Rod Stewart - Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? (1978) - One of the greatest disco tracks ever?

[QUINNY]

Originally Posted by The Boogie Doctor

....which sort of reminds me of 'is it all over my face' by arthur russell and steve d'acquisito (loose joints). people react to that song with either great praise or severe hostility.

I do hope you're not inferring that Is It All Over My Face is therefore, by association, a great record. Thanks for dragging up this old chestnut again.

The reason it provokes such abhorrance or adoration is because those who abhor it actually have functioning ears and brains to make a valid critical assessment and those who adore it.....obviously don't. Guess that puts me firmly in the 'hostile' camp.

As for Rod Stewart et al jumping on the Disco bandwagon......I don't think it particularly harmed any of them, but I did at the time, think it rather naff of most of them to sell out so readily, to earn a few bucks or in an attempt to get their careers back on track. Rod Stewart was one of the few who carried it off convincingly, because his music had always had a relatively high 'fun/good time factor'.

[Graham_Start]

Originally Posted by The Boogie Doctor

....which sort of reminds me of 'is it all over my face' by arthur russell and steve d'acquisito (loose joints). people react to that song with either great praise or severe hostility.

File me under indifferent. I was really curious to hear this song having heard so much about it, and... it really had no impact on me. Don't hate it, wouldn't choose to listen to it.

Maybe it's one of those things where you had to be there to get it.

[remicks]

Originally Posted by The Boogie Doctor

i find it quite interesting that people's opinions on this song are polarised; there has been no sitting on the fence; people either really love it or really loathe it.

In my case, I'm referring to the song's "greatness " not in terms of its' ranking within my own personal tastes ....but "great" in terms of how accomplished the song was.

I think the accolades it deserves is specifically for being the most successful disco song of the entire era that was put out by a non-disco artist ..... (agree ?? was it ??)
And I think it's significant that Rod pulled it off without disorienting his existing fan core. So, against all the other bazillion disco songs of the day , each also dreaming of such gargantuan commercial success - make no mistake about that - it's this one that went to #1 on the Hot 100 in February of 1979. And in a very competitive field at the time , DATIS stayed fixed at Number One for four long weeks ..... selling enough copies to become certified platinum .
That's no also ran footnote of a disco song !!

QUINNY :As for Rod Stewart et al jumping on the Disco bandwagon......I don't think it particularly harmed any of them, but I did at the time, think it rather naff of most of them to sell out so readily, to earn a few bucks or in an attempt to get their careers back on track

See I don't understand the resentment against any act from wherever for giving disco a go ?? Why was doing disco a "sellout" ?? That sounds like a rocker talking!! I'll suggest it was an honor that Rod Stewart applied his talents to the genre and in doing so, so successfully supplied the dancefloor with yet one more very compelling reason to get up and shake its groove thing ....

Sandra Dee: For a brief moment naff acts sounded fabulous & it was all because of disco!

Exactly.... that's the spirit !!


*******

By the way, the song that finally toppled DATIS ?? Gloria Gaynor's I WILL SURVIVE )

[The Boogie Doctor]

The following reviewer gives the song a quite scathing criticism, and takes particular issue with the lyrics of the song. Quite a few interesting pieces of info contained therein too.


"Some people say it was the Atlantic Crossing album, when Rod Stewart once and for all left the U.K. for the glitz of the American nightlife. Some say it was when the Faces broke up. There are even some diehards who were with him up until the simply indefensible 1986 single "Love Touch." But for most people, "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" marks the exact point at which it stopped being possible to take Rod Stewart seriously. For many, it was the fact that Stewart was one of the first high-profile old-school rockers to make the leap into disco; the Rolling Stones' "Miss You" preceded it by a few months, but that song wasn't as much of a conceptual leap for the Stones, who had always had a strong dance and R&B streak in their music. But "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" not only is disco, it's Giorgio Moroder-style Euro- disco, with a synthed-up sound that made it sound like the guy who had sung "Maggie May" was reduced to following trends. More to the point, "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" is just kinda...well, sleazy. The problem isn't even that it's sleazy, because sleaze always has its place in rock & roll, but that it's so banal in its plotline: guy goes out on the pull, succeeds, the pull-ee sticks around in the morning. That's pretty much it, and it's just kind of dull, with little wit and surprisingly, almost nothing in terms of actual sexiness. (For an amusing deconstruction of the song, find ex- Mott the Hoople keyboardist Morgan Fisher's post-punk solo album as the Hybrid Kids, which has a hilariously twitchy proto- industrial take on the song that makes the storyline sound even more banal and mechanical.) And then it turns out that the song wasn't even original: the main hook of the chorus melody ("If you want my body and you think I'm sexy," etc.) was eventually revealed to be a note-for-note steal from Brazilian singer/songwriter Jorge Ben's "Taj Mahal." Ben sued, successfully, and directed that future royalties from the song be donated to UNICEF. "

