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

BEST bassline

Ok 2nd best, m. matos is correct.

the churning guitar, the 4 note synth lead, the vocals, the handclaps... really a perfect record all around.
makes me wonder whether "when you touch me" will place

I went for 'when you touch me'

12. Yvonne Elliman - If I Can't Have You (1977)
502 points, 14 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-2686776-1296567367_zps93e69c37.jpeg

http://youtu.be/y_Hp6kTOQfQ

Best song on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), 30. joulukuuta 2004 8:16

There's a couple of moments in "If I Can't Have You" where the strings and "ahh-ahh-ahhs" pre-figure the verses when a huge mock-heroic french fuckin' horn sweeps (like an vexed valkyrie exhorting apocalypse) that still gives me the fuck-yeahs!

Classic, obviously.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), 30. joulukuuta 2004 18:55

love love love yvonne's fakeout on the chorus just before the orchestra jumps in on the one of the next bar.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), 31. joulukuuta 2004 7:25

i like how breezy this song is. for a heatbreak song it's pretty painless.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), 29. kesäkuuta 2005 1:21

Yeah, it's like she's getting ready to go out, putting on her best stuff, singing about how she won't ever be with anyone but him. Maybe she's manic?

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), 29. kesäkuuta 2005 1:22

This one and the other ones on Side A of SNL seem a bit magical to me in that the structures of the songs seem seemless -- there is a chorus, and a verse, and a little instrumental part, but I never know which is which, and I don't care, since the production is like a silk pillow.

― 57 7th (calstars), 27. heinäkuuta 2005 21:02

This song is better than all your grandmother's 78 records. Nominate this one for "best song ever".

― Where's All The Hippies? Fuck off! (Bimble), 3. heinäkuuta 2009 14:10

I don't know if I could have fulfilled Bimble's request for a 3000 pg. essay on the subject matter but damn this really is one of my favorite songs of all time. <3

― ENBB, 12. elokuuta 2009 21:29

So perfect, oh man is this a gorgeous record.

I forgot that one. Hurts so good.

I wrote this one off, figured nobody shared my enthusiasm. So glad I was wrong.

And yes, Heartbeat A++++ classic

My favorite of the period Gibb Bros work-for-hire songs.

"Emotion" by Samantha Sang also a good one that wasn't nominated

Yvonne Elliman previously was Eric Clapton's backup singer and occasional duet partner. Didn't think anyone even remotely related to EC would get any love from ILMers.

this is the disco poll, it's ILM Switzerland

hoping Boogie Switzerland places today

Everything about this track is perfect. Such a great instrumental arrangement and her singing is of course stellar.

11. Diana Ross - Upside Down (1980)
504 points, 13 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-202123-1273968833_zps44006a6c.jpeg

http://youtu.be/DvR9rOCiMrE

I'm not of the opinion that bad catalog items negate or diminish good ones - Diana Ross could release a triple-CD of bathtub farts & she'd still have "Love Child" & "Someday We'll Be Together" & "I Hear a Symphony" and "Upside Down" & "I'm Coming Out" & "It's My Turn" & "Come See About Me" & "You Can't Hurry Love" & "My World Is Empty Without You" & "Back In My Arms Again" & the theme from Mahogany which pretty much defines the 70s all by its lonesome & the definitive version of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" & a debut album consisting mainly of Ashford & Simpson tunes penned in their prime

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), 23. kesäkuuta 2006 15:27

"i feel love" may be the blueprint for techno, but "upside down" might be the blueprint for the subversive pop song. (purely in terms of the way the song is constructed)

― breakfast pants (disco stu), 24. kesäkuuta 2006 23:11

it's the blueprint for the neptunes sound. i swear.

― the fuckablity of late picasso (vahid), 24. kesäkuuta 2006 23:12

"I'm Coming Up" and "Upside Down" from the Diana album from 1980 are classic.. that was a good band lineup. Aside from Supremes, never really gotten won over by too much else by her immense discography.

― donut christ (donut), 29. joulukuuta 2004 21:28

I'm busy tonight, so that's it for today. I'll try to post the full top 10 tomorrow.

I'm not going to speculate on the top 10 other than to say I deeply hope "Love Hangover" is part of it.

a good way to say fuck you to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

"I've got the sweetest fuck you, I don't want to get over."

there are literally over 100 songs that could be in the top 10

What I can say about the top 10 is that each tune there is an undeniable disco classic; I doubt people will be disappointed, except for the tunes that didn't make it to the top 100 at all.

"heartbeat" is like the platonic ideal of "fun" and "sexy"

my money is on "go bang" for the top ten but absolutely no idea what else will show up

bummed to have missed out on the whole nomming/voting part of this poll, but excellent results regardless. "heartbeat" is just amazing, i've always loved it but i didn't know it had the recognition to make it all the way to #13. also very stoked to see dinosaur and cerrone in the top 20

top 10 predictions

I Feel Love, Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough, You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), Don't Leave Me This Way, Knock on Wood, Midnight Love Affair, Disco Inferno, The Glow of Love, Hills of Katmandu, More Bounce to the Ounce

i voted for most of these anyway so we'll see

forgot disco duck

No way does "Love Hangover" fail to make the top 100. I'd only have picked 4-5 of that list as bankers but I haven't really been keeping track of what's yet to place.

love hangover should be top-5, easy!

let the music play, just be good to me (these two not disco enough perhaps?), lowdown (sort of given up on this one long ago but still), at least two more sister sledge singles (NOT we are family), two more pioneering Chic tracks, fucking more more more, a shalamar dark horse, the k.c. and boney m masterpieces, the inevitable one of these nights, the brilliant early madonna...

this thing leaves me clueless but i'm sure Tuomas is right and everything that placed is banging. kudos to the man by the way, great job all the way through.

