MUSIC ARCHIVES

The Best Hits By Big Stars Riding The ’70s Disco Wave

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"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" was a huge disco hit for Rod Stewart, not the first person you'd think of for a dance-floor boogie anthem. But Rod's husky voice was so incongruous and his performance so committed that it totally worked, even if the theme had a certain fromagey-ness.

Disco was so big in the 1970s–and it will be big again at my upcoming event–that huge names rode the spandex waves by putting out unexpected dance songs, some better than others.

Here are the most memorable to my eyes (and my dancing thighs).

"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" was a huge disco hit for Rod Stewart, not the first person you'd think of for a dance-floor boogie anthem. But Rod's husky voice was so incongruous and his performance so committed that it totally worked, even if the theme had a certain fromagey-ness.
A similar song of sexual desperation, "Take Me Home" was very big for Cher, whose sultry stylings made this a soft and intimate dance-floor respite from the more pounding thump-thump tunes. Every time they played this, the entire crowd wanted to go home and mate--but not until the end of the song.
Maybe the weirdest disco song of all was "Baby I'm Burning," a surprise dance hit for Dolly Parton, who normally specialized in down-home stuff like "Jolene" and "Coat of Many Colors". But this one sizzled, with a driving, percolating beat, and Dolly made you dance as if you'd cannonballed out of the Ozarks with your boogie woogie dancing shoes in partying mode.
Motown superstar Diana Ross had a smash with "Love Hangover," a sexy murmuring that erupts into full-throttle, euphoric disco and has you agreeing "I don't need no cure" for a song this hot. She went on to have many more disco hits (like "I'm Coming Out" and "Upside Down") and became the defining big-star-turned-disco-who-turned-disco-OUT.

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