There was once an indelible tension between rock and disco, culminating in a so-called “disco demolition” night in 1979 that devolved into a riot. As the decades have rolled past, however, much of ’70s music has become playlisted into one big-tent genre.
That’s actually how it played on mainstream radio back then, too. Listeners hadn’t yet been herded into “classic rock” and “R&B” or “dance” silos. In Billboard‘s year-ending list of best-selling songs for 1975, the Bee Gees‘ “Jive Talkin'” finished at No. 12 while the Eagles‘ “Best of My Love” was No. 13. A year later, the Miracles’ “Love Machine” sat one spot above Paul Simon‘s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.”
Even the most committed of rock music lovers ended up hearing plenty of disco songs – and, in time, many came to appreciate their booty-shaking sense of abandon. Whether you were around for the polyester ball or not, disco songs can be undeniably infectious.
READ MORE: The Very Best Disco Classic Rock Songs
Eventually, even classic rock bands began adding elements of disco into their tried-and-true approach – admittedly, to varying degrees of success – but as a new decade dawned, the genre’s popularity began to fade. Key elements of the disco sound continued to pop up for another decade or so (credit work by Nile Rodgers of Chic after a shift to the producer’s chair) before disco was largely relegated to history.
Well, history and retro dance nights. The following list of Top 10 Disco Songs should be requested at every one of them.
No. 10. The Miracles, “Love Machine”
From: City of Angels (1975)
With Smokey Robinson gone, Motown’s Billy Griffin-led Miracles took a turn for the salacious. It made for a dance sensation – just don’t listen too closely. “To turn me on, just set my dial,” Griffin growls, “and let me love you a little while.” An inflamed beau comparing his stamina to that of, well, an electronic device? This is a priceless curio from a time when the music was as flammably over-the-top as the fabrics, but also a very long way from “Shop Around.” And it’s only “Part 1.”
No. 9. Brick, “Dazz”
From: Good High (1976)
Leave it to the ’70s to combine jazz and disco. The result, as Brick, so deftly reminds in a champagne glass-shattering falsetto, is “Dazz.” Instantly forgettable lyrics concerning your booty and shaking couldn’t keep this convulsive, ‘fro-shiveringly funky track from reaching No. 3 on the pop charts, and going No. 1 R&B. Similarly, you might have come this far thinking that Jethro Tull was the only band with the nerve to chart a pop song featuring a flute. You would be wrong. Dude, lead singer Jimmy Brown rocks that stick.
No. 8. Labelle, “Lady Marmalade”
From: Nightbirds (1974)
They appeared in ersatz space outfits while singing about the world’s oldest profession. Nevertheless, “Lady Marmalade” would become the biggest hit in a two-year span for Labelle. Later remade for the soundtrack of 2001’s Moulin Rouge, the song’s familiar refrain of “voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir” translates into “do you want to sleep with me, this evening?” So, it allowed at least two generations of goofball lotharios-in-the-making to impress the ladies with a rudimentary knowledge of dirty French.
No. 7. ABBA, “Take a Chance On Me”
From: The Album (1977)
“Take a Chance On Me” somehow found a way to feel both utterly delirious and somewhat desperate. (Same with a brown Trans Am!) This single didn’t top the charts like Abba’s ubiquitous “Dancing Queen,” though it actually sold more copies. Perhaps inadvertently, “Take a Chance On Me” also set the stage for the more sedentary lifestyle that followed for now-aging polyester night people: “We could go dancing,” our shimmering Swedes sing, then: “We could go walking.” What the heck, let’s just stay right here on the couch.
No. 6. Rose Royce, “Car Wash”
From: Car Wash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1976)
By brilliantly blending funk and pop, vocalist Gwen Dickey and Co. helped set the stage for later crossover successes like Michael Jackson‘s Off the Wall. The central theme about the car wash (“always cool, and the boss don’t mind sometimes if you act a fool“) was essentially what every current cube-farm burnout hoped their own job was going to be. Instead, there’s the cold comfort of this timeless truism: “You might not ever get rich but, let me tell ya, it’s better than digging a ditch.”
No. 5. Blondie, “Heart of Glass”
From: Parallel Lines (1978)
Written by Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein, “Heart of Glass” laid around for years. (They referred to it simply as the Disco Song.) When finally released, Blondie zoomed to the top of the charts. An accompanying video was shot at the infamous Studio 54, and Harry exudes glassy-eyed detachment under a toss-off hairdo. (Maybe that was drug-induced, but more likely an embedded big-city disdain for you and every loser just like you.) They set the stage for the pasty retro-obsessed nihilism of the decade to follow.
No. 4. Love Unlimited Orchestra, “Love’s Theme”
From: Under the Influence of … Love Unlimited (1973)
This instrumental track lumbered to No. 1 in 1974, creating the disco template along the way: “Love’s Theme” is somehow danceable but at the same time wide-lapel mellow. Then there’s that thunderous clackety-clack riff, soon to become a key element in every disco maven’s toolbox. Finally, the mahogany-voiced Barry White conducts a time-specific after-school-special type orchestration that sparks instant nostalgia. Rarely has a band’s name sounded so much like its biggest hit single.
No. 3. Heatwave, “The Grooveline”
From: Central Heating (1978)
Heatwave already reached platinum sales with 1977’s “Boogie Nights,” which had boogie right there in the title. But perfectly named “The Grooveline” sold a million copies too – and time has shown that grooving is far preferable to any boogie. This song also gave the world that now-familiar hooah-hooah dance-floor call. Heatwave may have come and gone, but they’re never far away. Not as long as there is somebody, somewhere, who hoot-owls their way through a liquor-fueled hip-bumping retro night.
No. 2. Chic, “Good Times”
From: Risque (1979)
Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were the Babyfaces of their shag-carpeted day, talented musicians with a golden touch at producing. This was the second No. 1 (topping both the pop and R&B lists) for Chic, and it went on to become perhaps the most sampled song in hip-hop — starting with “Rapper’s Delight,” from later that same year. Meanwhile, the lyrics are a fun combination of the age-old (with references to Great Depression songs) and the hilariously contemporary: Clams on the half shell – and rollerskates. Rollerskates!
No. 1. Bee Gees, “Jive Talkin'”
From: Main Course (1975)
Now indelibly associated with Saturday Night Fever, “Jive Talkin'” was actually the Bee Gees’ big comeback after a stint of chart inactivity following 1971’s “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” John Travolta‘s film, with its zeitgeist/paint can-swinging cultural reverberations, was still two years away. This sleek Arif Mardin-helmed groover outshines all of what followed, starting with its memorable guitar riff – said to be an approximation of the sound cars make crossing the Biscayne Bay bridge into Miami.
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Gallery Credit: UCR Staff
