Disco Lady was a song I was meh about at the time. Took me several years to come around, something I Believe In You never had to suffer. But it was huge, I grant you that.
I remember this one. Never loved it, but it's a great example of youth-targeted pop from the mid-'70s. I really remember this one. I'm sure we had the single. Loved this song, a great, laid back example of pre-'77 disco. You know the booty was bumping to this one coast-to-coast. Deliciously over-the-top sexual innuendo and a delightfully light-raunch mid-'70s funkified groove. The b-vox chicks give KC a run for the money.
I think there was more than one pressing. My single is the same as the album. This may be a case where the longer one was released first, then an edit was issues as the single rose up the charts. We have, or will see this in several instances. But, the mix was definately done at United in Detroit, a studio which I understand he owned or co-owned back in the 70s. I tried to get more soul music fans over here years ago. many would indeed join up, but leave after they experienced what they told me was a kind of cultism for The Beatles. One guy came back under a different screen name, but he rarely posts. I guess he doesn't feel comfortable here.
That is what's frustrating about the forum sometimes but every forum has it. The members tend to skew towards one type of music. Just normal.
Forgot about that detail. What I read had mentioned that as well, that he did his mixes in Detroit after recording them down South.
Even though this forum skews toward rock music, I still hang out here the most because we do discuss other music on occasion, and it's based on sound quality. There is another forum I am a member of that I rarely visit anymore because the forum is narrowly focused on just one era of a certain record company that once was based in Detroit. All they care about are the female artists, who's performing today, and the members keep going round and round on the same old topics, and have for years. Most of them are older than me, and have almost no interest in sound quality beyond "sounds good".
I know the forum you're talking about lol. There's another I'm on made up of mostly the 18 - 25 demo, even then there's lots of teenagers and they couldn't care less about anything before 1999. They also skew heavily towards female artists so if it isn't Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Rihanna and the like they aren't interested. Needless to say the Beatles threads there are dead by reply #5 lol.
On that site I was talking about, so many of the members of the last decade or so are so obsessed with the singer in your avatar that the owner and moderator created a special walled playground where they could say and do whatever they wanted and would no longer pollute the rest of the forum, even though a couple of them still try every now and then. I tried bringing up The Beatles a couple of times over there and one guy went off about how he thought rock bands are all racists. Sheesh! I like it here because I like all sorts of music. I don't care what it is, if I like it, that's all that matters. Country, rock, rap, disco, funk, even some reggae. Music is music.
I don't think anyone would argue with me giving props to "Disco Lady's" B side - "You're The Best In The World":
I honestly don't think enough of the so-called rock critics have even heard the album. I think if they had, it would show up more in lists. If that's the case, why haven't they heard it? It's not a disco album.
"Rock critic." An oxymoron if ever there was one. From what I've seen, they have so many preconceived notions about music, it is why I've long said that to them, true "essential" rock and roll has saxes aplenty (and/or a full horn section), cowbells, mandolins and accordions. Not to mention quite a few of them (critics, that is) being elitist snobs. Those notions they hold would even extend to their dismissal of the Eargasm album and "Disco Lady." Which beat and arrangement sounded almost anything but (disco, that is), but certainly moved and grooved for sure.
Well, the public didn't agree since it was such a major hit single nationwide on two charts! I'll bet this song gets more replies when it comes up in the other thread. So, anyway, here's the next #1: Livin' For The Weekend - The O'Jays Week ending April 24, 1976 2 wks. Frankly, I prefer the long album version with the monologue that sets up the rest of the song.
I have heard this, to be sure. And I agree it's certainly rollicking. I have to wonder if it was due to the wake of the payola investigations in which PIR was ensnared, that this one didn't do as well on the "pops" as it did here (and certainly as this one's predecessor at the top). Though that wouldn't explain another big hit on this label to come soon. As for your first point: I'll take the public's judgment any day.
I think this song just didn't resonate with the "mainstream" audience. I hate to use that term because it sounds like R&B music was more marginalized than it was in 1976. And, some people get upset when you say the "w" word.
I love me some O'Jays but this somehow got lost in the shuffle. Not sure if it just wasn't played much around these parts or I had other fish to fry but it's one I can honestly say does not suffer from over-exposure. It's a busy track for sure with some great horns which is always a plus.
No memory of this one from the '70s. Finally encountered it on their hits collection about 20 years ago. Meh. Too busy. Sounds like an attempt to make up for a weak melody and a somewhat tired, clunky groove. Not feeling it.
I have noticed that with "Livin'," while the beat is of the same template as followed in "I Love Music," the horn arrangement in some portions seems similar to what I heard in the second verse of the record that began the group's association with Gamble & Huff, in 1969 - "One Night Affair."
I heard the album version on Black radio that summer, but that's about it. Forgot all about it quite quickly. Same here. Too frantic. But, the audience liked it for it to go to #1. But, that's OK, because PIR's fortunes were about to improve greatly.
Time for another new #1, and then i'll take a bit of a break: Love Hangover - Diana Ross Week ending May 15, 1976, 1 wk I don't quite recall it exactly, and i'm sure W.B. will correct the errors, but, the story goes something like this: Hal Davis recorded the instrumental track back in 1975. Berry Gordy, or someone at Motown got wind that The 5th Dimension, freshly signed to ABC Records, were recording this song, so Davis did the same with Ross. When ABC Records released the 5th Dimension single, Motown edited the 7+ minute disco track and also released their version. Both competing singles hit the hot 100m on the same day. Guess whose version won? The superior Diana Ross version. Ross was having trouble getting in the mood of recording the vocal track, so they dimmed the lights, installed a mirror ball like you found in discos at the time, and gave her some wine to loosen up. The track came out great with her laughing and giggling all over it. They rushed it to radio and had the single pressed ASAP, and the work paid off. The song shot to #1. But, that was after the single "I Thought It Took A Little Time" kind of flopped. As with the previous #1 single, the song starts out slow, then they crossfade to the thumping disco half. The difference is that Ross' single retained the slow part. I always meant to ask engineer Russ Terrana, but I always wondered why the hi-hat got raspier as the song progressed. I wonder if it has to do with overdubbing.
I could tell that there was editing up the gazooka, as well as what appears to be change in high end in some tracks, in the part leading up to her "Wooo! I don't need no cure . . . " It also seemed, besides the atmosphere the producers conjured up to get Miss Ross "in the mood," Diana did about three "characters" in the course of the piece (definitely if based on the 45 edit). I do have it - pressed, as most Motown product by this point, by the Superior Record Pressing plant in Somerdale, NJ. This may have one or both sides with metal parts from the RCA Hollywood plant after that factory closed around the time of release - and before this topped the chart. (My Superior-pressed copy of David Ruffin's "Walk Away From Love" definitely has crossed-out stamped 'H's' on both sides.) As for The 5th Dimension, their fortunes definitively went south after Clive Davis took over the helm at Bell, threw it under the bus in favor of his own Arista, and then they left the label, followed by two key personnel leaving to have a future chart-topper of their own which we'll get to when we get to it. The "Love Hangover" race didn't help matters in their case, in the end.
They were the 5th Dimension minus two key players so that probably didn't help but Ross had the definitive version. Marvelous song that doesn't suffer from overkill in it's long album version. A dearly departed friend maintained this was the best single editing job he'd ever heard. Despite it's iconic stature, this got no love from the Grammys as it lost in both of it's nominations and was relegated to the lower profile R&B categories - Vocal and Song. I love me some Natalie Cole but in what universe does Sophisticated Lady beat Love Hangover? Well, this one I guess!