[Cory Ander]

while we're on the subject of artists ripping off other artists, did anyone catch the PBS special called "John Lennon's Jukebox"? It's quite surprising how many songs Lennon borrowed from other artists without giving them songwriting credit on his records (but he DID acknowledge the source of his musical inspirations on this special). It's amusing that many people consider the Beatles to be SO original but, wow, they "borrowed" much from other people's ideas, especially old R and B songs.....

[disco1999]

This song along with Amii Stewart's Knock on Wood had a huge impact in any clubs I've been in '79, it is not in my all time top 10 disco but pretty close !

[DevP]

Ha, I remember seeing an interview with Gloria Gaynor about this song and she said "the first time I heard "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" I thought to myself, 'give me a break'."

I'm going to have to go with the Queen on this one. Greatest disco track ever? I don't think so. I can think of a couple of hundred others that surpasses it, starting with "Got To Be Real".

[Salsoul1975]

Originally Posted by DevP

Ha, I remember seeing an interview with Gloria Gaynor about this song and she said "the first time I heard "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" I thought to myself, 'give me a break'."

Not to cast any dispersions on the former Queen, but this coming from a singer who can only sing two songs at retro concerts and on TV specials?

[Cory Ander]

I always thought it was a pretty good song but far from being what I'd consider the greatest (it was inspired by the Rolling Stones' "Miss You" as I understand it). It was also VERY overplayed. And while we're on this subject, there's kind of a goth metal remake of it I checked out recently on You Tube, either by Ministry's Al Jourgenson or a band he plays with under another name called "1000 Homo DJs". You may want to try it for amusement but it's pretty harsh.

[The Boogie Doctor]

It's interesting that you say the track was possibly inspired by 'Miss You,' as to me the content and feel of the two respective songs differ considerably. The former is a very blues/R&B oriented track, whilst the latter has more of a Euro vibe and contains a lot more energy. Perhaps the concept behind 'Miss You,' namely, an established rock act making a foray into the disco world, was similar to, and motivated, Rod's track.

[DevP]

Originally Posted by Salsoul1975

Not to cast any dispersions on the former Queen, but this coming from a singer who can only sing two songs at retro concerts and on TV specials?

No, not from a former queen, but from a true original Disco Artist who's qualify to tell the difference between a great disco track/artist and a wannabe. She may be recognized in the pop mainstream for only two songs, but we are talking about Disco Tracks, of which she charted over a dozen on Billboard's Dance/Disco chart.

The fact that she can still sing, at almost 60, and is in demand for "retro concerts and TV specials", by the way worldwide, is a tribute to those "only two songs" of which one of them was voted VH1's #1 Greatest Dance Song of all time.

Long Live The Queen.

[Pierre Declercq]

[/quote]
And the commercial disco 12" of it ...wasn't it the biggest selling 12" of all time ? or something notable like that ...... (???)
[/quote]

By the way, the 12" version is different from the usual 5:40 lp version?

[thommy2458]

And the commercial disco 12" of it ...wasn't it the biggest selling 12" of all time ? or something notable like that ...... (???)
[/quote]

By the way, the 12" version is different from the usual 5:40 lp version?[/quote]

Hi Pierre-The 12" was given a bit of a disco bump by
mixer Jim Burgess so,yes it was different but not in a
huge way.As far as the best selling 12",I thought "Le Freak" was the biggest at that point in time and then
maybe "Rappers Delight"? Not sure..

[Pierre Declercq]

Thank you, that's what i thought.

[SandraDee]

Is that Jim Burgess mix of DYTIS available on any CDs?