Jack Jones Cemented In Disco History For Singing The LOVE BOAT THEME

[remicks]

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Mention disco to some less familiar ears and they might right away answer "you mean music like this?" ....





and sure....... that too is a part of it !!

sung in crystal clear tones by 60's Sinatra pal, twice Grammy award winning - Jack Jones .

Here is Jack Jones in 1965 singing MORE before it became a disco staple found on nearly every early disco album :



Jack sang STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT BEFORE Frank Sinatra :

minus the doobie doobie doos ......


His biggest record though was a song called WIVES AND LOVERS , a Burt Bacharach song tipping off women on how to keep your man . It peaked at #14 on Billboard's Hot 100 in the fall of 1963.

.....which leads us then to the grand finale of this thread.

As if singing LOVE BOAT weren't enough to solidify Jack's disco credentials .....
In 1979 Jack Jones updated his biggest hit from the early sixties .... meaning

yep ... you got it ... that's right! .... he re-did WIVES AND LOVERS

disco style !!!




at 5:24 ..... I suppose you thought it was all over ..... no no no no !





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[Disco Funk]

Thank you for posting that last track, Remicks! I really like it! I was expecting something campy and cheesy, but its really good and funky. Jack's vocals were really good! I didn't see any listing for a 12inch release, which is too bad. I think it was only available on an LP he put out in 1979. Really nice! I can't find the credits anywhere, but I'm wondering if it will turn out it was recorded in LA. It sounds similar to a lot of the LA stuff, like the Roller Boogie sdtk music you posted.

Disco Funk

[70spop]

Originally Posted by Disco Funk

...that last track.... I was expecting something campy and cheesy, but its really good and funky.

I'd say it's all of the above.

Not too bad taken on its own thirty years after the fact and as an archeological find (and in the ears of those of us who are inclined to like it), but truthfully that's exactly the kind of stuff that contributed to mainstream America becoming fed up with Disco. Take a has-been white singer and remake their old hit(s) over a pretty generic (if catchy and smoking) disco score and hope to cash in on the craze.

Of course, Jack had a good lead-in thanks to the Love Boat Theme, which was heard by millions each week.

Brian

[70spop]

Any idea where that original TV show version of the song can be found on cd? That has always been one of my favorite TV theme songs. The song was remade as a single (and barely scraped the bottom of the charts in 1980 or so), but the music is more disco-fied and the vocals more bad-lounge-ified. Rhino has that (bad, imho) version on one of its Tube Tunes cds. It's also listed on a Television's Greatest Hits cd, but I don't know which version it is.

Brian

[markydefad]

The full-length disco version of "Wives And Lovers" by Jack Jones is on this cd....

Burt Bacharach: Lounge Legends

allmusic ((( Burt Bacharach: Lounge Legends > Overview )))

[70spop]

OK, I found the "Love Boat Theme" on this cd:

Amazon.com: All-Time Top 100 TV Themes: Alan Ari Lazar, Alexander Courage, Angela Morley, Arnold Margolin, Benny Golson, Bill Conti, Bruce Broughton, Carding Cruz, Charles Fox, Chris Seefried, Chuck Barris, Dave Kahn, David Lawrence, David Mook, Dick

exactly as in the YouTube above. LOTS of other fun stuff on it, but a few are different versions of the themes than I'd have liked. Oh well.

Also, the Love Boat Theme was cowritten by Paul Williams...




who was on The Love Boat at least once a month. (Or so it seemed)

Brian

[Disco Funk]

I got my hands on the Jack Jones LP, which was called 'Nobody Does It Better'. Unfortunately, most of it is sappy ballads. But it turns out that 'Wives & Lovers' and 'The Love Boat Theme', the only dance tracks on the LP, were both arranged by the same guy who produced this track



Can you guys guess who?

Disco Funk

[remicks]

Originally Posted by Disco Funk

I got my hands on the Jack Jones LP, which was called 'Nobody Does It Better'. Unfortunately, most of it is sappy ballads. But it turns out that 'Wives & Lovers' and 'The Love Boat Theme', the only dance tracks on the LP, were both arranged by the same guy who produced this track

Can you guys guess who?

Most interesting !!!!


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[discohunter]

Originally Posted by remicks

*****

Mention disco to some less familiar ears and they might right away answer "you mean music like this?" ....





and sure....... that too is a part of it !!

sung in crystal clear tones by 60's Sinatra pal, twice Grammy award winning - Jack Jones .



*****

Never realised Fred Grandy was on the Love Boat...he played Chris, Carol's boyfriend on Maude around '73.

Jamie

[70spop]

Originally Posted by Disco Funk

I got my hands on the Jack Jones LP, which was called 'Nobody Does It Better'. Unfortunately, most of it is sappy ballads. But it turns out that 'Wives & Lovers' and 'The Love Boat Theme', the only dance tracks on the LP, were both arranged by the same guy who produced this track

Can you guys guess who?

Disco Funk

Based on the sound and the label, I'm going to guess... Harry Wayne Casey aka KC? That track sounds a lot like early KC & The Sunshine Band tracks - the ones that didn't become disco smashes.

Brian