Okay, so disco was not everyone’s cup of tea. Yet, some 30 or so years after its demise, and however much maligned, people still get up and dance to the music. Disco was most certainly a fad, the styles were awful (yet not as awful as some of the crap in the ’80s… remember parachute pants?) and was really never meant to stand the course of time. Although, however despised by some, much of the pop, hip/hop, electronica, and other forms of dance music that followed do owe a debt of gratitude to disco. Here are some of the better tunes to come out of the era that ran from approximately 1974 to 1980. Be sure to mention your favorites in the comments. Better yet, tell us what you think the top 3 Disco songs are and it may end up on a future list!
This may be the first in what was called the “Nu-Disco,” ushering in a more electronic sound. It was also one of the first to use the Moog Vocoder voice effect. The clip above is not featuring the band as they were a studio band – but the dancers are so awful it has to be seen to be believed. The best part: when the lady in pink does the robot at 02:11. here is a live version – almost worse than the above! Some consider this song to be the last disco number 1 hit in the US.
The band’s first of five #1 singles. Fun, infectious chorus of “do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight.” And the cool opening features a recorded guitar solo at double speed over a normal-speed guitar line in the background.
A disco classic. Lots of heavy bass, big horns and the vocals are actually really phenomenal, especially when she goes into the rapid singing.
Originally released by the group in ’76, the song became a huge hit with the release of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It’s the song that Travolta does his dance solo to in the film – as you can see above.
A great funk/disco fusion, this is one of the band’s best, before Lionel Ritchie became all sappy and sentimental. Yes, she is indeed a “brick howwwse.”
This great song from a great band helped usher in the New Wave sound and was criticized for pandering to the disco set. It was a huge crossover hit and propelled the band into stardom. The video, by the way, was shot at the legendary Studio 54 disco in New York.
This early R&B/disco tune has led to many a midnight rendezvous. Like many of Mr. White’s tunes, it’s just damn sex on vinyl, only this one is his most danceable hit.
From Jackson’s first solo album, Off The Wall, this pure dance pop tune was the first of many #1 singles, before he got really freaky weird.
This massive hit became the band’s biggest song, among their huge list of hits. It is still hugely popular today, especially since it was prominently featured in the musical “Mama Mia.”
This anthem made the Village People one of the disco era’s most successful groups. Sure, there’s the whole gay thing, but for those less homophobic, you’ll still find crowds doing the YMCA thing on the dance floors at weddings everywhere.
Speaking of wedding songs…This song came out towards the end of the disco era, yet is still a favorite of wedding DJs. Kylie Minogue covered it in the ’90s and looked much hotter doing it than Kool.
Wild Cherry was a relatively unknown rock band playing in the mid-’70s, when a black audience member yelled, “Play some funky music, white boy.” The song hit #1 and sold a couple million copies, but was the band’s only hit.
Are you ready? This song won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for best original song. Really. It’s the most notable fact from the painful disco comedy “Thank God It’s Friday,” (starring Jeff Goldblum and Debra Winger). Donna Summer, already a disco diva, confirmed her status with this tune.
Probably one of the most famous disco tunes of all time, this song became an anthem for female empowerment and Gaynor’s only real hit. Covered by Cake, The Puppini Sisters and dozens of others, it remains a classic.
The film “Saturday Night Fever” truly kicked off the world’s obsession with disco, and this song kicked off the movie. Still enormously popular, this is a great song, no matter what your taste, it’s hard to dislike.
Contributor: Steeveedee
Boogied guns on the list, g – no Miles Rationis though?
Yayy I love these songs!
Since I got a laptop I have pretty much downloaded every son I’ve ever wanted and got extremely bored when I found I could think of nothing else to download and resorted to downloading entire soundtracks of Disney films and musicals I loved as a kid (Oliver!, Annie etc…)
But this has given me a few more ideas
Thank youuuuu!
x
PS – This may be a little more modern and might not even be disco music but I Am Not Your Gameboy by Freezepop is a fit song
I love Disco music !!!
It was fun, it had energy, and it was totally danceable, contrary to most of the depressing songs of today.
