh, I wasn't expecting this. Listening to EW&F in context of this poll actually diminished them for me, not sure why but they seemed less impactful than a lot of other acts maybe. Good songs though.

is "September" the best song recorded exclusively for a comp?

It's also the best song.

Probably.

(x-post, or maybe not?)

not crazy about GTGIU but the others in this run rule my world

EW&F seem really buttoned up by comparison to a lot of these other artists. Watching the video helps a lot because it reminds you that there are people behind the music. This is one of those tracks that is almost robotic in its professionalism.

is "September" the best song recorded exclusively for a comp?

Donna Summer has one (coming up?) that may qualify as a contender

when my fiancee Eric and I get married, our dance will be to "September."

14. Cerrone - Supernature (1977)
481 points, 10 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-44963-1361889802-8497_zpsf613ab97.jpeg

http://youtu.be/QgGK4qBTwpw (music video)
http://youtu.be/aTWbvxDmiDs (12" version)

Cerrone 'Supernature' vs Houllebecq 'Atomised'

"The potions that we made/ touched the creatures down below..." - and that came out in 1976!

― dave q, 14. helmikuuta 2003 18:56

The specific aspect about Supernature that I like is the spacey feel to it. It feels like I'm in a journey through space whenever I hear it. Maybe it's because of the trancey synthline in the background (not the main one) and the chilling vocal too.

― dan138zig (Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr), 13. kesäkuuta 2009 10:22

Less glibly, there's a big freaks-like-us anti-social undercurrent in some disco - Cerrone's "Supernature" for instance, with its night- spawned successor race of human/animal crossbreeds. Not surprising, considering its roots.

― Tom, 29. huhtikuuta 2002 3:00

I think "Supernature" must have the oddest subject any disco hit has ever had? I can't imagine why Cerrone decided he should do a disco tune about the revenge of genetically manipulated animals on the humankind, but I'm glad he did!

The video to the tune is also pretty creepy in all its cheapness... Weirdly, I find the most disturbing part to be those short clips of Cerrone drumming in the desert; he has such a distressed expression there.

That sleeve is quite something. This was a last-minute cut from my ballot, still awesome tho.

*puts youtube, cerrone supernature on to-do list*

This isn't the Cerrone I voted for, but it'll do; afaict this guy was a Disco Midas.

Ha it took me forever to find out which album had "the ewf song that goes 'i-ee-i' ".

Hooray for Cerrone! I just love this whole album so much (Love in C Minor and The Golden Touch are brilliant too) I heard Supernature on Radio 2 a couple of months ago and it was really surreal. He had three songs on my list, I'd kind of given up on expecting him to place but so happy he did.

xps Supernature positively sane compared to crafting a disco epic about Grigori Rasputin

Just going back to Earth, Wind & Fire. I think these days they are such an underrated band. As well as the obviously classic hits they were a great albums band too. Spirit, That's the Way of the World, Earth, Wind & Fire, All n All and I Am are all such fantastic albums.

I get the complaint that some find EW&F too glossy but ... um ... I don't know how to tell you guys this, but ... this is a disco poll.

Is there such a thing as lo-fi, distortion-heavy disco?

Under my garage.

maybe some Ze stuff could qualify as lo-fi, distortion-heavy disco?

my #1 has yet to place and i think (hope) it will and it is def more low-fi than most of the last 20 to show up

I am cautiously, but increasingly, optimistic that my Number One will be THE Number One.

I love what Christgau said about EW&F's greatest hits:

all the passion and resonance of black music tradition are blended into a concoction slicker and more sumptuous than any white counterpart since Glenn Miller

16. Dinosaur - Kiss Me Again (1978)

YES! Was starting to get a bit worried about this, thought its lack of general availability might be an issue...

"Supernature" also high on my ballot.

Couldn't gaf about EWF, but hey.

More for me.

if i had got it together to vote, "kiss me again" would have been my no. 1

Somewhat bizarrely I got the Supernature album a couple of months back when we were clearing out the personal effects of my wife's deceased 76-year old aunt. Also got the Wurzels' Combine Harvester, guessing that's probably not going to show up...

At some point I tried to listen to all the Cerrone albums in order, but I gave up somewhere around Cerrone X. III and IV (and maybe Africanism) are the only essential ones imo.

if i had got it together to vote, "kiss me again" would have been my no. 1

― stirmonster, Monday, December 16, 2013 6:19 PM (19 minutes ago)

i think i have you to thank for first hearing "kiss me again"

i just hung my copy of the red vinyl 12" on my wall last week that he autographed for me :D

he = nicky siano, not stirmonster, ha

Argh... forgot Cerrone covers were NSFW. So much for watching this list at work now