top ten commercial Disco hits

[graeme]

hi there folks, i'm doing a project at college on disco. what i need is a top ten disco hits list. it has to be songs that had commercial success in regards of chart and radio play. thanks for your help and hopfully you will have helped me pass my assesment

[Funky Dude]

I'm suprised no one has answered your question since most disco fans would know the top ten commercial ones. Anyhow I wasn't alive in the 70's but I have a fair idea of what was in the top ten since I do a bit of disco research here and there and have listened to retro radio which belts the shit out of the same old disco songs. From what I've read in the USA Billboard charts book that I sometimes borrow from the library here are some disco songs that made it within the top 10 USA charts:



Village People - YMCA 1978

KC & The Sunshine Band - That's The Way I Like It 1975

Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive 1977

Johnny Taylor - Disco Lady 1976

Jackson 5 - Dancing Machine 1973

MFSB - TSOP 1973

B.T. Express - Do It 'til You're Satisfied 1974

B.T. Express - Express 1974

Bee Gees - Jive Talkin' 1975

KC & The Sunshine Band - Shake Your Booty 1976

Dionne Warwick & The Spinners - Then Came You 1974

Chic - Le Freak 1978

Donna Summer - Hot Stuff 1978

Silver Convention - Fly Robin Fly 1975

Silver Convention - Get Up & Boogie 1976

Donna Summer - Bad Girls 1979

Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive 1978

Meco - Theme From Star Wars 1977

Donna Summer - I Feel Love 1977

ABBA - Dancing Queen 1976

Rod Stewart - Do Ya Think I'm Sexy 1978

Ottawan - D.I.S.C.O. 1979

Kool & The Gang - Jungle Boogie 1973

Kool & The Gang - Hollywood Swinging 1973

Kool & The Gang - Celebration 1980

Eddie Kendricks - Keep On Truckin' 1973

Eddie Kendricks - Boogie Down 1974

Van McCoy - The Hustle 1975

Hues Corporation - Rock The Boat 1974

KC & The Sunshine Band - Boogie Man 1976

KC & The Sunshine Band - Get Down Tonight 1975

Ohio Players - Love Rollercoaster 1975

Village People - In The Navy 1979

Village People - Can't Stop The Music 1980

Isaac Hayes - Theme From Shaft 1971

Temptations - Papa Was A Rolling Stone 1972

Donna Summer - Last Dance 1978

Bee Gees - Night Fever 1977

Bee Gees - You Should Be Dancing 1976

Trammps - Disco Inferno 1976



and the list goes on and on.

[discodjinn]

You ask a most difficult question. The Top Ten of any music style can be determined in a number of ways. Many variables have to be considered. You will have to make clear the parameters you think are most important.



For example, what time frame will you consider? Many people say that the height of the disco era was 1976 to 1980. However, there were certainly many big hits from the earlier 70's as well as several in 1981 and 82.



Also, how will you define "disco?" There were many pop acts, soul groups, funk outfits, and others who hit with danceable singles during this time period. You might consider limiting your selection to groups that were more or less constrained to disco and dance music.



Another complicating factor is that disco music was not only sold and played on the radio like other pop music, but also was rated for frequency of play in the clubs. Some of the hits were released in 12" format, which did not count in most music charts. Oftentimes the most popular club music didn't make the Top 40, while some Top 40 hits were not well received in the clubs.



Most music charts like Billboard and Cashbox during the 1970's assessed 7" singles' sales and radio play. There were some separate charts for 12" sales and club play, but these are difficult to locate today. They ranked the singles in terms of U.S. sales and radio play only. European, Asian, and other sales and radio play are not included in these charts. This means that you must decide on how globally you want to define the disco Top Ten.



Even with these parameters specified, there is variation in how to rank hit songs. Just because a song is No. 1 in a given year, it may be a bigger or smaller hit than the No. 1 hit of another year. Thus, even Billboard Publications contradicts itself in various books:



The volume titled Billboard Top 1000 singles 1955-92, published in 1993, rates singles based on weeks at No. 1, weeks in the Top 10, and weeks in the Top 40. It ranks these disco songs (with two extra in case you don't define each of these as "disco")...

1. Night Fever (#19)

2. Le Freak (#39)

3. Call Me (#49)

4. Best of My Love (#67)

5. Bad Girls (#67)

6. Upside Down (#101)

7. Stayin' Alive (#103)

8. Rock With You (#135)

9. Funkytown (#138)

10. Hot Stuff (#175)

11. I Will Survive (#177)

12. Boogie Oogie Oogie (#182)



At the same time, Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 hits, authored by Fred Bronson in 1995, ranked the top 5000 songs of the years 1955-1994. It looked at weeks at No. 1, in the Top 10, in the Top 40, and in the Top 100. This is how the disco songs stacked up...

