FLAME WAR FODDER: What was the worst disco record ever made???

[NightTrain]

Poll question: FLAME WAR FODDER: What was the worst disco record ever made???

For every good disco record I've heard (and yes, there were some good ones made back then!), I've been subjected to maybe 25 that ranged from mediocre to putrid. The disco records I chose for this poll both a) did well on the pop charts and b) make me cringe at the thought of ever hearing them again. I've listed the songs in approximate chronological order, from 1974-1981.

And if I neglected to include your all-time worst disco record, feel free to write it in. Happy voting!

[meegbear]

1. These are singles ...

45's. Records are the 33's.

[NightTrain]

4. Excuse me?!

Since when are 45s not considered records? :wtf:

[meegbear]

21. To me a record is a full album

a 45 is a single. Must be a New England thing.

That's :wtf: I'm talking about.

[kmla]

13. I think the generic term 'record' applies to most anything..

.. with grooves, made with vinyl from the early part of the century until the early '90's.

They don't call them "single players", ya know...

Them's all records to me. 33's, 45's, 78's, LP's, EP's, 12" singles, and even the rare record that was played at 16 r.p.m. (I've only seen one in my entire life).

All records. Records, records, records.

[thelocalkgb]

2. I would like to vote other

How about Sesame Disco? Since I am a bit too young for the disco era, all I can remember is Sesame Disco. There is not a more annoying song than "I Lost My Cookie at the Disco" it still haunts me to this day.

[mac56]

3. "Boogie Oogie Oogie" by A Taste Of Honey.

:puke:

[arwalden]

7. I Love That Song... And Everything By "Chic" and "Sister Sledge"

[blondeatlast]

24. Nile Rodgers is da bomb, regardless of what you see on VH1.

[GOPisEvil]

5. Disco Duck is one of the worst creations ever pressed to celluloid.

Ugh...

[nini]

29. Actually that song was meant as a spoof of disco

and people actually liked it for some bizarre reason

:shrug:

[GOPisEvil]

52. People liked it?

Must've been all the cocaine....

[arwalden]

6. I Love All Of Those!

Most Favorite: Donna Summer, Village People, Anita Ward
Least Favorite: Disco Tex, Rick Dees

-- Allen

What? No Bee Gees?

[regnaD kciN]

9. As for me...

Most Favorite: none
Least Favorite: every disco record ever made

:puke:

[TheMightyFavog]

8. Disco Duck....

IIRC, forcing someone to listen to this record is considered a crime against humanity by the UN.

[mmm]

10. The BeeGees were the absolute worst!

Sissy voices, hokey guitar parts, stupid lyrics.
And they were ugly.
Don'ya think?

[davsand]

34. I agree that BeeGees were horrid!

I know they are beloved by many--the Spirits Having Flown album sold huge numbers of copies--but I still hate them a LOT.

I have to admit, however, that Push Push In the Bush was another "fine" bit of work that earned huge contempt with me. I have NO idea who recorded that one.

Man, I miss David who used to be on the old DU--he was my Disco prince! THAT man knew his disco--lemme tell you!

Laura

[kmla]

11. I voted for Disco Duck. Rick Dees is a giant among dorks.

His dork-ness outshines other dorks like a searchlight against a candle. King of the Dorks. Lord God Dork. The All-seeing, All Knowing Ruler of the Dork People. His genetic dorkiness has been traced back through a long line of Dork ancestry.

Shall I go on?

However, somewhere out there, there is a disco version of Stairway to Heaven, produced by some cheesy, unknown disco band. I think they were sued by LZ, and forced to stop distribution of it early on in it's short, monstrous life (re: the movie "It's Alive!).

I'll stop before another obscure reference springs forth from my obtuse, trivia-addled brain...

[PragMantisT]

12. Where's "Shake your groove thing"? n/t

[quispquake]

14. "I Love the Nightlife" by Alicia Bridges

A horrible voice 'singing' a horrible song...

[arwalden]

17. Oh I Don't Agree. I Love That Song. "Act-shoown" I Got So Much To Give!!!

[nini]

23. I think you and I may have been separated at birth :-)

I agree with all your disagreement posts here :-)

[SiobhanClancy]

27. Make that three of us....

I also agree with disagreements herein expressed:)

[Fovea]

15. Deodato's

Disco Also Sprach Zarathustra
caused me to have to replace my sister's car radio.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

16. Hooked on Classics

No doubt in my mind...

[countmyvote4real]

18. Kung Fu Fighting

[kmla]

19. Easy there... You're makin' fun of my favorite song from 7th grade....

"...Everybody was Kung-fu fighting.
HAH!
Those cats was fast as lightening.
HAH!"



:7

[phatkatt]

20. ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:puke:

[alwynsw]

22. All were equally horrible.

[mr_hat]

25. "Hot Stuff" by the 'Stones. Wretched.

[NightTrain]

26. "Hot Stuff" was by Donna Summer. And it was great!

Sure you're not thinking of the Stones' "Miss You," or the even more dreadful "Emotional Rescue?" :shrug:

[mr_hat]

28. Er, no. The 'Stones Hot Stuff was off "Black and Blue" IIRC >

an equally wretched album. Try these lyrics:

Hot stuff
Hot stuff
Hot stuff
Hot stuff
Can't get enough
Hot stuff
Hot stuff
Hot stuff
Hot stuff
Can't get enough
That music is mighty fine
Hot stuff
Hot stuff
I can't get enough
I can't get enough
I can't get enough
That music is mighty mighty fine
Hot stuff
Hot stuff
Can't get enough
Hot stuff
Play it rough
Can't get enough...