Guessing "Born To Be Alive"'s out of the running; fingers crossed for "There But For The Grace Of God Go I" but my sense of what will place where is a bit confused after "Good Times" turned up at #20.

I'm hoping there's some First Choice in the top 10. Rather surprised they haven't shown up yet, but hopefully that means they've got at least one track way up there. I can't imagine them not placing at all out of 100 tracks, that would be tragic.

ha i just found out hills of katmandu already placed at #82. le freak will be a top fiver, i totally forgot about it. and no kool & the gang on the top 100 is pretty weird, i wonder if ladies' night or celebration still have some chance of placing.

really would be a shame if we had a top 100 w/ no bohannon

we could do a bonus sound of songs excluded from the top 100...

bonus "R"ound

If 'this time baby' doesn't place then I give up.

10. Chic - Le Freak (1978)
531 points, 13 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-1915761-1286789578_zps7ca6330e.jpeg

http://youtu.be/h1qQ1SKNlgY (music video)
http://youtu.be/DbzooE7jtiE (12" version)

One, two, awwwww FREAK OUT

― if I don't see more dissent, I'm going to have to check myself in (Matos W.K.), 10. syyskuuta 2009 19:13

even the snares on 'le freak' are a bunch of overdubbed handclaps, its a party in yr stereo

― deej, 1. heinäkuuta 2007 22:32

Le Freak rocked my world.

― Orbit (Orbit), 21. huhtikuuta 2004 4:41

just a memory of being 14 at a 'disco' getting down to le freak and loving it,
before the rot set in and boys had to like only punk/new wave or endure homophobic abuse

― Dr X O'Skeleton, 4. lokakuuta 2008 14:27

It took me a very long time before I could accept Le Freak for what it was, rather than a whole enterprise of very negative childhood associations (something I still struggle with today). Its interesting to consider this in light of how my love of Chic has been made possible by a process of outgrowing the white heterosexual-white-male perspective that I was subject to until somewhat kind of recently (which has an incredibly pervasive influence on taste, but also in what is expected of you, and what is acceptable).

― EDB, 25. marraskuuta 2010 0:07

Allegedly written when they couldn't get into Studio 54. The original lyrics were "aaahhh... FUYCK OFF!!!". I wonder how the smiley smiley ladies who fronted the band would have sang that? Probably with smiles. And aplomb. Lots of aplomb. Buckets of aplomb

― Amiii Stewart (Amiii Stewart), 25. toukokuuta 2005 13:20

That video is fantastic, particularly the bits where he's playing Le Freak in slow motion and revealing all these ridiculously subtle hidden notes

This guy is basically the greatest musician ever

― Bad Fucking Dowie (Sgt. Biscuits), 31. tammikuuta 2011 1:15

TOO LOW

I thought this was going to miss out, very surprised to see it beat Good Times.

At least 2 more Chic Organisation to show up right?

"I want your love" and "lost in music" surely.

9. Diana Ross - Love Hangover (1976)
607 points, 16 votes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-2588545-1292164358_zps51755141.jpeg

http://youtu.be/niEYaeYa72U

And the one sublime ending I do remember, now I come to think of it was some unknown chicago loft-party dj finishing up with "Love Hangover". I could just about have swooned. So much emotion, it was like wallowing in custard.

― Jacob, 14. marraskuuta 2002 14:33

love hangover - diana ross is a stone cold classic

― H (Heruy), 19. heinäkuuta 2003 20:14

I've played out the rest of what was once my second or third favorite song, pretty much, but that electric-piano-and-strings, descending-chords opening (that ten or so seconds before she starts moaning) captures the sleek, urban ennui side of disco as good as anything ever, in my book.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), 12. syyskuuta 2003 22:03

disco that sounds like "love hangover": CLASSIC!
disco that sounds like "disco duck": DUD!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), 17. helmikuuta 2005 3:53

The little guitar lick in the disco second half of Love Hangover is ALL TIME.

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), 24. heinäkuuta 2013 22:40

Also, the opening flourish is so subtly jaded and discontent.

― Boven is het stil (Eric H.), 24. heinäkuuta 2013 22:44

Wow. Love Hangover is amazing; I cannot believe I've never heard it before.

― Ismael Klata, 24. heinäkuuta 2013 23:28

My no.4. So glad I found it.

This thread has infiltrated my thought so much that I dreamed about it last night. Haxan Cloak at #7, my guarantee.

and your first teacher at no.6

"Le Freak" is the only big Chic Organisation tune which leaves me cold - but hey, "Love Hangover" makes everything all right again.

I've enjoyed this poll but if There But For the Grace of God doesn't place in the Top 100 I'm burning it to the ground.

If all the people worried about Machine voted for it then it should be top five.

I default to the Associates version of "Love Hangover"; it's so glossily queasy.

Looks like some of you will disappointed and some pleasantly surprised by the remainder of the top 10.

(x-post)