CLAUDJA BARRY

Claudja Barry was one of the few artists who had a very successful transition from the disco era right up into the 80's.  Born in Jamaica her family moved to Canada wen she was 7 and she was raised in Toronto.  Her first release in 1975 Reggae Bump didn't make much of a stir.  But the next year and signing to Salsoul brought out the classics Sweet Dynamite and Love for the sake of Love.

These Tom Moulton mixes are about as classic disco as classic disco goes.

In this post I've chose to give her a retrospective.  Her most well known disco classic is from 1978, Boogie Woogie Dancin' Shoes.  Another production by Jurgen S. Korduletsch, dancin' shoes really had that Euro sound that had burst wide open a few years before with Donna Summer's I Feel Love. Korduletsch her one time producer and husband had his hands on most of her releases.

1982's Work Me Over bridged the next gap from Euro to out and out High Energy.  And what would you expect with the production being trusted to the legendary Bobby O?  She was also the vocalist on one of his album cuts Whisper to a Scream.

The clubs I was going to in Washington, D.C. pumped Work me Over in a big way, in 1982 and 1983.  I remember dancing to it fondly.  It left it's mark.  The B side a Hi Energy version of the 60's hit I Will Follow Him also got play but not nearly as much.

I CLAUDIA LP Down and Counting in 1986 marked the first time she made it to #1 on the dance charts.  It was also part of her short lived period on a major, Epic.  Unfortunately she had no more big hits with them.  But she did come back with a Top 10 in 1991 on Radikal Records No La Di Da.

She's had 9 full length albums spanning the years 1976 to 2015, just under 40 years of dance music delights.

A Ton of Claudja

What a beautiful woman.  You can add her in Facebook.  She's very friendly and will engage with you.

Claudja

Don't Stop, Don't Stop the Music Oh No, Don't Stop the Music!!!!! BAY CITY ROLLERS DISCO DISCO DANCE GEM

Refreshed links
Yes I was Bay City Rollers smitten but come on guys I was not even a teenager yet!

OH NO DON'T STOP THE MUSIC!

MASSIVE DISCO REMIX of the the Bay City Rollers compliments of the Canadian Record Pool in 1977.

Those guys must have had a hot thing going. They actually were responsible for several mixes which were big crowd-pleasers in the states. I don't think I ever saw mixes in the states credited to a record pool though clearly most of the guys doing the mixes back in the day were in the pool that David Mancuso put together in mid 1975. From whose ashes later rose Judy Weinstein's For the Record. A pool which has featured all the big New York star d.j.' over the years and up until it folded, not that long ago. This batch featured the Superstar New York City DJ Kings like Junior Vasquez, David Morales and Frankie Knuckles.

David Mancuso wiki

In this vintage photo we have Judy, RCA's Tony King, T.O. Featherstonshaw, Jane Brinton and a young and dashing David Steele from Polydor.  It was taken at The Paradise Garage for the 1 1/2 year anniversary of For the Record.

I mean hell the Bay City Rollers! The boys 'o tartan from Scotland making the boogier's get their grooves on in serious disco's in places like New York City and London and L.A.  Peaking at #24 on the Billboard Dance Charts in 1976 on import.

Well they did just that. Had it been picked up in the States it probably would have been even more massive. It only got a 45" 7" release there.

At the time I didn't know a thing about this 12". If I had I would have gone to great efforts to get my allowance together to buy a copy. I was definitely a rollers fan and not just for their only #1 pop hit in the states, Saturday Night (S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT). I think I had about five of their l.p.'s and I could sing along to a lot of their songs. Oh the innocence of youth!
YOU MADE ME BELIEVE IN MAGIC
Here is a more recent edit by Glenn Rivera of one of the band's U.S. Top Ten hits You Made Me Believe in Magic a hit from 1977.

DEMIS HAS LEFT THE STAGE

My friend Donald Cleveland passed on this tasty edit of a 1975 Demis Single "Midnight is the Right Time."  Another one of his Alec R. Costandinos collaborations.  I'm sure you'll find it to be as potent as his disco classic L.O.V.E. got a hold on me from 1978 a highly collectible Loft classic.

SUPeRbREAK eDiT

Probably the most well known Greek artist throughout the world, he's sold 60 million records.  He has the same birthday as me June 15th and was born in Alexandria, Egypt (though his father was Greek), his mother was Egyptian of Italian descent.  They lost all their money in the Suez crisis so they moved to Greece.

OOH, I LOVE IT (LOVE BREAK) SALSOUL ORCHESTRA SHEP PETTIBONE REMIX

LINK REFRESHED BY REQUEST OOH, I LOVE IT, NOW PLEASE CLICK ON MY ADS THAT'S A REQUEST FROM ME

 One word sums it up, LEGENDARY.  

