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Disco Music > Disco People Index > Artists-Producers... > John Davis
John Davis
(Disco producer b. 19--(??) - present)
John Davis and The Monster Orchestra hit New York City Discos in 1975. John went from club to club with test pressings of his album, "Night and Day". I was fortunate enough to get two copies of this heavy vinyl at The COPACABANA. I put it on instantly and watched as the dance floor got full. I mixed each and every song off that album, one after the other. No one left the floor, instead, it got packed with more dancers as I played on. The COPA, the City, the DISCO world would change forever. John Davis and his Monster Orchestra, along with BARRY WHITE and THE LOVE UNLIMITED ORCHESTRA changed the DISCO formula that had existed. DISCO music now was less R&B, more fluid, with a heavier ORCHESTRATED style of music. JOHN DAVIS was very instrumental in developing the new way of DISCO music.
JOHN DAVIS is an arranger, producer and musician. He created the term NEW YORK DISCO. His first album was released in 1976. Called NIGHT AND DAY, and it featured old standards that took on a DISCO form. All of NYC played songs like NIGHT AND DAY, TELL ME HOW YOU LIKE IT, I'VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN, I GET A KICK(out of you) and IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT. The legend was born. The crisp vocals, the fluid sounds, the rhythm,
the orchestration were all different. New. He made music everyone danced to. Dance floors packed, the Disco Balls spun and shined. Disco was at its greatest moment.
His second release followed strongly in 1977. UP JUMPED THE DEVIL was another CLASSIC album. The title song would inspire dancers to HUSTLE again. Once more the floors never emptied. By 1978, DISCO had reached its peak, but not so for JOHN DAVIS and THE MONSTER ORCHESTRA. His peak came later that year with his most commercially successful album, AIN'T THAT ENOUGH FOR YOU. The DISCOS continued to eat it up. The deejays jumped on his band wagon. John made it easy with fantastic production and CLASSIC DISCO introductions and breaks. Deejays executing LIVE re-mixes of AIN'T THAT ENOUGH FOR YOU were commonplace. It sometimes played as long as a half-hour to jumping, jubilant dance floors.
The MONSTER ORCHESTRA wasn't a gimmick, no-one dressed in costumes! It was high praise for the MONSTER musicians that JOHN DAVIS employed. They were a Who's Who of great New York area musicians. It was JOHN DAVIS who made them click on to the DISCO sound he envisioned. They could be the greatest DISCO BAND in the DISCO ERA! JOHN DAVIS had a way about him, a style that resonated DISCO!!
As DISCO started to fade and receive the jealous back-lash of non-disco music and fans, JOHN DAVIS came out with his final album release in 1979. THE MONSTER ORCHESTRA STRIKES AGAIN had two stellar 12" singles. LOVE MAGIC was equal to his prior material while BOURGIE BOURGIE would become the definitive version of the ASHFORD AND SIMPSON penned classic.
DISCO reportedly died in 1980, so too did THE MONSTER ORCHESTRA. The last I know of JOHN DAVIS was that he wrote, produced and performed the "Theme From Beverly Hills 90210" in 1992. I wonder what he is doing today?? And I thank him for yesterday!!
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COMMENTS ON John Davis
I remember hearing Ain't That Enough For You for the first time at THE RAFTERS in Saratoga NY.....I was blown away....the pure intensity of the heavy string laden arrangement....even today this song rocks
Even today this song moves you. One of the DISCO era's real sleepers, we tend to forget these great songs. John Davis was a DISCO genius!
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