Disco Queen

[remicks]

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Having interest in this earliest of disco stuff , I decided to scour Markeydefad's Compilation Charts to try to find the first song to use the word "DISCO" in its title. After searching through the initial weeks of song titles that included words like :"dance" , "stomp", "boogie" , "party" , "bump", and "get down" --- I finally found it , the sought for sacred word ..... debuting on *** March 15 , 1975 *** , a song by Hot Chocolate ( you never know what group will wind up having trivia significance ) --- a song called :

******** "Disco Queen" ********



................. I'm not entirely sure why I find this illuminating title so amusing .....

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[QUINNY]

And neither should you, as the song was definitely about a woman being the Disco Queen. No ambiguity whatsoever.

[Bernie]

remicks,
Could you please not put those horizontal rules in your posts please. They stretch the page beyond the browser windows and I always have to edit your posts to fix it. Thanks.

[efunk_adelic]

That was a very well thought out thought... :lol: I thought that I only think of **** like that... hehe and I'm proud to say that I bought that single ... however, that wasn't my first HOT CHOCOLATE record... it was EMMA.

[remicks]

---- The fact remains that the first disco song to use the word "disco" in its title was ..... "Disco QUEEN" ...... not "Disco King ", or "Disco Stud" , or "Disco He Man" , and I remain amused. ......

---- The macho angle is still years in the making ..... it'll have to wait until it's incorporated by .......... ---- The Village People !! :o !!!!

[markydefad]

Yep, I thought of that last night. BOTH Hot Chocolate & Peabo Bryson (couple weeks) had a "Disco Queen" song and then there was "Disco Stomp" by Bohannon. Didn't check the timeline...but I'll take your word for it that it was Hot Chocolate that was first.

[DISCODISK]

now aint this funny both bohannon and hot chocolate BOTH charted u.k pop on 24th may 75 :o :lol:
id put money on bohannon being released first though.

[remicks]

--- "Disco Queen" by Hot Chocolate actually made it to #28 on the Top 100 chart in the USA. That means it was also the first (modest) hit beyond the disco charts to use the word "DISCO" in its title .

Bohannon never did make the coveted Top 40...... ( Hot 100?) Wouldn't be known at all beyond disco fanatics except that a radio talk show host here by the name of Jim Bohannon ..uses the one Bohannon song that chants "Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon ...." as intro bumper music . I bet 99.997 % of his listeners have no idea who they're hearing .

[QUINNY]

I'm surprised there aren't earlier examples, as the word disco had been in common use in the UK for at least 10 years by then. Have to get my thinking cap on. That'll be a struggle!!

It is interesting how the word disco got to be accepted in the USA so late in the day. Less than a year before, KC & The Sunshine Band had made 'Queen Of Clubs' with the lines
"In every night club acrosss the nation,
she's the queen of the the party, a real sensation" or words to that effect.

I'd also bet that Disco Stomp came out first, especially as it was an album track to begin with and Hot Chocolate were very much a singles band back then.

My favourite reference to a disco has to be:
"Gotta go to a disco,
Throw your troubles away,
Dance to the music,
That the DJ plays, (he's doin' alright),
Then the lights come on,
Like you knew they would,
Go home and face the music,
That don't sound so good"

[Greg Wilson]

Chubby Checker's 'At The Discotheque' was issued in 1964. Was this the first instance of the word 'Discotheque' being used in a song title? Checker and The Dovells also released albums entitled 'Discotheque' in 64/65 (not sure which was first).

[QUINNY]

Greg, you're probably onto a good one there, although the word probably had slightly different connotations back then, compared to the mid '70s onwards. It's interesting to think that the word existed stateside and was in the popular idiom, only to be rather disused for quite a few years and largely forgotten about. I'd personally put this down to the USA's obsession with commercialism and success, the very same forces that eventually drove Disco back underground. I guess the early discotheques in the '60s just didn't catch on that much and so....who wanted to know about them?

[markydefad]

I agree that the term "Discotheque" first came into vogue in the U.S. in the mid-Sixties, referring to those clubs in NYC like "Arthur" (run by Richard Burton's ex-wife Sybil and her younger-actor-boyfriend, Jordan Christopher.)

They were dancing to stuff like "Hang On Sloopy" by The McCoys!!!! and "Keep On Dancing" by The Gentrys!!! and "Going To A-Go-Go" by The Miracles, of course.

As a mere child, I saw it all on my TV. It looked sooooo glamorous. :lol:

[remicks]

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UPDATE : ..... research by Markydefad .....

_______________________________________________

*** First Song (to chart) with "DISCO" in the title: ***

Disco Queen --------------- Hot Chocolate ... 3/15/75

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then:

Trammps Disco Theme ------ Trammps ... 4/5/75
Disco Stomp ----------------- Bohannon ... 4/19/75
Disco Queen ----------------- Peabo Bryson ... 5/10/75
Mondo Disco ----------------- El Coco ... 10/11/75

followed soon after by :

Disco Sax
Disco Trucking
Disco Bells
& Disco Gold & Disco Gold 2

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.............. ( you add in ABBA's & Carol Douglas' "DANCING QUEEN" ....plus Paul Jabara's "DISCO QUEEN" & there sure were a lot of dancing disco queens back then )

[buckaroo]

Can someone enlighten po' ol' Buckaroo? Which Hot Choclate are you on about? The UK group with baldy Errol Brown? Or the US band?