1. Le Freak (#53)

2. Call Me (65)

3. Stayin' Alive (69)

4. Night Fever (75)

5. Best of My Love (100)

6. Upside Down (80)

7. Celebration (124)

8. Hot Stuff (130)

9. YMCA (136)

10. Rock With You (139)

11. Do Ya Think I'm Sexy (173)

12. I Will Survive (176)

13. Boogie Oogie Oogie (188)



Another reference book you might want to peruse is Million Selling Records by Joseph Murrells, 1984. Good luck and happy listening.

[markydefad]

Wow, good job! I'm impressed with your handling of a very tricky question with such skill. At last, another Billboard Chart Freak! A lotta folks around here are not too fond of the charts, but I love 'em. My hope was that the Joel Whitburn Record Research folks in Wisconsin (my home state) were gonna do a stats book on the Dance Charts, as they had indicated when I purchased the R&B charts book from them. Apparently, they were sidetracked by other things and never got around to it, YET. I hold out hope that they may undertake that project sometime in the future.



Anyway, welcome to the board!

[HustleBaby]

Here is a list of the most common and commercialized disco hits:



1. YMCA/Macho Man - Village People

2. I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor

3. Stayin Alive - Bee Gees

4. Do The Hustle - Van McKoy

5. On The Radio/Last Dance - Donna Summer

6. Boogie Oogie Oogie - A Taste of Honey

7. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Santa.E

8. Come To Me - France Joli

9. Shake Your Booty - K.C & The Sunshine Band

10.Disco Inferno - The Trammps



*DISCO DELIGHT*

[discodjinn]

To graeme:



My obsessive-compulsive side got the better of me last night, and I had to look up an additional set of stats for your question. To illustrate the difficulty of ranking disco songs, consider the Billboard sales charts of 12" singles 1976-80. Again, comparisons can't really be made across years, because all Top 5 of one year may have been bigger-selling than the No. 1 of another year. However, in deference to the assignment you have, here are the top two selling 12" records:



1976: Don't Leave Me This Way, Thelma Houston

Spring Affair, Donna Summer

1977: Overture, D.C. LaRue

Quiet Village, Ritchie Family

1978: Shake Your Groove Thing, Peaches & Herb

MacArthur Park Suite, Donna Summer

1979: Born To Be Alive, Patrick Hernandez

Contact, Edwin Starr

1980: Call Me, Blondie

Fame, Irene Cara



As you can see, there is no correspondence between this list and the 7" radio lists above (except for Blondie). Disco was (and is) a many-faceted thing.





To markydefad:



Thanks for the warm words! I'm not always as statistics-minded as I come across here. I can understand the ambivalence many people have for Billboard charts. Who wants to quantify something so personal, so artistic as music? But there is a valuable history in the Billboard columns, starting with Tom Moulton's contributions. Plus, for me they are a way of identifying records I missed during the 70's (and there were MANY I missed).



About four years ago I saw at the very bottom of the Dance Charts page of Billboard magazine an ad for books that compiled the Dance Music Charts. Each book contained a decade's worth of charts, 70's, 80's, and 90's. They cost $75 each. I procrastinated in ordering mine and then lost the slip of paper with the information. I had thought they were compiled by Billboard publications, but I can find no trace of them in the Billboard website or elsewhere. Egad! I've regretted that procrastination ever since! Maybe as you note, there will be something forthcoming.

[jim]

On 2002-01-03 13:05, discodjinn wrote:

To graeme:



My obsessive-compulsive side got the better of me last night, and I had to look up an additional set of stats for your question. To illustrate the difficulty of ranking disco songs, consider the Billboard sales charts of 12" singles 1976-80. Again, comparisons can't really be made across years, because all Top 5 of one year may have been bigger-selling than the No. 1 of another year. However, in deference to the assignment you have, here are the top two selling 12" records:



1976: Don't Leave Me This Way, Thelma Houston

Spring Affair, Donna Summer

1977: Overture, D.C. LaRue

Quiet Village, Ritchie Family

What about Peter Brown?

1978: Shake Your Groove Thing, Peaches & Herb

MacArthur Park Suite, Donna Summer

Groove Thing to my knoledge was never released commercially.

1979: Born To Be Alive, Patrick Hernandez

Contact, Edwin Starr

What about Rapper's Delight? I remember reading somewhere I think it WAS Billboard,that that was THE BEST SELLING single of 1979! There was NO commerical 7" during its chart run (#14 Disco,#4 RnB,a suprisingly LOW 36 pop)



ALL 12"s.



BTW where's chic?

1980: Call Me, Blondie

Fame, Irene Cara



As you can see, there is no correspondence between this list and the 7" radio lists above (except for Blondie). Disco was (and is) a many-faceted thing.