Search - Various Artists :: Disco Years 2

Uneven collection of disco songs

Ryan A. Rigg | 03/31/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As I have stated in other reviews, I love disco music. During the height of the disco craze ('78-'79), I was a pre-teen (10-12) and not old enough to go out to clubs. I listened to disco music on the radio and dreamed of one day, to paraphrase Chic, "finding my spot out on the floor." My favorite year as far as music is concerned is 1979. Disco was everywhere that year. This CD contains some of the best songs from that year, including: "I Want Your Love" by Chic; "Ring my Bell" by Anita Ward; "I Wil Survive" by Gloria Gaynor; "Ain't no Stoppin' us Now" by McFadden & Whitehead; "Disco Nights (Rock-Freak)" by GQ; "YMCA" by the Village People; "Heart of Glass" by Blondie; and "Got to be Real" by Cheryl Lynn. Those to me are the best tunes on this CD.



There are 3 other songs on the CD that I like, but I don't really consider them to be true disco tunes. Rather, I consider them to be what disco evolved into after it's official death. "Funkytown" by Lipps, Inc. is a great dance song, but to me it is a fusion of R&B and synth-pop. "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang is a pop tune all the way. "Forget me Nots" by Patrice Rushen is probably the closest to disco of these three songs, but by the time it came out in 1982, disco was so dead that it certainly was not referred to as a disco song.



Those are the 11 songs that I like on this CD. Now, as I stated earlier, I was too young to go to clubs during this time. So, the songs included here that did not cross over to the pop chart were unfamiliar to me when I bought this CD. Those songs are "This Time Baby" by Jackie Moore; "I Like What You're Doin' to Me" by Young & Company; "Last Night a DJ Saved my Life" by Indeep; "On the Beat" by The BBQ Band; and "Love and Desire" by Arpeggio. I have grown to like these songs after repeated listens, but I would have preferred them to be replaced by songs with which I am more familiar. Here is a list of songs that I would have chosen over the ones presented here: "A Little Lovin' (Keeps the Doctor Away)" by The Raes; "You Keep me Dancing" by Samantha Sang; "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning" by Thelma Houston; "I (Who Have Nothing)" by Sylvester; "Superman" by Herbie Mann; "Heaven Must Have Sent You" or "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" by Bonnie Pointer; or "Hold on to My Love" by Jimmy Ruffin.



If you only know disco by what was played on the radio, then you are gonna like 11 of these songs and are gonna skip over the other five songs. But the CD is certainly worth owning for those 11 tunes."

Great collection

Ryan A. Rigg | 04/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Five stars just for the rare Jackie Moore track 'This time baby'...
a song of despair, hope, and foreshadowed betrayal. Hoo baby!
Amazingly, this was left off Rhino's Disco Box set. A shame.
Add the layered horn charts and super-funky bass of Chic's
'I want your love' and you have an excellent anthology.
Everything else is icing on the cake."