Flashback Friday Song of the Day - Blame It On the Boogie - The Jacksons

It's Friday, let's dance...I mean boogie!

Song of the Day - Shame, Shame, Shame - Shirley & Co.

I heard this classic in the supermarket the other day and was boogeying right down those aisles.  Nothing but fun!

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - Rock the Boat - Hues Corporation

Here's a blast from my past, one of the only disco-ish songs I actually liked...and I still love it.  Here's Rock the Boat...

Song of the Day - Superpower - Adam Lambert

I don't believe I have ever posted an Adam Lambert song before, but now is as good a time as any.  This funky number is nothing but pure pop pleasure and I dare you not to move, even just a little.  Here's Superpower...

Hump Day Song of the Day - Love Hangover - Diana Ross

I tell ya, it feels like oldies week here at John's Music World.  First it was KISS, then The Verve, Queen, and now Diana Ross.  I feel remiss that I didn't post a Diana song yesterday, for it was her 75th birthday.  Like KISS, Miss Ross was one of my earlier musical favorites and she will always have a special place in my musical heart.  Here she is performing one of her best hits of the disco era, the sultry, fun, dancey Love Hangover...

Song of the Day - Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston

Oooooohhhh baby

My heart is full of love and it's all for you

Now come on down and do what you gotta do

You started this fire down in my soul

Now can't you see it's burning outta control

Come on, satisfy, the need in me

'Cause only your good lovin' can set me free...

I had planned all week to post this disco classic for Flashback Friday, but alas I was busy moving into my new place and never had the time.  Well just because it's not Friday, that doesn't mean I can't post one of the best dance songs ever.  Here's Don't Leave Me This Way...

Song of the Day - Lucky - Donna Summer

I said the other day when I posted Donna Summer's Love to Love You Baby that I might just post another or two of her songs in the coming days.  Well, here's one I never thought I'd post, but I personally love it so much I just want to share it.  Lucky was a non-single included on Donna's monumental Bad Girls album of 1979 and it dispels any sort of claim that disco music was mindless.  This song combines a masterfully orchestrated dance track with some pretty sad lyrics...a lonely, yet naive girl who's looking for love, but only seems to find the wrong kinds of love.  Check out the lyrics below as you crank up the volume on this one, and if you don't like it then there's something seriously wrong with you!  (I'm just kidding, lol...but it is soooo good!).  Here's Lucky...  

Scared and lonely

Going out for the night

Shakin' all over

And wishing I'd never

Come here

He pulled up in a cloud of smoke

So much was said

But nobody spoke a word

So I took a chance

And he followed me home

I knew he wouldn't beg

So I gave in without fighting

Been so long since I've been this way

Since I loved this way

So I asked him if he would stay for a while

Lucky comes easy

Lucky's not shy

And if you're lucky

You'll go for a ride

For a ride

We talked a while

And he told me nice

We laughed and we cried and

I knew that I could love him

He got up to say goodbye

I said where you going,

He said that he must leave

Lucky comes easy

Lucky's not shy

And if you're lucky

You'll go for a ride

For a ride

Lucky comes easy

Lucky's not shy

And if you're lucky

You'll go for a ride

For a ride

Lucky takes you out for a ride

For a ride

Lucky takes you out for a ride

For a ride

Lucky comes easy

Lucky's not shy

And if you're lucky

You'll go for a ride

Lucky come easy

Lucky's not shy

And if you're lucky

You'll go for a ride

For a ride

Song of the Day - Love to Love You Baby - Donna Summer

Anyone who knows me personally from social media would most definitely have guessed that they'd be hearing a Donna Summer song in today's Song of the Day.  That's because my mom and I went into New York City yesterday to see Summer: The Musical.  Though the show itself left something to be desired, the music was what made it all worthwhile.  

I was always a big fan of Donna Summer and followed her throughout the years and I especially loved her music after her reluctant "Queen of Disco" period.  Alas, without the disco, though, she might never have made it as far as she did.  You may very well see more Donna Summer here this week, but for today here's the song that figured prominently in the musical and it was the one that got it all started for her.  Check out a vintage performance of the sexy Love to Love You Baby...  

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - If You Could Read My Mind - Stars on 54

If you could read my mind love, 

What a tale my thoughts would tell. 

Just like an old time movie 

About a ghost from a wishing well.

In a castle dark or a fortress strong 

With chains upon my feet.

You know that ghost is me

I don't know where we went wrong

But the feelings gone and I just can't get it back

If you could read my mind, yeah!

Here's a little 70's folk song turned disco, 90's style.  One of my all time favorites!  Happy Friday...

Hump Day Song of the Day - Get Off - Foxy

I don't know much about the group Foxy, but I ;earned a lot more just from watching the video.  Anyway, this one hit wonder from Hialeah, Florida had one of the sexiest songs of the disco era and it's still as infectious now as it was then.  Check out Get Off...

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - Macho Man - The Village People

Oh yeah, Pride Month is in full swing now, and here are six guys who were out and proud when it wasn't so cool to be.  Check out The Village People and Macho Man...

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - Makin' It - David Naughton

Today's song is one which I haven't heard in years, but for whatever reason I woke up with it in my head and deemed it worthy for Flashback Friday.  The singer is David Naughton, who was primarily an actor best known for his starring role in John Landis' 1981 classic American Werewolf in London.  Makin' It was Naughton's one and only foray into recorded music and the 1979 hokey disco tune reched #5 on Billboard's Hot 100.  So for what it's worth, check out Makin' It... 

Hump Day Song of the Day - Do You Wanna Funk - Sylvester

Here's a classic Hump Day tune from one of the original divas of disco.  Check out Sylvester in a rare performance of Do You Wanna Funk...

Song of the Day - Trouble - Disco Killerz, feat. Alida

I don't know about the name of this act, but seems like they're not killing disco, they're reviving it. Ah, this is one of those tracks I like to call neo-disco because it's got that feel and it's so easy to dance to!  Trouble is a song that takes a couple of listens to sink in, but when it does, you'll be swaying' your hips in no time...

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - Do You Wanna Funk - Sylvester

We go way back to 1982 with a post-disco era classic by recording artist Sylvester, a pioneer who paved the way for trans artists we see all over the place today.  Great song, great artist!  Enjoy...

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - Try Me, I Know We Can Make It - Donna Summer

During the past week I've reconnected with the late, great Donna Summer.  The so-called 'Queen of Disco' was surely that, but even after the disco died she was still a whole lot more.  I joined Spotify as a premium member last week and I got to revisit some of the great tunes she created after the disco was gone, songs from her eponymous 1982 album, 1980's The Wanderer, and 1989's Another Place and Time.  Great songs, great memories, but today I'm in the mood for some disco Donna, and here's a classic from her 1976 A Love Trilogy.  Check out the sultry, sexy yet somewhat tender Try Me, I Know We Can Make It...

Pride Weekend Song of the Day - I Am What I Am - Gloria Gaynor

jerbearinsantafe

It is officially Pride Weekend in New York City, and here's one of the very first anthems ever to inspire pride not only for LGBT's, but for anyone who may be 'different' than the rest.  The tune dates all the way back to the disco era, and though Gloria Gaynor may be famous for her other anthem, I Will Survive, this one's just as inspiring...

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - Do You Wanna Funk - Sylvester

Before there was Rupaul, there was Sylvester.  Sylvester James, Jr. was a singer-songwriter from Los Angeles who was really a pioneer of his day.  Sylvester's falsetto voice, catchy lyrics and funky beats helped him score a few hits during the late years of the disco era, including Dance (Disco Heat) and (You Make Me Feel) Mighty Real  His androgynous appearance was considered outlandish at the time, though today we'd think nothing of it.  Sadly, Sylvester died from complications from AIDS in 1988.  His music, though, lives on.

Here's one of my favorite Sylvester songs, and one of my all time favorites.  It's the catchiest of tunes with the funkiest of beats.  I can't listen to this one and not dance.  Enjoy and Happy Friday!  

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - Boogie Wonderland - Earth, Wind & Fire

Maurice White 

December 19, 1941 - February 3, 2016

Yet another celebrity has been lost as Maurice White, founder of the hugely successful R&B/disco band Earth, Wind & Fire, has passed from complications of Parkinson's Disease.  We celebrate his legacy with this, one of the band's most successful songs, Boogie Wonderland...Enjoy!

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - Heartbeat - Taana Gardner

Here's a Flashback Friday all the way back to late in the disco era.  The year was 1981 and this instantly recognizable funky disco groove hit the airwaves, and dance floors, with abandon.  Indeed the track to this one is so funky, so irresistibly hot, that it's been sampled time and time again (remember Ini Kamoze's Here Comes the Hotstepper?).  And for those of you who may not have been around back in 81, you may recognize the same tune from 1990, when the all girl group Seduction remade the song into a Top Twenty hit.  Either way, this one's a bit too old to have a video, so it's just an audio track here today, but that shouldn't stop you from hitting the play button below and jamming out while you get ready for your Flashback Friday...