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

[The Boogie Doctor]

If ya want my body and ya think I'm sexy, come on baby let me know.
If ya really need me, just reach out and touch me, come on baby tell me so!

The greatest (or perhaps trashiest) disco song ever released?

The Boogie Doctor

[QUINNY]

It's certainly a record that has stood the test of time (albeit as a perfect example of Disco Cheese nowadays).

I wonder if Jorge Ben ever received any royalties for his toon being nicked by Rod. Oh! I see he didn't, BUT UNICEF did.

* Do ya know? A plagiarism lawsuit by Brazilian singer-songwriter Jorge Ben Jor confirmed that Rod's song was derived from Ben's composition "Taj Mahal". After the lawsuit, he agreed to donate all his royalties from the song to UNICEF. The international hit was co-written with drummer Carmine Appice.*

[Dayna]

One of the Greatest Disco Tracks Ever?NOOOOO
One of the better "let me cash in on the Disco Craze Songs" ? yes
I would much rather hear him do what he did best ..such as "Maggie May" Etc..

[BrunoRepublic]

I wonder if Jorge Ben ever received any royalties for his toon being nicked by Rod. Oh! I see he didn't, BUT UNICEF did.

Yeah, when the similarity was pointed out, Stewart realized he'd unwittingly ripped off a song he'd heard while partying in Brazil and immediately acknowledged his plagiarism. Thus he gave all the money to UNICEF... which would've been a fair bit, wouldn't it? Wasn't this Stewart's biggest hit? (much to the horror of his established fan base...) I remember it was absolutely huge and at the top of the charts for what seemed like months.

[Videoskooter]

I wonder if Jorge Ben ever received any royalties for his toon being nicked by Rod

It's obvious, not:icon_lol:

But Disco cheese or not, it's a great track!!! What'd ya want huh, he's got an Italian drummer, Carmine Appice, brother of Vinny from Brooklyn!

Blondes do have more fun, n'est-ce pas, Dayna? :icon_lol:

[disco-disc]

YES....ROD's tune WAS great !!!!!!!!!!!!No Question....It made people DANCE...and that is good enough for me !!:icon_biggrin:

[RobbaDobba]

Best DISCO track...no.

Best disco-ish ROCK track? Possibly. It's up there with the Stones' "Miss You" and Kiss' "I Was Made For Loving You" in my book.

But, I never considered it Disco, personally...

[Salsoul1975]

One of the most successful charting songs for that elusive "Disco Not Disco" genre. I have always loved this song, and I don't understand why it gets such a bad rap from his fans. Does anyone recall the Stones getting similar treatment when they released "Miss You" roughly six months prior? Maybe it was the spandex....:icon_razz:

[discophil]

Hated this song when it came out, still hate it today.

Best disco song? Not by a long shot. A lllloooooooooooonnnnnnnnggggg shot. I, personally, don't even classify it as disco and don't have a copy of it anywhere in my vinyl collection (although, it has snuck its way into some of my CD compliations, but I can't help that).

[Cdnbob]

:icon_eek::icon_eek::icon_eek::icon_evil::icon_evi l::icon_evil: This is one song I'd personally burn every copy of in existence. I can't stand this song and everytime I hear it it makes me think of a sketch Joan Rivers use to do in her comedy routine where she'd imply Rod Stewart was butt ugly!

[remicks]

******

I prefer the big tent disco policy.
i.e. ..... come one, come all ... room for all & the more the merrier..... :icon_cool::icon_mrgreen:

Back then I looked forward to which established artists might next explore the forbidden disco territory. Never considered it jumping on the bandwagon , but rather about which artists were being a little more open minded in the areas of music they wanted to explore. I always gave them credit for trying even if I wasn't always impressed and always hoped for the best .
When superstar Rod Stewart joined the disco party it was one more (((BIG))) feather in the cap of disco :icon_cool: and that song packed the floor without fail at its peak .....


.....speaking of which where did DYTIS peak on the disco chart ?????? :icon_confused::icon_confused:


One of the "greatest"? Absolutely.
And the commercial disco 12" of it ...wasn't it the biggest selling 12" of all time ? or something notable like that ...... (???)




(I'm also not so sure his overall fan base rejected it. I believe Rod found the song to be mandatory fair at his concerts then and since .... )


******

[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. this seems to indicate to me that there is something very strong in the content of the music that people either react positively or negatively to. the fact that a piece of music can provoke such strong emotional and psychological responses makes it fascinating.

[SandraDee]

******

I prefer the big tent disco policy.
i.e. ..... come one, come all ... room for all & the more the merrier..... :icon_cool::icon_mrgreen:


******

I agree with you remmy; imitation is the sincerest form of flattery & all that! I could never stand Mr.Stewart & his gravelly din of a voice but I always liked DYTIS. I liked many of the disco records by 'non-disco' artists such as Ann Margret, Bryan Adams, Johnny Mathis etc.etc. For a brief moment naff acts sounded fabulous & it was all because of disco!:icon_razz:

[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.

[SandraDee]

the fact that a piece of music can provoke such strong emotional and psychological responses makes it fascinating.

That's why we all find music so interesting. It's so subjective; peoples' tastes are as unique & hard to understand as their personalities.

[QUINNY]

....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. :icon_evil::icon_evil::icon_evil: Thanks for dragging up this old chestnut again.:icon_mrgreen:

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.:icon_lol::icon_lol::icon_lol: 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'.

[BrunoRepublic]

....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]

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 !! :icon_biggrin:

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 !! :icon_mrgreen::icon_mrgreen:


*******

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

[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". :icon_cool:

[Salsoul1975]

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.