Those were the days !!!…
‘Disco Lies’ by Moby from the album ‘Last Night’… it’s great…
plus the albums by Darude like Rush and Sandstorm also hve some great tracks suitable for disco..
Cool List
oh yes!!
great list.
what about disco inferno – the trammps? notable mention??
Haha, great songs! I hadn’t realized how much I like disco until I kept saying “ooh! I love that song!” for about 13 items on this list.
Interesting fact: Stayin’ Alive also has a perfect rhythm for CPR. So if you ever have to do it, you know what song to sing.
Disco sucks!
I’ve been a fan of the site first time commentie? Anyways this list sucks there’s a reason disco isn’t around anymore cuz it sucked than and it will always suck big donkey dick
***** off, disco rules!
likes disco music.
Every time I hear “Stayin’ Alive” I think back to the disco scene in “Airplane!”
Disco isn’t really my thing. I prefer some of the rock from the era, but it seems to be a fairly solid list.
Aaaaaaah, the Bee-Gee’s!
MY EARS!!
14 ain’t bad! I’m glad to know there are great disco tunes, I had never even heard a good one.
I mean 15, still ain’t bad.
*sigh* disco…really? What happened to the mystery lists? The unexplained phenomena? Top Ten Crazy Cults!?
Gotta love the disco. I have Dancing Queen on my iPod and generally pass it if someone else is listening. It’s a closet habit.
Supprised isnt top 30 lol good choice in songs, summer of 69 shuld be there
A disco list without BoneyM??? Wtf!!
Can we have an honorable mention for Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell”?
Hahaha, an oxymoron in the title. Really though, I guess if I had to pick iconic disco tunes most of these would be on my list. Mind you where is Rod Stewart’s Do You think I’m *****y?. And despite the Oscar nod, I think I would have included Love to Love You Baby rather than Last Dance by Donna Summer.
le freak chic
i love some of these songs.. wanna groove on..yeoww!
I was hoping to see “Disco Inferno” in the list. Burn baby burn disoc inferno…burn that mother down. Great list though…reminder of the 70′s era
“Great” and “Disco” are two words that should never, ever be used together…unless it’s this:
Great, Disco is dead!
I love this list. I spent a few Saturday nights in Disco’s and the whole era was a blast. Donna Summer was the Queen. I’ll also add my vote for Disco Inferno.
Did we really need a list for this?
I like disco music, but I’m not really sure we needed a list for it as pufonthis (27) said.
Be that as it may, I’m suprised ‘On the Radio’ by Donna Summer wasn’t on the list. For me that is the essential Donna Summer tune, and I think it defines disco music more so than Last Dance. Cute list anyway, I guess.
Good memories and bad memories.
Good = the music, though sometimes now I cringe just a tiny bit. One of the greatest evenings of my life was talking to the man who ran the karaoke at my local pub about 5 years, and remembering more 1970s songs than he did.
Bad = everything else about my adolescence and teen years. Being a monumentally shy, partly deaf (therefore can’t stand noisy places), high academic (therefore dorky), preacher’s kid in a small city was not a recipe for social success.
Re “Staying Alive” and CPR. I read an article about that last year. They found another song with the same beat was “Another One Bites the Dust”, which they didn’t think was quite appropriate! I suspect that most of these songs have approximately the same beat.
Disco rules!
Copaface: my son has been abducted… please release him from your laptop
Disco Inferno should be on this list (at #1)
I was in high school during the whole disco era. It was all I could do not to kill myself. Everywhere you went these “tunes” were playing; the bars, shops, malls, restaurants, it was relentless. The more cheerful and up beat, the worse it felt. It was so plastic and manufactured. Sadly, some of the musicians and singers had talent, but they were never able to live down selling themselves out for this trend. Thankfully Punk Rock came out as a backlash against this, and put an end to it. Sure, every generation has its crappy corporation generated “music,” but in the seventies it overpowered and drowned out the more real and creative music. If you looked hard enough there was better stuff being released. Just as the fifties weren’t really like the cartoon like stereotypes you see in the movies (like Grease), there was more to the seventies than this garbage. By the way, many of us resisted the horrible clothes, too.