[efunk_adelic]

Can someone enlighten po' ol' Buckaroo? Which Hot Choclate are you on about? The UK group with baldy Errol Brown? Or the US band?

UK

[Marcio**]

Van McCoy´s "Disco Baby" and "The Disco Kid" both are from 1975 :)

[Mixmachine]

There is another early Casablanca '75 release with "The Disco Kid" title, produced and written by Hugh Masekela under the 'Disco Kid' band name,, this one for me (don't know how popular it was), is a classic funky piece, heavy bass, lots of cow bells, whistles and party sounds, and a wicket trumpets. I never seen it, but supposedly there is a 12" of this one, only the second one by Casablanca;
I used to (still do) love this lyrics when I was a teenager :o check out why.. :lol:

Everywhere he goes,
he's always looking for a Discotheque,
(Band asks) Who ??
The Disco Kiiiiiiiid, the Disco Kid
Everytime you see him,
He's always looking for a Discotheque
Who?
The Disco Kiiiiiiiid, The Disco Kid

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[SandraDee]

Chubby Checker's 'At The Discotheque' was issued in 1964.

I've got a video with Dave Godin (who was famous for inventing the term 'northern soul' & for being a wonderful human being :cry: ) saying that this Chubby Checker record was the 1st to use the word 'disco'.

[markydefad]

OK, I agree that Chubby Checker used it first.

We're just talking about the use of the word "disco" in a song title on the Billboard Disco charts. That is the Hot Chocolate record "Disco Queen" (3/15/75) Maybe Bohannon's "Disco Stomp" (4/19/75) actually was released earlier..but Hot Chocolate beat it by about a month...in between the "Trammps Disco Theme" appeared (4/5/75).

Van McCoy's LP "The Disco Kid" was mentioned one time...so I need to go back and find that date and add that to the list. OK, I went back and found it mentioned on the 4/19/75 chart--the same week that Bohannon debuted.

[remicks]

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It is interesting to trace back the usage of that word (discotheque) too .... does Chubby's record use the shortened term "disco " ? Isn't it interesting how some of these terms were so little used ...all these other party terms .. ...dance , stomp , boogie .... but slow to use the word disco ----( I wonder how long it took before the word "rap" was first used in a rap record? ..... "soul" in a soul song? ) ----

Somewhere in '73 --'74 "disco" took on a more deliberate meaning .... dance halls were "discos" , and disco became a specific music for them.

I'm still curious as to what other songs/artists back then started using this term ..... it's very cool that disco pioneer Van McCoy could turn out to be "first" to include "disco" in a title.... :D 8) ........We are closing in on this one !!! :D

AND
Still to be determined .... what ( disco era) song first uses the word "disco" in its lyrics ...but not in its title?
8)
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[remicks]

******

No matter which was released first .......

It still remains true that Hot Chocolate's "DISCO QUEEN" was the first song with "disco" in its title to make it onto the charts!

I went back and made that clarification on the previous entry :) !!

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[markydefad]

remicks,

Check your Joel Whitburn Pop Chart book to see if they listed "At The Discotheque." I'll try to look tonight also, cause that record may not have even made the Top 40. AMG doesn't list it in the Chubby Checker singles section.

I know that under titles beginning with "Disco"...Whiburn's first entry would be the Hot Chocolate title.

[remicks]

*****

No "At The Discotheque " listed Marky . There is a song by Ernest Evans (Chubby Checker ) called "DANCE THIS MESS AROUND" ----from April of 1961 . Now there's a title that seems way ahead of its time !!


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By the way all this dance stuff has its rewards ...good ol' C-H-U-B-B-Y married Miss World '62!! :D 8) :D

[originalbigm]

Chubby Checker released a 2 LP album on the Parkway label in 1965 titled "The Chubby Checker Discotheque" but no song on it with the word discotheque.
Here are the particulars.

P-7045 - Chubby Checker's Discotheque - Chubby Checker [1965, 2 LP set] Disc 1: Dancin' Party/Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On/The Fly/Hully Gully Baby/The Jet/The Wah-Watusi/She Wants T' Swim/The Hucklebuck//Let's Dance Let's Dance Let's Dance/Slow Twistin'/Run Chico Run/Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes)/Fishin'/Hava Negela (Twist)/The Bossa Nova/Hi Ho Silver; Disc 2: Dance-A-Long/Lose Your Inhibitions Twist/Popeye (The Hitchhiker)/Mashed Potato Time/The Shimmy/Toot/Limbo Rock/Pony Time//Let's Twist Again/Bristol Stomp/La La Limbo/Mexican Hat Twist/The Mess Around/Mashed Potato Love/The Ray Charleston/The Twist

[remicks]

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------ :lol:

--- "LOSE YOUR INHIBITIONS TWIST " ---

------ :lol: :lol: :lol:



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