Ages since we had a thread about Disco, who are your best and worst artists. Just they must be artists who had most of their hits in the Disco period, and their music is dance and pop orientated not rock and rollers like Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones who had one token disco song.

Mine are

Best

Donna Summer, such an ethereal voice, the best songs and melodies and the voice that launched a million 70s cocaine fuelled orgasms. Songs like Love to Love you baby, Last Dance, Hot Stuff and I feel Love are amongst the greatest disco songs of all time.

Honourable Mentions : Gloria Gaynor, Boney M, Chic, Grace Jones

Worst

Village People, their music was contrived and stereotypical, they sang badly, had to sing ESOL lyrics and were a walking stereotype that dragged gay rights back 50 years.

Dishonourable Mentions: Ottawan, Disco Duck, Santa Esmeralda, Baccarat,

The DISCO DUCK :-0

Most disco acts were one hit wonders or only played in clubs, so there's few to rate if you're going by popularity. Some of the stuff that was called disco was really R&B and funk.

Best: Donna Summer, for sure.

and Sylvester.

Worst: Grace Jones. I LOOOVE Her. But her disco period was BAD.

(as well...) the Village People. Sincerely never saw what's so fantastic about them, their music sounds too dated for me...

[Edited 1/22/12 9:33am]

My two favorites are Sister Sledge and Donna Summer. I always find that Sister Sledge are incredibly underrated. I used listen to Pretty Baby over and over and over again. For some reason I always find it hilarious that it sounds just like Chic's My Forbidden Lover. (Yeah, I know the producers are the same, but still....)

I do love me some Village People, particularly when intoxicated and with my high school best friend, but yeah, they probably were one of the worst disco acts.

ManlyMoose said:

The DISCO DUCK :-0

Disco Duck is the bomb!

Best: Donna Summer (possibly the only artist who made disco seem like an art form)

Worst: Village People

Best: Donna Summer, Chic, Foxy, etc.

Worst: Ethel Mermon and others like her who tried to jump on the bandwagon.

As for The Village People, hell, I love the Village People. Yeah, they were gay stereotypes but they were masculine stereotypes and masculine is what was considered sexy back then. Yeah, we know of them as stereotypes now but back then, the straight world didn't know what they were doing or what they were singing about. They were all masculine and sexy except for the Indian and the Cowboy who were too fish to pull it off.

MickyDolenz said:

Most disco acts were one hit wonders or only played in clubs, so there's few to rate if you're going by popularity. Some of the stuff that was called disco was really R&B and funk.

Yes

I have just realised the futility of this thread.

Disco Tex

Andrea True

Van McCoy

Silver Convention

Bohanna or whatever his name is

Gibson Brothers

Ottawans

Alisha Bridges

Amy Stuart

Anita Ward

Charo

Odyssey

Candy Station (Young Hearts song)

Shirley and Company

George McRae

Foxy

Le Pamplemousse

El Bimbo

Kano

Pussycat

La Bell Epock

Yvonne Elliman

The Tramps

Not were strictly one hit wonders, but nearly all of them had only 1 or 2 hit songs and 1 or 2 albums. Some like Foxy had bigger careers but really only had the single hit to propel them into the mirror ball limelight.

Also a lot of them came from countries like Italy, Spain, Germany, Neverlands and France and were merely English speaking fronts for continental djs.

Adorecream said:

Van McCoy

Silver Convention

Bohanna or whatever his name is

Amy Stuart

Charo

Odyssey

Candy Station (Young Hearts song)

George McRae

Foxy

Le Pamplemousse

The Tramps

Not were strictly one hit wonders, but nearly all of them had only 1 or 2 hit songs and 1 or 2 albums.

Those had all more than 2 albums.

Best

Donna Summer

France Joli

Cerrone

Chic

KC and the Sunshine Band

Loletta Hollaway

Worst

Village People

Cher

Mecco (Star Wars Theme)

Foxy

M. (Pop Music)

Melba Moore

Adorecream said:

Bohanna or whatever his name is

Bohannon?

Anita Ward

Candy Station

George McRae

The Trammps

Not really disco acts. More like soul singers who made a few songs that were labeled disco. Not any different than Rod Stewart & Rolling Stones mentioned above. The Trammps were a funk band with Temptations like vocal singers. Charo was a Las Vegas style entertainer & actress.

