MOR/Easy Listening Artists who did Disco during the Disco Era

[Cdnbob]

I'm sure this has probably been covered before on the forum, but I was just wondering what MOR/Easy Listening artists did Disco during the actual disco era? I know there was...

Jack Jones - Theme From The Love Boat/Wives and Lovers
Barbra Streisand - Shake Me Wake Me/The Main Event/Enough Is Enough
Andy Williams - Theme from Love Story
Johnny Mathis - Gone Gone Gone/Begin The Beguine
Ethel Merrman - a whole album
Donny Osmond - Disco Donny & Donald Clark Osmond (albums)
Donny & Marie Osmond - Winning Combination & Goin Coconuts (albums)
Osmonds - Steppin Out (album)
Diana Ross - Love Hangover, I'm Coming Out, The Boss and others
Frankie Avalon - Venus (he was more early 60s pop)
Al Martino - Volare

[BrunoRepublic]

Ferrante and Teicher did an entire album.

[tmob]

There was the Sergio Franchi 12", "Laugh You Silly Clown," we discussed in another thread recently.
Julie Budd had a proto-disco hit with "One Fine Day" (using her first name only) on Tom Cat and a later single on TK.
Abbe Lane also did first name only on her Butterfly LP and 12".
Cheryl Ladd had a 12" on Capitol, "Skinnydippin'."
Broadway composer and performer Cy Coleman had a proto hit with "Chloe," and movie composer-performer Henry Mancini covered Van McCoy's "African Symphony."
50s popster Sunny Gale recorded the early 12", "I Wanna Know."
Dionne Warwick: "Take it from Me," "Once You Hit the Road" and "Got a Date."

There's gotta be a lot more...

[PierreConstantin]

I'm sure this has probably been covered before on the forum, but I was just wondering what MOR/Easy Listening artists did Disco during the actual disco era? I know there was...
Diana Ross - Love Hangover, I'm Coming Out, The Boss and others

Diana Ross, a MOR/easy listening artist?

Peggy Lee: I can't resist you;
Frank Sinatra: Night and day.

[Disco Funk]

There were quite a few MOR artists who tried to move into the cash cow known as disco. Hey, that's where the money was. Some of the easy listening guys like James Last and Henri Mancini, to mention just a couple, dabbled in disco, but mainly as cover versions of big hits of the day. I think Ray Conniff's cover of Chic in the last clip is pretty hilarious.









Disco Funk

[Jay Negron]

ARTHUR PRYSOCK too, right? "When Love Is New" (1976)

[remicks]

*****



Donald Lautrec

you better: knock knock knock on wood .....



as mentioned by tmob :

Julie Budd



and singing some disco:


*****

[JussiK]

Now that 70's American disco has been replaced 99.44% by Euro stuff on European turntables more and more interesting local obscurities see the light of the mirror ball here, including tracks by mor maestros both celebrated and forgotten. Here's just a few.

Francis Lai had several, but this "Disco Bar" is exceptionally good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EoHDbvVCms

Nico Fidenco had this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z68MI...eature=related

Is/was Jane Birkin mor or more like cool pop? Whatever she is/was, she also had her big disco moment in 1975 and like everything else she ever did, it is totally fab:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwoX8kotJ4U

Still, this is the second best of the whole lot, by Elias Rahbani, a famed Greek mor composer, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxeeQCwiOHo

And the very best? The following, naturally. The clip does not contain the full 12" version, though, why did I not find it..?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0ZO1wtiwvg

[tmob]

And, of course, this one...

[SandraDee]

What about Frankie Valli? (is he MOR?)




& Demis Roussos?

[markydefad]

Paul Anka (w/ Odia Coates here)




Lesley Gore: (backed by The Brothers Johnson)



Dusty Springfield:

[markydefad]

Rita Coolidge (w/ Booker T. Jones) OK not technically "DISCO"--but this was played at Trocadero in "morning sets."

[FranceJoliFan]

Herb Alpert, of course:




Karen Carpenter:

[markydefad]

Tony Orlando [ you could almost swear it was gonna be "Stayin' Alive", couldn't you?]




Shirley Bassey:

[FranceJoliFan]

Her voice sounded mellow even on this:

[RobbaDobba]

No one's mentioned FRANK SINATRA yet?!



EDIT: Oops...Pierre did, sorry. But we needed the video anyway!!!

[remicks]

****

Carly Simon !!!!

[SandraDee]

Lesley Gore: (backed by The Brothers Johnson)

I've never heard that Lesley Gore track before Blanche. Is it produced by Quincy Jones & is the LP good? Questions, questions...

[markydefad]

Hey Baby Jane--

Yes Quincy Jones produced this 1975/76 Lesley Gore comeback LP... this track "Sometimes" was charted a couple times by the NYC Billboard Retailers--that's the only mention I'd ever heard. Don't have the LP--but the ballad "Love Me By Name" was covered by lots of singers including Miss Dusty Springfield. Here's the AMG review:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...0:3iftxqu5ld0e

[markydefad]

Don't forget old Ruby Red Dress... is HELEN REDDY ? Well is she? [tongue out]



then in 1983---she came up with this one

[markydefad]

As long as we're going "soft rock" let me add CAROLE KING

This is a great record--would love to hear this in a disco..

[remicks]

As long as we're going "soft rock" let me add CAROLE KING

This is a great record--would love to hear this in a disco..

going off topic a moment to kick this song up a notch ! :





And now back to the topic on hand ....


let us regress:






*****

[markydefad]

again in the "soft rock" vein--this was the "disco" version [by Jim Burgess] of NICOLETTE LARSON'S "LOTTA LOVE"



now some guy [props to DJDiscocat] on YouTube has extended it to 6:36 minutes:

after only one listen [at work] I'd say it's really good!

[RobbaDobba]

Another favorite Carly Simon disco track of mine is the title track to her "Spy" album, but I can't find a video for it.

So, here's another obvious choice, Andy Williams:

[FranceJoliFan]

There was a morning after for Maureen McGovern. And it was perky: