Barry White - You're The First. The Last, My Everything

Released in the winter of 1974, this classic soul record was massive in the UK charts. Barry was just having solo success after the hits he produced with the Love Unlimited Orchestra. The song original was based on a previously unheard country track by Peter Radcliffe. Barry changed the lyrics and the title, set it to a disco beat and classic single is made.

The single got to number 2 in America and did better here in the UK and got to number 1 for 2 weeks just before Christmas 1974, which Mud's Lonely This Christmas knocked it off the top for the converted Christmas number 1.

Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip - I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper

Thanks to one of my TV heroes, Kenny Everett, this is where the Hot Gossip story began. Hot Gossip were a dance troupe that were more sexy with the clothes and moves than what Legs & Co were off Top Of The Pops. Kenny Everett had the dancers on his show and used them in odd sketches and because they were mostly gorgeous women, they became well known and talked about certainly at my school and no doubt loads of other schools around the UK in 1978.

Sarah Brightman was in her late teens when she was in the dance group and also was the one who could sing. To cash in the their popularity and of the disco boom they released this camp single I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper and was written by the two guys who were known in the UK as Typically Tropical who got to number one with Barbados in 1975. The song was a tongue in cheek name checking reference to Star Wars, Close Encounters, Star Trek, Flash Gordon and plenty of innuendo for good measure. The song did well and reached number 6 in the UK charts.

They tried to follow up the single with The Adventures Of The Love Crusader but it didn't do that much. Not long after that Sarah Brightman left Hot Gossip to concentrate on her singing career which was to scale enormous height over the next few years. A great song from an amazing show, here's the single

Roxy Music - Angel Eyes

A reformed Roxy Music recorded this classic single in 1979 and originally came off the album Manifesto but in more of a rockier feel to the track. This was the third single to be lifted off the album and to give it more of a chance in the charts, they re-recorded the song with a more disco feel to the song and also released a 12'' version too. This was enough to push the single to number 4. As a result of the single being a hit, copies of the album and CD releases replaced the rockier album track with the single version, I guess to help sell more copies of the album, which itself managed to get to number 7 in 1979.

I always enjoy listening to Roxy Music's singles from mid seventies to their end in the early 80's. They always managed to fill the tracks full of amazing sounding instruments, but in turn you can hear them all and they all sound clear crisp and not muddled at all! Here's the single

Giorgio - From Here To Eternity

Fresh from the futuristic sound of Donna Summer's I Feel Love, her producer Giorgio Moroder carried on the sounds of the synthesizer and produced this sizeable hit from 1977. It was released in September 1977 and reached number 16 in the UK charts. The single was mixed down from a 6 minute album track to produce this single version which was big in the discos along with Donna's single!

The track isn't really remembered that much, I hardly ever hear of people talking about it but it seems the album it came off (named after the single) seems to have been such an influential album in late 70's electronic music. It was one of the first electronic tracks I had heard (along with I Feel Love, Kraftwerk's Autobahn and Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene) and it is what really got me into the sounds of synths and electronic music, that is why I still really love this single. Try and listen to it if you can! Here's the scan of the single

Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free

Released in the hot summer of 1976, Candi Staton scored a huge hit with this song which was from the up and coming disco era of the 70's. Candi, originally was a gospel singer who toured the churches before setting out on a solo career. She teamed up with writer David Crawford and hit number 2 in the UK charts with this song. The lyrics may be of a down trodden subject matter but it was set to an upbeat track to dance to. She had another couple of UK hits before disappearing till the early 80's when she scored with a cover of Suspicious Minds and later again in the 90's with the classic dance track You Got The Love. Today she is still touring and singing on the gospel circuit.

Sparks - The Number One Song In Heaven

Here's the comeback single from the Mael brothers which got them back into the UK charts after several years out of the charts and back home in America. They were influenced by the electronic sounds that Giorgio Moroder was coming up with producing Donna Summer and they wanted to try other areas of music and so they teamed up with Moroder to produce the album Number One In Heaven for Virgin Records.

The single was released in the UK in April 1979 and reached number 14, which was their biggest hit since 1974. To help the single along, it was released in limited edition green vinyl 7'' and red vinyl 12'' which are highly collectable. The band found a new audience but the bands original fans accused them of selling out to the more commercial disco sound that was in the charts, they just wanted to try a different sound.

Here's the single sleeve and the green vinyl single. The first time I heard the single on Top Of The Pops I just had to buy it and if I remember rightly, it cost me the sum of 90p, a bargin in those days!

Abba - Dancing Queen

Probably Abba's most well known worldwide hit, more of a case of where it didn't charts I think! One of the most successful and remembered songs from the 1970's was released in August 1976 off the album Arrival and went straight to number 1 in the UK and in America too. The song became a huge disco hit, even though the single isn't really a disco track and an ultimate party tune that always gets people up dancing! The song had been recorded the previous year and I remember watching a TV show about the band and Freda said in the show how she cried when she first heard the backing track as it had such a beautiful tune, also on the same show, they showed a bit of film of them recording the song with an extra verse that never made the single. Over the years, the members of Abba have said that when they recorded the song, they all knew it would be a massive hit.

It was re-issued in 1992 to promote the issue of the compilation album Abba Gold, which (next to Queen's Greatest Hits) has become the UK's second biggest selling album of all time. I guess that shows just how popular the band were and still are I guess. The song always gets placed high up in the best ever song polls and biggest hit charts of the music channels. A track that has survived the various generations throughout the years and will continue I guess.

Here are the scans of my singles, the first one is the most owned copy of the single, on the orange Epic label

Here is the rarer copy of the single, the first pressing when it got released back in August 1976 on the yellow Epic label. Epic records were just about to revamp the labels design and had come up with the orange version which would last for the next four years.

Kiss - I Was Made For Lovin' You

This is Kiss in their disco era! Paul Stanley had wanted to write a disco song, to prove how easy it was to write one. So he wrote it with Desmond Child and Vini Poncia, changed it around a little and this rock disco song took shape. Paul took it to the band proclaiming he had a disco song to record. The band recorded it but weren't too happy with it as it didn't sound like Kiss but the track sold over a million in the States and managed to reach the top 50 here in the UK. It is off the album Dynasty which also came out in 1979.

Kiss never really had many hits, singles or albums here in the UK in the 70's but it would be the 80's when they did better and became huge concert draws, I saw them live twice in the 80's and they blew me away with the shows, not bad concidering I didn't really like the band till Lick It Up came out in 1983! Here is the scan of my record and label, an Italian import!

Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive

The ultimate song, of finding your own strenght from a breakup, this song I guess is the biggest gay anthem I know as everyone can identify with some line of this song. Released in late 1978 at the height of Disco, I Will Survive originally was going to be on the b side of Gloria's latest single Substitute. DJ's in the disco's picked up on the b side and quickly made that the track they played in the clubs.

The record company quickly started pressing the single with Survive on the a side and quickly began to storm up the charts. Released here in January 1979 the single finally got to number 1 and went gold. The simple video to go with the single is the iconic girl on the roller skates with Gloria singing the track in the night club. The single is one of the most well known disco tracks ever, it is always played at parties and one of those songs that is going to be around for ever!