Also Disco Duck is by Rick Dees, not a disco performer. He's mostly known as a radio DJ, but he also released comedy music records similar to Ray Stevens and Weird Al.

Shango said:

Adorecream said:

Van McCoy

Silver Convention

Bohanna or whatever his name is

Amy Stuart

Charo

Odyssey

Candy Station (Young Hearts song)

George McRae

Foxy

Le Pamplemousse

The Tramps

Not were strictly one hit wonders, but nearly all of them had only 1 or 2 hit songs and 1 or 2 albums.

Those had all more than 2 albums.

Le Pamplemousse had more than two albums, I thought there was the one hit - Le Spank, really the French novelty disco act had at least 3 albums

Adorecream said:

Shango said:

Those had all more than 2 albums.

Le Pamplemousse had more than two albums, I thought there was the one hit - Le Spank, really the French novelty disco act had at least 3 albums

Disco Tex & His Sex-O-Lettes - 3

Andrea True Connection - 3

Van McCoy - 14

Silver Convention - 5

Hamilton Bohannon - 19

Gibson Brothers - 8

Alicia Bridges - 3

Amii Stewart - 16

Charo - 17

Odyssey - 5

Candi Staton - 15

George McCrae - 10

Foxy - 7

Le Pamplemousse - 7

Kano - 3

Pussycat - 7

Belle Epoque - 3

Yvonne Elliman - 6

The Trammps - 10

Best: Donna, Chic, KC and the Sunshine Band, Anita Ward ect.

Worst:

[Edited 1/19/12 4:40am]

Donna Summer is definitely the best disco artist.She,along with her producers,took disco music to a whole new level.Her music wasn't just "let's get down tonight and party!"....she was doing bold,innovative stuff like "I Feel Love" (one of the earliest techno songs) and the 'MacArthur Park Suite".On "Hot Stuff",she effectively blended rock with disco.She proved that disco music could be creative and inspired.

Not sure who I would consider the "worst" The Village People were lousy,but even so,I do like a few of their lesser known songs ("Hot Cop","Save Me").

This lady needs no introduction... DONNA SUMMER is the best

1sotrue said:

Best

Donna Summer

France Joli

Cerrone

Chic

KC and the Sunshine Band

Loletta Hollaway

Worst

Village People

Cher

Mecco (Star Wars Theme)

Foxy

M. (Pop Music)

Melba Moore

I'm gonna slap you.

vainandy said:

1sotrue said:

Best

Donna Summer

France Joli

Cerrone

Chic

KC and the Sunshine Band

Loletta Hollaway

Worst

Village People

Cher

Mecco (Star Wars Theme)

Foxy

M. (Pop Music)

Melba Moore

I'm gonna slap you.

I'll bet you get slap back.....It was a toss up between The Trammps or Foxy. Foxy lost the coin toss. Get Off---->Foxy hated that dirty song lol.

Best:

Love the Village People and Disco Tex. It's all about the camp.

The Village People's first album in particular is killer music and groundbreakingly explicit in its overall gay-ness.

As far as the Village People setting back gay rights, it was Miss Donna who loudly spoke out against gays, not the Village People.

runphilrun said:

Best:

They DEFINITLY give Donna a run for her money but they did alot more than disco...

mjscarousal said:

I didn't know where to put this so I'm just gonna leave it here.

1sotrue said:

They actually hated being labeled a disco band they just happened to write and record songs for a film and the backdrop was disco.

Actually, most of the songs on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack had been previously released and not recorded specifically for the film. It was more of a compilation.

1sotrue said:

vainandy said:

I'm gonna slap you.

I'll bet you get slap back.....It was a toss up between The Trammps or Foxy. Foxy lost the coin toss. Get Off---->Foxy hated that dirty song lol.

The odd thing about Foxy was....their two biggest hits ("Get Off" and "Hot Number") feature dominant female vocals on the hook and chorus.Those ladies should have gotten much more credit.They released a few singles without the ladies,and the songs flopped.

1sotrue said:

mjscarousal said:

They DEFINITLY give Donna a run for her money but they did alot more than disco...

They actually hated being labeled a disco band they just happened to write and record songs for a film and the backdrop was disco.

They have said that,in their view,they were actually making R&B music but when the songs were used in the movie,they got labeled as a "disco group".

runphilrun said:

Best:

Damn! Look at those chests! I'm leaking pre-cum right about now!