Rhino's THE DISCO YEARS [1990-1995]

Silver Eagle Records released the first CD disco compilation, the double disc Dancin' The Night Away, in 1988. Priority followed suit with seven volumes of Mega Hits Dance Classics in 1989.

Rhino Records issued their first disco compilations, the initial two volumes of The Disco Years, in 1990. Volume One: Turn The Beat Around (1974-1978) and Volume Two: On The Beat (1978-1982).

Both volumes were released on vinyl, cassette tape, and CD. Those first 2 CDs contained four bonus tracks each, giving them sixteen songs versus the twelve songs on the other formats. In May 1992, three more volumes of The Disco Years were released:

Also in 1992, a special "Disco Doesn't Suck" twenty-track promo sampler (pictured at the top of this post) featuring tracks from the first five volumes of The Disco Years was sent out for in-store play. In 1995, the final two volumes of The Disco Years were released:

Beginning with Volume Three, each successive CD features 18 songs, while the cassette versions were increased to 14 songs each. (No vinyl versions were released after Volume Two.) Musicologist Ken Barnes compiled the discs and wrote the liner notes as well. Bill Inglot remastered all the tracks with the help of assistant engineers Jeff Perry, Stewart Whitmore, and Geoff Sykes. The discs sound great and offer the hit single versions of many of disco's most popular songs, including those by Donna Summer, KC & the Sunshine Band, Village People, Change, Chic, and Kool & the Gang.

After the first five volumes of The Disco Years, Rhino released the first three volumes of Disco Hits, a budget-priced ten-track shadow of The Disco Years, in 1992. Three more volumes of Disco Hits followed in 1994. Among the six volumes, forty of the sixty songs had appeared on The Disco Years. In 1997, all six volumes were re-released with spiffy new artwork and titles, but the music remained the same, albeit in a different order on Rhino's Flashback label. In the graphic above, the original Disco Hits cover art appears to the left of the corresponding 1997 refresh.

Also in 1992, Rhino teamed up with Joel Whitburn and Billboard to release five volumes of Billboard Top Dance Hits, one for each year from 1976 through 1980. Each disc contains ten songs. A fifteen-track promotional sampler disc was also issued. There is an assortment of single edits and full-length album cuts on the discs in Billboard Top Dance Hits. There is a minimal amount of overlapping tracks on Billboard Top Dance Hits and The Disco Years.

In February 1999, Rhino returned to the dance floor with The Disco Box. A promotional sampler disc (above) was sent to record stores, clubs, and radio stations, while a four-disc, eighty-song box set was released at retail. Once again, Bill Inglot produced the sound. There is a significant overlap between the tracks on The Disco Years and The Disco Box, as only a handful of the eighty tracks on The Disco Box are not included on The Disco Years.