It is the first weekend of a new month so we doubled the doseage in your weekly shot of Disco Friday - welcome once again to Double Disco Friday! Frist up is Disco Boogie which series curator Mr. Pinks describes as a sort of disco post-mortem explaining the music never really died, it just underwent a name change at the dawn of the Eighties. Here in the States, disco was apparent in the funk and soul of the time and over in Europe, they simply called what was once known as disco, boogie. Though I never think of "disco" when I hear them, two of my favorite songs of all-time appear on the second disc of Disco Boogie:
Disco Boogie is one of the most sought after volumes in the Disco Discharge series commanding double and triple its original price for both new and opened copies. Maybe some evidence as to why it earns that premium will surface when I conduct my pricing of the original records used to compile Disco Boogie. Stick around after the cover art and playlist below for my chart breakdown.
The playlist above is my personal recreation of the Disco Boogie tracklist within Spotify's vast but still somehow incomplete catalog. As has happened occasionally in this series, there is an official Disco Boogie playlist on Spotify but it features alternate songs. Give it a peep at link above if you're curious.
year | title | artist | Billboard Disco Chart | |
1980 | Let's Go 'Round Again | Average White Band | 6:28 | 24 |
1982 | I'd Like To | Feel | 6:37 | 53 |
1981 | Funky Bee Bop | Vin Zee | 6:53 | 17 |
1983 | Rescue Me | Sybil Thomas | 6:38 | - |
1983 | Inner Feelings | Cashmere | 5:58 | - |
1982 | Hard Times | Al McCall | 5:00 | - |
1983 | Love How You Feel | Sharon Redd | 7:01 | 16 |
1978 | Do You Like It Like That | Carte Blanche | 5:45 | - |
1979 | Switch | Benelux and Nancy Dee | 6:25 | - |
1978 | Do As I Do | Donna McGhee | 10:22 | - |
1978 | Georgy Porgie | Toto | 5:08 | 80 |
1983 | You Make It Heaven | Terri Wells | 5:26 | - |
1982 | Autumn Leaves | Illusion Orchestra | 4:27 | - |
1980 | Night Cruiser | Deodato | 6:16 | 23 |
1981 | Call Me | Skyy | 6:21 | 3 |
1982 | You Can't Run From Love | Maxine Singelton | 6:42 | - |
1981 | Give It To Me (If You Don't Mind) | Conquest | 6:54 | 15 |
1982 | Keep On | D Train | 9:28 | 2 |
1982 | Straight Ahead | Nick Straker Band | 6:43 | 12 |
1985 | Baby Talk | Alisha | 6:47 | 1 |
Nothing too rare according to pricing and availibility of original vinyl sources with none of the records coming in over $10 and the whole shebang would only set you back $70 plus shipping, handling and carbon offset fees. Chart wise, not a lot of big hits though my buddy Martin will be chuffed to see the inclusion of the sweet Shep Pettibone remix of Alisha's "Baby Talk", one of his favorites that just so happened to top the Hot Dance/Disco chart thirty years ago. Though mostly made up of Eighties tracks, the four songs from the late Seventies give Disco Boogie an average track year of 1981 and an average track length of 6:33.
The second album featured today is Pink Pounders, a return visit to the gay disco and HiNRG sounds previously heard on the fourth album in the series, Gay Disco and HiNRG. Mr. Pinks laments the fact that there is an absolutely huge history of disco music made exclusively for the gay dancefloor that has yet to be exploited. But here's the thing, you don't have to live the lifestyle to be able to enjoy the music whether it be gay disco, punk rock, goth, country or heavy metal. We like what we like regardless of cultural expectations and unfair stereotypes. Unfortunately for those of you who do not own Pink Pounders, the majority of the music has yet to be licensed on Spotify, so you will not be able to hear more than seven of the album's twenty-one songs in the playlist below.
Like Disco Boogie up above, Pink Pounders fetches top dollar for a five year old CD even if it is an import for those of us in the States and a double disc to boot. Using Amazon as our price guide this time around, here are both the crazy new and gently used prices of the first eight volumes in the Disco Discharge series:
Like my good friend Mark always says when it comes to CDs "buy it if you want it because its only going to get more expensive probably and especially if it goes out of print." Or something like that. It turns out Pink Pounders is only number 4 on the list of most expensive volumes of Disco Discharge when bought new. If you bought all eight albums new as of this pricing, it would cost you just over $500 all in. Here's a suggested title for the series: Di$co In$anity. And now, a look at the how the songs on Pink Pounders charted or if they charted at all.
Only six of the twenty-one records charted which casts a tiny bit of shade on Billboard's dance club polling practices though by the mid-Eighties, it was mostly about the twelve inch singles sales. Or maybe these were just bigger in the UK clubs our Mr. Pinks was frequenting. The average release year of the songs on Pink Pounders is 1983 with five coming out after 1985. The average length of each song is 6:31. To recreate the album from all the original vinyl sources would cost you a little less than $150 as there are a few rarities over $10.
Disco Discharge prices on Amazon as of October 28, 2015: | ||||
year | title | new | used | |
2009 | Classic Disco | $42.99 | $26.80 | |
2009 | Disco Ladies | $49.45 | $26.12 | |
2009 | Euro Disco | $32.84 | $27.98 | |
2009 | Gay Disco & HiNRG | $103.00 | $52.20 | |
2010 | Diggin' Deeper | $41.98 | $37.80 | |
2010 | European Connection | $26.54 | $21.98 | |
2010 | Disco Boogie | $59.99 | $57.00 | |
2010 | Pink Pounders | $45.53 | $43.33 | |
averages | $50.29 | $36.65 |
year | title | artist | Billboard Disco Chart | |
1981 | Lift Off | Patrick Cowley | 8:18 | - |
1980 | Hot Leather | Passengers | 10:34 | 27 |
1980 | Yes With My Body | Les Models | 6:19 | - |
1983 | Danger | The Flirts | 6:13 | - |
1979 | Boys Will Be Boys | The Duncan Sisters | 7:13 | 8 |
1983 | Party | Julius Brown | 6:15 | 10 |
1983 | I've Got The Music In Me | Yvonne Kay | 7:32 | - |
1985 | He's Number One | Fantasy | 6:42 | 37 |
1986 | I Need A Lover Tonight | Caren Cole | 5:08 | - |
1984 | When The Rain Begins To Fall | Jermaine Jackson & Pia Zadora | 6:08 | 22 |
1980 | Leave That Boy Alone | Poussez | 5:33 | 34 |
1981 | The Ultimate Warlord | The Immortals | 6:18 | - |
1983 | Shake It Up | Divine | 5:51 | - |
1983 | My Forbidden Lover | Tapps | 7:32 | - |
1987 | If You Love Somebody | Barbara Doust | 6:45 | - |
1984 | I Don't Wanna Lose You | Lime | 5:59 | - |
1985 | Girls It Ain't Easy | Peggi Blu | 6:47 | - |
1986 | Back To You | Crystal In The Pink | 5:44 | - |
1988 | Black Jack | Tom Cat | 5:25 | - |
1989 | Only You | Virgin | 5:55 | - |
1976 | From New York To LA | Patsy Gallant | 4:52 | - |
Below is the final chapter of the eight part Disco Discharge interview documentary. We are officially halfway through the series with eight down and eight more to go.
Indeed, I am a definite fan of Alisha - thanks for the plug.
ReplyDeleteThis series is amazing in the depth it dives for music, some things having not seen the light of day in ages. Kudos to the series for that. Still, sixteen volumes (all double disks) means quite a bit of music overall. I totally appreciate your herculean efforts (no pun intended) to present the series for us.