Really only one Donna Summer song need be on the list, and that’s “I Feel Love.” That song’s production was ground breaking. Allegedly, Bowie heard it and said, “I want my next album to sound like that.” It really was ahead of its time.
Notable Omissions:
It’s Raining Men- The Weather Girls
Disco Duck- Rick Dees
Macho Man- The Village People
Eh, Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough and Heart of Glass are all-time great songs, but I hate every other song on that list.
Yes,Yes and Yes….my kind of list…
Stayin` Alive number 1 ? god damn it yeah
NOOOOOOO. This is ridiculous.
Sorry, but this is just a “pick the greatest (and mostly lamest) hits” list, NOT a list of truly GREAT disco songs (there WERE some, in fact).
To begin with, leaving off Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”—one of the greatest songs of the 70s, period—is an unforgivable omission. As is leaving off Donna’s “Love to Love You Baby.” I mean, come on.
But worse, unless I’m mistaken there’s NOTHING here from Philadelphia–the town that’s basically RESPONSIBLE for most of the disco sound. (New York just made it huge). Where is “TSOP” (The Sound of Philadelphia)?
And where the hell is Chic? Where is “Disco Inferno”? Where’s Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up?” Where’s Thelma Houston’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way?”
There are a dozen others I could mention.
I mean, I’m sorry… I know I’m known around here for starting trouble over these music lists… but for chrissakes… this is another one that sounds EXACTLY like it was written by someone who wasn’t THERE, but is looking back on what what they THINK the era was like. If this guy (who wrote the list) was even alive in the 70s, I’m willing to bet the boat that he wasn’t living in or near any major eastern city, where disco was prevalent and alive. You couldn’t possibly be, and not know the glaring omissions this list has.
But I grew up in the 70s, in and near New York. I vas dere, charlie.
Disco, back in OUR day, was for the most part godawful (and some of the choices on this list certainly fit that bill) but not ALL of it was–particularly at the very beginning, back in 73-74, and—oddly enough–at the very end, around 1980. In between, a great deal of drek. But the one thing disco shared with the early punk and New Wave was its wonderful disposable quality–one great song would pop up out of nowhere and then be gone. That happened many times with disco. But it also produced some true classics, like the aforementioned Donna Summer tunes.
And one other thing, “Steeveedee”—don’t tell me the clothes in the EIGHTIES were worse than the styles of the SEVENTIES. That’s just ridiculous. Sorry, Steevee, but rebelling against the puke-making clothing styles of the 70s is what the 80s were all about—it was the death knell of silly bell bottom pants, and it banished polyester from the list of acceptable fibers (not that polyester went away–but after 1980, it was worn only by proles and throwbacks, and sad cases “not in the know.”) The 80s brought the death of ridiculously wide ties and lapels, of the terrible leisure suit, and of a dozen other nausea-inducing fashion mistakes of that nasty era of miasma and vapidity. Yes, there were some bad fashion mistakes in the 80s as well–I don’t deny that for a moment. But EVERY era has its gut wrenching fashions—some of the stuff people are wearing today will be laughed at twenty years hence, I guarantee it. But the 70s had WAY more than its share of crumminess.
We had bad presidents, a bad economy, horribly bad television, bad fashions (and by the way, what GOOD fashion was there in the 70s? At least the 80s and the 60s had SOME. But there is literally NOTHING that came to be in 70s fashion that you’d want to go back and wear again, today) mostly bad movies (with a few notable exceptions–but here, if anything, the 80s WERE almost worse) the country was in miserable shape, no matter how you look at it. For all its silliness, I’ll still take the 80s any day, over that.
But back to the point—there’s a lot of truly great music missing from this list—and to include, instead, the BEE GEES of ALL “artists”–and not just ONCE but TWICE—well, sorry… but on that, this list fails. Shamefully.
*comment held in moderation for use of ‘ONCE’*
damien_karras: Lol. You died in the end of the film. So surely you cannot be able to point out my grammatical mistakes x]
Slipstick (13) I do the same thing! It always reminds me of that scene!
