Sunday, August 24, 2014

The Disco Ten





1) "Upside Down -- Diana Ross.
2) "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" -- Michael Jackson. 
3)  "Heart of Glass" -- Blondie
4) "Love Hangover" -- Diana Ross. 
5) "Love to Love You Baby" -- Donna Summer.
6) "We Are Family" -- Sister Sledge
7) "Lead Me On"  -- Maxine Nightingale
8) "Rock The Boat (Don't Tip The Boat Over)," Hues Corporation. 
9) "Enough is Enough" Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer.
10) "I Love The Night Life" -- Alicia Bridges



Springing from the discotheques of the sixties, disco took hold in the seventies and went on to birth dance music.

It took hold in the seventies and was so popular that everyone began doing disco songs: the Rolling Stones, Cher, Wings, Rod Stewart, Ethel Merman, David Bowie, ELO, Olivia Newton-John, Barry Manilow and many more.

Disco had many chart successes but the only artist to come to fame from the genre was Donna Summer who explored disco and took it as far as anyone could.  Two of her biggest hits make our list.

Diana Ross tops the list.  And lands another in the top ten.

Not a surprise.  The artist who shot to fame in the sixties was experimenting with disco elements as early as the sixties (The Supremes "You Keep Me Hanging On').  Diana would score other disco classics with "The Boss," "I'm Coming Out," "Your Love Is So Good For Me," "It's My House," "Once In The Morning," "I Ain't Been Licked," "No One Gets The Prize" and more.  The two on our list above both stormed to number one the Hot 100.  As a true artist moved into the genre and demonstrated what could still be done with the genre. 

Like Diana -- and to a lesser degree Blondie, Barbra Streisand was among the established artists who began recording disco.  She hit with the theme to her film The Main Event and followed that up with the monster hit on our list, her duet with Donna Summer which spent nine weeks at number one on the Hot 100.  

The Hues Corporation had their moment in time with their classic "Rock The Boat" while "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" was only the first of three disco hits he'd have in 1979 and, in 1982, he'd find even greater success as he moved over to dance music but we'd argue this song and "Rock With You" are the two finest Jackson ever recorded and demonstrated the true range of his talent better than anything he released before 1979.