telecode101 said:

MickyDolenz said:

The next #1 hits single was by the Boss, Miss Ross with Upside Down"
I always loved the story of Upside Down as well:

Man, my age is showing... I know all of these songs.

paisleypark4 said:

The next #1 hits single was by the Boss, Miss Ross with Upside Down"
I always loved the story of Upside Down as well:

The song was written by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers (of the band Chic).

In a 2011 interview, Nile Rodgers said "Diana Ross was the first big star we ever worked with and we took it very seriously." Rodgers and Edwards interviewed her for several days. "This was the first time in her life somebody cared about who she was; what she was — everyone previously had treated her the way we had treated Sister Sledge — they got her in and said 'Sing this'. We (took a more personal approach)."[3]

As would be widely reported later, their studio liaison with Ross was not a success. She disliked the results of their sessions and gave them specific remixing instructions; they made slight changes and suggested that if she still did not like them, she could get them remixed herself. Ross did so, reworking the whole album with Motown producer Russ Terrana to downplay the funk element and make her voice more prominent.

Rodgers and Edwards were initially furious, and considered having their production credit removed. They eventually decided to leave the track unedited, as the sound they used for Chic remained heavily influential on the album. The LP became a platinum-selling No. 1 that spent a year on the American chart. Ross left Motown soon afterwards for RCA

Just picked up this album on vinyl last month... In fact, I just now threw it on the turntable. Sounds so good...

[Edited 12/30/21 13:54pm]

I still have not heard the album all the way

In 1980, I was only age 6! Even with disco "dead", there was still pretty of r&b/soul, funk, AND earlier hip-hop/rap tracks on black FM radio stations.

TonyVanDam said:

In 1980, I was only age 6! Even with disco "dead", there was still pretty of r&b/soul, funk, AND earlier hip-hop/rap tracks on black FM radio stations.

Oh they tried it but you know we dont pay no attention

MotownSubdivision said:

paisleypark4 said:

Yup, that's why I chose this year to study. This was the first few months in after the Disco Sucks campaign and as we see, black radio didnt give 2 s***s if they thought it sucked. What also happened is that rock wanted their own chart too.

And they got it the following year; surprised it took so long. Disco didn't just die over night, some songs of the genre were still on the charts. I think "Funkytown" was the final hurrah before the post-disco era kicked in. Strange though that it 'only' peaked at #2 on the Soul chart but was a #1 smash on the Hot 100. [Edited 12/16/21 10:33am]

I definitely consider "Funkytown" as the last disco hit before the era ended. I never heard it until after I had converted over to R&B radio in early 1980 so I consider on one hand I consider it officially as "funk" but because it has that 1979 copyright on the record, on the other hand, I consider it as the last "disco" song to slip through the cracks before the backlash totally took over.

MotownSubdivision said:

Forget what I said earlier... ^^^THAT was the last disco #1 pop hit. I forgot all about it SMH

Naah.... That one is too far into 1980 to slip through the cracks for me to consider it as officially "disco" plus it has that 1980 copyright on it. I remember, by the time that one was on the radio, the disco backlash was in full force and it was horrible. Even though it resembles disco because it was produced by Nile Rodgers, if even the word "disco" was whispered in the same sentence as "Upside Down", the white stations would have never played it. Black stations had no problems with disco but most white people in that era absolutely HATED disco and everything it stood for.

TonyVanDam said:

In 1980, I was only age 6! Even with disco "dead", there was still pretty of r&b/soul, funk, AND earlier hip-hop/rap tracks on black FM radio stations.

Speaking of hip hop/rap, remember, the majority of the stuff that made it onto the radio in those days was at a disco tempo. Most of it was even faster than funk. Fast forward to the early 1990s, I was working in a convenience store up the street from the coliseum. There was a concert one night with 95 South, Dis N Dat, and the 69 Boyz. As for as rap goes, I loved all that stuff because it wasn't boring and you could actually jam to it. I remember there was a large group of black teenagers that came into the store that night and I asked them... "Are y'all going to the concert tonight?".... and they said.... "HELL naw! That wack disco shit!".... I was like.... "What the???".... That really tripped me out. First of all, I was thinking to myself... "What the hell do y'all's little young asses know about disco because you were just being born when it existed?... but then it tripped me out because when I had heard hatred of disco, it had always come from white people, I had never heard a single black person shit on it. And these little brats actually preferred the stripped down, slow boring mess known as "shit hop", over the fast paced good rap of the era. Well, that opened my eyes real quick to the realization that black people are capable of being just as boring as white people and it also shattered the old stereotype that "all black folks have rhythm".

vainandy said:

TonyVanDam said:

In 1980, I was only age 6! Even with disco "dead", there was still pretty of r&b/soul, funk, AND earlier hip-hop/rap tracks on black FM radio stations.

Speaking of hip hop/rap, remember, the majority of the stuff that made it onto the radio in those days was at a disco tempo. Most of it was even faster than funk. Fast forward to the early 1990s, I was working in a convenience store up the street from the coliseum. There was a concert one night with 95 South, Dis N Dat, and the 69 Boyz. As for as rap goes, I loved all that stuff because it wasn't boring and you could actually jam to it. I remember there was a large group of black teenagers that came into the store that night and I asked them... "Are y'all going to the concert tonight?".... and they said.... "HELL naw! That wack disco shit!".... I was like.... "What the???".... That really tripped me out. First of all, I was thinking to myself... "What the hell do y'all's little young asses know about disco because you were just being born when it existed?... but then it tripped me out because when I had heard hatred of disco, it had always come from white people, I had never heard a single black person shit on it. And these little brats actually preferred the stripped down, slow boring mess known as "shit hop", over the fast paced good rap of the era. Well, that opened my eyes real quick to the realization that black people are capable of being just as boring as white people and it also shattered the old stereotype that "all black folks have rhythm".