[Norbert]

42. Our newspaper critic called it Emotional Miscue

I haven't agreed with him on much but that one sure struck an accord with us.

[sangh0]

30. "Love to love you, baby" - Donna Summer

That was the song that was playing when me and an ex first had sex. After that, she insisted we play that song whenever we had sex. I hated it, but she was so damn good (the ex, not the song) I was willing to put up with it.

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[BlueCollar]

32. Not enough bandwidth

to list them all. They were all equally bad...

[terrya]

33. The ENTIRE Ethel Merman disco album.

Yes, awhile back, I finally heard the legendary disco album by the Merm. And God almighty, it was worse than I thought.

Terry

[oxymoron]

45. heheh...

one of the funniest albums ever.

[ohiosmith]

35. All of them.

[mlawson]

36. Any are better than current top-40.

As bad as some of the disco songs were, they are great, compared to Linkin Park, 3 Doors Down and Staind, IMO. I can't believe that anyone even wastes time and resources recording that crap. I can remember pop music back to about 1955, and to me, it has NEVER been worse.

[MrSlayer]

37. Disco Duck.

And of course my son loved the song a couple of years ago and played it constantly.

[VOX]

38. By definition, they are *all* the worst...

Disco was one of the lowest points in American popular music.

[liberalhistorian]

39. A Fifth of Beethoven

because, as a classical music lover, I hated the trite bastardization of one of the greatest classical pieces. Of course, I paid for actually making my disdain for the song known to my peers (you know how twelve-year-olds are to those who don't conform, lol)!

I look back on a lot of disco now and cring, wondering how in the hell I could have ever even stood a lot of it. Of course, as you say, there was, indeed, some good disco music. I still like Chic and some others. I actually saw Chic in concert in 1980, I think my stepsister and I were the only whites in the entire crowd!

BTW, I know what someone's getting for Valentine's Day and he doesn't know yet!!!!! I can't wait for you to get it, probably Friday or Saturday (hopefully, depending on how fast certain companies deliver certain things).

Hey, at least be thankful there's no disco version of "I Only Have Eyes For You" (and once again, that was just a wonderful and thoughtful gift). Uggghhh, can you just imagine a disco version of that? On second thought, it makes me sick to even think about it!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

40. I hated that one too...

I just always thought "Hooked on Classics" was worse, because it trashed even more nice pieces.

[liberalhistorian]

41. OMG, was that

a piece of shit or what? What REALLY drove me crazy was that damned $(%*(#^*#(%#)*^%# clap track they had through the whole thing!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

43. I worked in a record store when that was popular...

I had to restrain myself from asking customers if they wouldn't prefer the real pieces. Worse still, my DAD bought the damn thing!

[liberalhistorian]

46. And would you believe there

were a lot of kids my age (I was in high school at the time) who thought that album WAS the "real deal?" I was a music major in high school (I went to a private high school thanks to a grandfather's trust fund), and it just made me sick to see that, even though I really shouldn't have expected differently.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

53. You mean Beethoven didn't use

synthesized rhythm tracks? LOL!

[fortyfeetunder]

48. But it kept them away from the good stuff

I was a music student in high school but we thought the renditions of a Fifth and Hooked on Classics were simply parody. After all we were playing the "real thing". I discovered these things in my spouse's music collection....yikes...

[Dees]

44. Opening night at Studio 54.........

[randr]

47. The very first one.

The best disco?
The last.

[Edge]

49. All of them!

[arwalden]

50. I Heard Somebody Say Burn Baby Burn... Disco Infero... Burn Baby Burn!

[arwalden]

51. The Roof, The Roof, The Roof Is On FIRE!! We don't need no water...

... let the mutha fucka burn! Burn mutha fucka BURN!

[grannylib]

54. It all sucked...and today's 'dance music' is just disco by another name

[The Zanti Regent]

55. You forgot Farrah Fawcett's "YOU"

Her answer to Donna SUmmer that put me to sleep within 30 seconds...

[Laughing Mirror]

56. These were for the most part radio records

And are weak facsimiles of the real dance music we were actually dancing to in the underground gay clubs of the day.

And another thing is context. "Get Dancin'" or "I Wanna Dance Wit Choo" by Disco Tex were both so hysterically camp ("Nobody tells me how to wear my hair darling!" that mad Latino queen would screech in the record), that a good more serious DJ could get away with by putting these catchy songs on, lets say, after building up the dance floor momentum with instrumentals and African drums for an hour or so. After all that, after the dance floor was all triballed out, he would drop Disco Tex and the Sex-o-Lettes on the turntable, and the whole place would just explode.

That's just one example of how a DJ could work these more prosaic "disco" records into the trip he planned on sending you on.

The records you have listed here are the ones you could hear playing all day long over car radios. FM stations were adapting disco format all over the country.

We went to the clubs to get away from that music, however. We went to the clubs not only to dance but to learn about other kinds of music. If our great pioneer DJs, some of whom were maestros, such as Nicky Siano and Larry Levan, ever put on junk like "Lady Bump" by Penny McLean, you could almost guarantee it was being done as some sort of a joke. Their crowds were very demanding.