The Trammps – “Disco Inferno” (1978)
“Disco Inferno” burned up the clubs in 1976 but missed the pop Top 40. A year later, it lit up the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, leading to a 1978 reissue. This time – huge pop success on its way to becoming a bona fide classic. 🔥
The late Jimmy Ellis of The Trammps was born on this date in 1937. A few of his band’s songs are included on today’s playlist.
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The first artist fan club I ever joined was that of KC and the Sunshine Band. I received a membership card and a Christmas card from the band when that holiday I don’t celebrate came around. I don’t think there was more to it. I joined Olivia Newton-John’s fan club a year or two later, and received a membership card and a folio filled with photos of Livvy pressed on cardboard of various sizes. Years later I joined the R.E.M. and Pearl Jam fan clubs, which came with 45 rpm records and stickers and a calendar and a VHS tape and some other fun stuff.
Are any of y’alls in an artist’s fan club? Is it worth the price of entry?
KC was born Harry Wayne Casey on this date in 1951. A handful of his group’s songs are included on today’s playlist. Also included is his first number one single – as a songwriter with fellow Sunshine Band member Rick Finch on George McCrae’s “Rock Your Baby.”
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Today’s playlist celebrates the November 26 birthdays of The Supremes’ Jean Terrell, Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie, Tina Turner, Garnet Mimms, DJ Khaled, Hashim, Rhythm Heritage’s Michael Omartian, The Fendermen’s Jim Sundquist, and Tom Archia; and the November 27 birthdays of Jimi Hendrix, The Streets’ Mike Skinner, Das EFX’s Skoob, 100 gecs’ Dylan Brady, Jam & Spoon’s Mark Spoon, Teri DeSario, Dozy, Eddie Rabbitt, and Ed O.G.
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Nineteen eighty wasn’t a game changing year on the US pop chart. It wasn’t 1964. It wasn’t 1991. For the most part it was music business as usual. The death of disco was greatly exaggerated. Just ask any member of Lipps, Inc., should you have any idea what any member of Lipps, Inc. looks like. Seventies hit makers stayed on the charts. Paul McCartney. Diana Ross. Stevie Wonder. Barbra Streisand. The Captain & Tennille did it to us one more time, it meaning having a hit single. A few outsiders snuck into the top 40 with sounds unlike the rest – Devo hit with “Whip It,” Gary Numan with “Cars,” and The Vapors with “Turning Japanese.” In the coming years more such weirdos would make their presence known.
While many of 1980’s hits were great singles, many classics were born outside of the mainstream. Releases such as Bob Marley & the Wailers’ “Redemption Song,” Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” Peter Gabriel’s “Biko,” Prince’s “When You Were Mine,” David Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes,” and Funky 4 + 1’s “That’s the Joint” are often referred to as classics these days. In 1980, not a single one of them troubled the US Hot 100. Change was on its way. In 1980, rap wasn’t a fixture on the top 40, though its influence was heard in Queen’s #1 smash “Another One Bites the Dust.” The next few years saw #1 hits from Peter Gabriel, Prince, David Bowie and a rap song, plus a top ten reggae song.
Today’s Throwback Thursday playlist shines a spotlight on 1980.
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Inspired by the season and the November 27 birthdays of Jimi Hendrix, Mike Skinner of The Streets, Skoob of Das EFX, Eddie Rabbitt, Teri DeSario, Ed O.G. and Twista.
Inspired by the March 28 birthdays of Lady Gaga, Salt, EMF’s James Atkin, Oran Juice Jones, Ian Gomm and J-Kwon; and the March 27 birthdays of Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie, Mariah Carey and The Associates’ Billy Mackenzie.
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In 1979, Giorgio Moroder, famous mostly for his production work on Donna Summer records, composed the score for the film American Gigolo. He asked Stevie Nicks to sing the movie’s theme song, for which Moroder wrote the music, but she had to decline for contractual reasons. He next turned to Deborah Harry of Blondie.
Harry write the lyrics to the song that became “Call Me,” the second #1 single for her band. Of her experience with Moroder, she told Billboard “He’s very nice to work with, very easy, (but) I don’t think he has a lot of patience with people who fool around or don’t take what they do seriously. I think he’s very serious about what he does and he’s intense and he’s a perfectionist and he’s very talented, so I think that people who are less talented or less concentrated bore him quickly…you really have to pay attention.”
Said Moroder of working with Blondie, “There were always fights. I was supposed to do an album with them after that. We went to the studio, and the guitarist was fighting with the keyboard player. I called their manager and quit.”
Moroder did end up working with Deborah Harry again years later on another soundtrack song, producing “Rush Rush” from Scarface, and in 2004 remixed Blondie’s single “Good Boys.”
Tunes du Jour’s Throwback Thursday playlist this week spotlights the best of 1980, kicking off with Blondie’s “Call Me.”
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