.

Those kind of brats are always hating on music that make people dance with their feet AND shake their booties. Funk them! I'm too busy having fun listening to some classic 2 Live Crew records.

George Benson "Give Me The Night"is the next #1 Billboard Soul single

vainandy said:

TonyVanDam said:

In 1980, I was only age 6! Even with disco "dead", there was still pretty of r&b/soul, funk, AND earlier hip-hop/rap tracks on black FM radio stations.

Speaking of hip hop/rap, remember, the majority of the stuff that made it onto the radio in those days was at a disco tempo. Most of it was even faster than funk. Fast forward to the early 1990s, I was working in a convenience store up the street from the coliseum. There was a concert one night with 95 South, Dis N Dat, and the 69 Boyz. As for as rap goes, I loved all that stuff because it wasn't boring and you could actually jam to it. I remember there was a large group of black teenagers that came into the store that night and I asked them... "Are y'all going to the concert tonight?".... and they said.... "HELL naw! That wack disco shit!".... I was like.... "What the???".... That really tripped me out. First of all, I was thinking to myself... "What the hell do y'all's little young asses know about disco because you were just being born when it existed?... but then it tripped me out because when I had heard hatred of disco, it had always come from white people, I had never heard a single black person shit on it. And these little brats actually preferred the stripped down, slow boring mess known as "shit hop", over the fast paced good rap of the era. Well, that opened my eyes real quick to the realization that black people are capable of being just as boring as white people and it also shattered the old stereotype that "all black folks have rhythm".

I never thought about that. I think it was because the mood of the music had changed. Once Eazy E started dissing Dr. Dre for being part of electro-hip hop group World Class Wrecking Crew, he totally distanced himself from making any more music like that. Smh. Gagsta Rap started taking over and you had to not dance, not have fun. In turn it crept into r&b as well when those artists started bringing in rappers to produce their songs with them. That was the vibe by 1994.

Mariah Carey also covered this song on her album Glitter in 2000

[Edited 1/13/22 14:10pm]

telecode101 said:

There was a lot of really great R&B in the early 80s. I got into the Ray Parker Jr / Raydio back catalog not long ago. It is really great music.

Rumor has it from what I read, Ray Parker was one of the first people to be brought on to get Prince to make his first records at Warnrs but he left the project. He made really great records and music back then. The last I head of him, he was doing session work on blues records and a Boz Scaggs record.

I love the Ray Parker Jr./Raydio albums.Jams like "For Those Who Like To Groove"."More Than One Way To Love A Woman","It's Time To Party Now","Until The Morning Comes","It's Your Night",etc....some great stuff!

interestingly,the B-side of MJ's "Rock With You" 45 was "Worki'n Day and Night",which also got a ton of radio airplay back then.It could have easily been a single in its own right.Come to think of it,almost every track on 'Off The Wall' could have been a single! That is truly a high-quality album filled with highlights.

vainandy said:

I definitely consider "Funkytown" as the last disco hit before the era ended. I never heard it until after I had converted over to R&B radio in early 1980 so I consider on one hand I consider it officially as "funk" but because it has that 1979 copyright on the record, on the other hand, I consider it as the last "disco" song to slip through the cracks before the backlash totally took over.

it's interesting that,in the summer of 1980,a song like "Funkytown" reached Number One on the charts....at a time when disco was supposedly "dead" kinda proves my point that disco never really died.They just simply labeled it something else.

MickyDolenz said:

MotownSubdivision said:

Disco as we knew it, in it's original, most associated form wasn't doing big business on the pop charts anymore.

I think it is interesting that John Travolta was the face of the 3 main crazes during that time period:

disco (Saturday Night Fever), 50's nostalgia (Grease), & country crossover (Urban Cowboy).

Travolta reportedly turned down An Officer And A Gentleman and American Gigolo as well.

That's who was hot at the time! 10 years later he was acting with a talking baby.

September 12th 1980 Stevie Wonder's classic Master Blaster (Jammin') was released to the world. It spent 7 weeks at #1 in November to December that year.

Three versions include:

Album version

Dub

Radio Edit

Se7en said:

SoulAlive said:

Se7en said:

Travolta reportedly turned down An Officer And A Gentleman and American Gigolo as well.

That's who was hot at the time! 10 years later he was acting with a talking baby.

I think ‘American Gigolo’ is a great movie and much better than ‘Urban Cowboy’ (which seemed forced and unconvincing to me).

Recommended? I never seen it before.

**Last #1 R&B Hit of 1980 is**

Thank for all the comments and likes, info on this year in music. It has been education for me.

paisleypark4 said:

SoulAlive said:

Se7en said: I think ‘American Gigolo’ is a great movie and much better than ‘Urban Cowboy’ (which seemed forced and unconvincing to me).

Recommended? I never seen it before.

I recommend it.Richard Gere took the role and it's a very good movie.

The theme song,"Call Me" by Blondie, also became a big hit single.