UNLIKELY DISCO ARTISTS...




OK... What do I mean with unlikely Disco artists?
What I mean is artists not really known for making Disco music. People and Groups who, at least when you look back on it now, made some Disco songs during that era. This also shows how big Disco music was within the music business in the late 70's and early 80's. The Disco era really made people/groups who usually didn't made dance/Disco tracks try their luck in the Disco heaven...

Take a group like hard rocking KISS for example. They were signed to Neil Bogart's Casablanca Records, which mainly was a Disco label with hot Disco acts like Donna Summer, Village People, Patrick Juvet, Lipps Inc....
KISS released the great dance track "I was made for lovin' you". OK – this "anthem" has their classic rock ingredients over some nice Disco beats. It didn't do that well in the charts back then, but put it on now in a club and you'll find it's a ultimate floor-filler !

Queen also tried their luck on the Disco scene and released their classic "Another one bites the dust", which was inspired by Chic's all time classic "Good times".

The UK group the Clash, were more known as a rock or even a punk band, recorded songs like "Rock the Casbah" and "Radio Clash". When you listened to these songs back then people probably thought of them as kind of "rocky", but when you listen to them today it's clear to see that this was actually a kind of Disco-Rock!

Another band who tried their luck on the Disco scene was Blondie. They were also more of a rock band, but in 1978-79 Debbie Harry and the band members took some Disco steps and hit it big time with "Heart of glass", followed by songs like "Atomic" and "Call me". "Call me" was written by mega-writer/producer Giorgio Moroder and was the main theme song of the movie American Gigolo and featuring Richard Gere as the gigolo.
In 1981 Blondie also tried the latest trend in the music scene - Rap. They now made their classic song - "Rapture".

Even a lady like Cher hooked on to the Disco wave and recorded a song called "Take me home".
Now it probably looks like it was just Rock or Pop acts who tried their luck as Disco stars, but that's not the truth. Lots of people who was usually recording different kind of music all tried their luck. Even Country-queen Dolly Parton released a Disco single called "I'm burning" and the 12-inch single was released in Pink vinyl.

As you can see... Lots and lots of artists wanted their part of the Disco cake. Some ended up with hits and some ended up with nothing, but all of them saw the power of Disco music and wanted to try to get in to the playlists of the club DJ's for some Disco fame... I know there's many un-mentioned acts in this piece, so please let me know of acts you know did the same...
'Till next month...

Take care and Disco-on,

"Discoguy"