Carrying on the theme from previous shows the celebrity disco track this week is Gone, Gone, Gone from Johnny Mathis, and our music from the movies is the Julio Gutierrez version of Last Tango in Paris.
We also have some tracks exploring the boundaries between easy listening, jazz and disco, and finishing with a great favourite of mine from Eddie Kendricks.
Hope you enjoy listening - the weekend starts here!
This is number two in my series of disco oriented radio shows and I had great fun putting it together. I'm going to try and make these shows a weekly event as long as time permits!
I've got some great tracks from disco's earlier days to start us off, a curiosity from Ethel Merman, and this week's cinema spot looks at the 1970 British film "Groupie Girl" and the track "Sweet Motion" which is featured in the film.
We follow that with a couple of italo-disco tracks from around 1980 and finish with a slow dance to Barbra Streisand's "Guilty" from the same year!
Don't forget to leave me a message on the blog if you've got any suggestions for future shows - I'd love to hear from you!
The tracks I'm playing and talking about this week are:
1.
Steely Dan - Do It Again
1972
2.
Zulema - Giving Up
1973
3.
Love Unlimited Orchestra - Love's Theme
1973
4.
Patti Jo - Make Me Believe in You
1975
5.
Ethel Merman - There's No Business Like Show Business
Felt like trying something new this time, so instead of just stringing the music together I thought I'd talk about it too - a bit like a radio broadcast, so hope you find it entertaining! Apologies for any blips in the sound - this was something of a tryout session as far as my equipment goes. Anyway looking forward to reading any comments you want to make about the show, so please don't be shy!
Some of the tracks in this selection show how disco started to change in the early 80s. At number 2, for example, we have Harlow, a Canadian group who made quite a splash at the turn of the decade. Disco had already started to retreat back to the underground at this time, so tracks which were big on the dance floor were no longer likely to be chart hits. As far as I know, all of Harlow's music comes from the same album called Taking Off, and they all seem to have a happy, slightly wistful quality which I love.
The D-Train track was unusual in that it was both a chart hit and a dance floor hit. Very much a sound of the changing times when it first came out, I love its chunky beat and that electronic keyboard hook!
Slightly more laid back sounds from Ronnie Dyson and Geraldine Hunt next. Geraldine Hunt was another Canadian-produced performer, from a time when Canada was a real force for change on the disco scene. Not only did she have some great dance tracks of her own, but so did her children - Rosalind Hunt and Freddie James. Rosalind went on to be form the group Cheri who gave us the annoying but catchy Murphy's Law in 1982.
A classic at number 8 from Loleatta Holloway - you know it's good when 8 minutes just flies by and you still want more!
Right back to the late 60s to finish. The Sly Stone track is among many nominations for the "first disco record". In my view Dance to the Music has a better claim to the title than many!
A slow track to finish from one of my favourite singers, Madeline Bell. She didn't have that many hits under her own name, this cover of I'm Gonna Make You Love Me being no exception. However, to quote Peter Jones from the notes to her retrospective CD collection "Doin' Things" Madeline was able to "offer personal interpretations that neither differ radically from the originals, nor particularly remind one of them either." And I take that as praise!
Welcome to my blog, and I hope you enjoy some of my broadcasts - I'll be changing them on a regular basis.
You won't find these compilations in the shops. I strung them together from my own music collection.
One reason for doing this blog is to showcase the great music from years gone by, especially some of the lesser-known tracks. I'm into all kinds of stuff from the 60s to the early 90s - disco, weird 60s stuff, film soundtracks etc.
I'm also available to play this music at bar events and/or club nights, or even private parties. So if you like what you hear, get in touch!