I did a Polar Bear Plunge this past weekend and afterwards we hung around for awhile…I’m pretty sure all of these songs were played. You can’t help but bop around.
LOL… My office doesnt allow the tunes to come up but I just realized how much I liked these songs as I was able to sing pretty much all of them in my head!
And I´m only 27 so it´s not like I heard these in my childhood!!
Any time I hear “I will survive” my husband has to cover his ears while I belt this out as loud as I possibly can!
Disco Inferno! Just thinking it in my head makes me want to hop up and start dancing! List is not complete without it.
Tha, you’re absolutely right! “I Feel Love” is my absolute favorite Donna Summer song. It has such a fantastic beat, and if one didn’t know any better, could easily mistake it as a techno realease of the late 90s rather than disco. I’d have to say “I Feel Love”, along with “Disco Inferno”, and … I’ll probably get crucified for this, but I love “Found a Cure” by Peaches and Herb. Those are my top 3.
#15 was already on a list for worst songs
?? Now all of a sudden it’s good?
The Hustle!
what a frightening list…
the thought of disco music makes me shudder.
but, to all those who enjoy it, i hope you enjoy this list.
Hmmmm… I posted a comment here that went into moderation—but now it’s vanished. Was it THAT bad?
Anyone not thinking these songs are influential needs to go RIGHT NOW and download Cake’s version of “I Will Survive”. Funkiest bass line EVER in a song. Period.
cyn/jfrater, etc.:
Have I been censored?
DISCO IS DEAD… it died for a reason… cuz it sucks
Play that funky music… Hellsyeah!
I figured there would be a lot of the “disco sucks” comments. I love all kinds of music, but disco just reminds me of some great times. I remember as a teen in the mid/late ’70s, my older brother was a total rock fan and would always tell me “disco sucks.” But while I was out at teen discos meeting girls and having a blast, he was hanging with his buddies doing nothing. Hmmm…
What about Earth, Wind & Fire – Let’s Groove?
Ottawan – D.I.S.C.O.?
Rod Stewart – Do Ya Think I’m *****y?
Patrick Hernandez – Born To Be Alive?
Sylvester – Do You Wanna Funk?
Donna Summer – Hot Stuff?
Rick James – Super Freak?
and so on and on…
Randall is being censored? Say it ain’t so! (The end of Western civilization as we know it…)
Kung-foo Fighting! wooha
Right up my alley – well done
Don’t Leave Me This Way- Thelma Houston
OKAY…. apparently I WAS censored… (?) At any rate, the comment I posted earlier has disappeared… and unfortunately I didn’t save a copy.
SO.. I’ll just repeat that I didn’t think much of this list. Not because of the subject matter–there was, in fact, SOME very good disco music—but because of the choices, and even more so, on account of the glaring omissions.
Chief amongst which was the omission of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” and “Love to Love You Baby,” But also for the unforgivable omission of anything from Philadelphia, the town that was the true home of disco (New York just made it popular). “TSOP” (The Sound of Philadelphia) Should have at least been on here. I also noted that Thelma Houston wasn’t on here, and neither was Marvin Gaye. Neither was “Disco Inferno.”
I felt this list was just someone picking out some of the “greatest hits” of disco—which is not by any means the same as “the greatest SONGS or tunes” of disco.
I also took umbrage at Steeveedee’s suggestion that the fashions of the 80s were far worse than those in the 70s. I hardly think so. Every decade has its crap, but the 70s was replete with it. The 80s had it share, but there’s still stuff that was mainstream, in the 80s, that we wouldn’t feel ashamed to wear today. Not so for the 70s. The 80s brought us the end of bell bottoms, wide lapels, platform shoes, and brought disapproval to the wearing of polyester.
But the main point was, I felt the list didn’t work because of the many truly great songs that were left off–and because stuff like the Bee Gees, who were awful, were included.
Why my original post was deleted, I’d like to know. I also entered one yesterday on the recent sports thread that disappeared. What’s going on?
OKAY… AGAIN I just posted something and AGAIN my comment is in moderation. Why? What’s going on here?