Barbra Streisand's Shake Me Wake Me Twelve Inch

Another refreshed link post from a few years back.




Everyone knows The Main Event (fight) and her duet with Donna Summer No More Tears (Enough is Enough) but years before a special disco version promo only 12" by Babs was released. The Shake Me, Wake Me white label 12" was serviced to d.j.'s in 1975 by Columbia records. It was a made for the dance floor re-working of a track from her successful Lazy Afternoon l.p.

Arranged and Conducted by Rupert Holmes who later had a #1 pop hit with Escape (the pina colada song) it was a Holland Dozier Holland penned r and b song which previously had been a Top 20 pop hit for The Four Tops in 1966.

Not exactly one of those makes you run out to the dance floor crowd fillers, it's still a valid piece of disco history and rather hard to find.  It might also be disputed that she didn't necessarily jump on the disco bandwagon as this is so early in disco history that not even commercial 12" were being produced yet.

Click on the title of this particular blog and you will be taken to my listings on Ebay.

STEREO AND MONO SIDE
SONNY DJ's FABULOUS EDIT

ANDREA TRUE CONNECTION, what you may know, and what you might not

We've had Andrea True posts before but this one includes some tasty edits.

Andrea Marie Truden has two particular distinctions to me as a disco diva.  First of all she transitioned from adult film star (14 films between 1970 and 1975) to vocalist and she sang my all time favorite disco song More, More, More (pk. #4 U.S. #5 U.K. #1 Canada).  She like me was Catholic school educated.  I think this accomplishment sort of documents how much more progressive the disco era was then what we are living now.  Can you even imagine an adult film star transitioning to pop star in 2014?

A WONDERFUL ANDREA ZIP

Andrea also had some major luck with having at least two major disco luminaries on her side.  Both Gregg Diamond and Tom Moulton were instrumental in bringing the Andrea True Connection sound to the dance floors. 

N.Y. You got me Dancing was her only other entry on the pop charts peaking at #27 in 1977, though she did have more success on the Billboard Disco Charts. 

During her heyday as a porn actress, around 1975, True was hired by a real estate business in Jamaica to appear in their commercials. During her stay in Jamaica, a political crisis gripped the island, and no one was allowed to leave with any money. Not wanting to lose the pay she had earned from the real estate ads, True asked her friend, record producer Gregg Diamond,  to travel to the island and produce a track for her, which she would finance locally using that money. Diamond arrived with a composition in hand, to which True added her vocals. The result of their collaboration was "More, More, More." (thank you wikipedia for that juicy tidbit.)

Four major disco hits on the disco charts and even one, More, More, More which shot all the way up to #4 on the pop charts and went platinum.  Andrea's chart success only happened over a two year period.  So by 1979 she was back to making adult films.  Sort of sad when you think of it but Buddah cancelled her contract after they had earned millions off of her.  The follow-up album White Witch failed to cause a spark and remains somewhat obscure.  Her 1980 album War Machine was released in Europe only. Believe it or not it was a hard rock album.

Her stage names included  Inger Kissin, Singe Low, Sandra Lips, Andrea Travis, and Catherine Warren.

Born in Nashville it sure was to our fortune that she didn't pursue a career in country and western.  In 1999 the Canadian group Len sampled the instrumental break from "More, More, More" in their own hit single, "Steal My Sunshine".  Around 2000 she was living in Boynton Beach, Florida working as a psychic reader as well as a counselor for drug and substance abusers.

When Andrea True left the stage in 2011, on November 7 she was 58.  She had since moved to Woodstock New York.  I've seen her in a couple disco related documentaries.  You can also find her in a few mainstream films, including the documentary Inside Deep Throat.  She was even an extra in The Way We Were. ANDREA'S IMDB PAGE  In later years she really seemed to have let herself go.  But when you are this much of a beauty in your youth it must be quite a battle to retain your looks.

A CAUTIONARY TALE ARGUING FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION NEW YORK TIMES FEBRUARY 2005

B.T. Express 2 Hot Ones from 1980

B.T. Express was formed in Brooklyn in 1972.  They were first known as King Davis House Rockers but made a smart choice with the name change suggested by Mel Cheron.  The B and T actually stand for Brooklyn Transit and why not?  Their sound came to be known as the Brooklyn sound.

They remained active for 15 years and were right in the middle of things during the proto disco period.  Luckily they were finally signed to Scepter where Mel Cheron championed the disco sound which led to back to back #1 hits on the r&b charts with Express and Do it (til you're satisfied), their own brand of funky disco was THE SOUND OF 1975.  Though they continued to release quality material yearly, none of it ever really reached their early peak.

1980 would have been a very promising year for them.  But it also came to be known as the year disco fell out favor.  So even though they released some amazing tracks like Give up the Funk (let's dance) and Does it Feel Good it didn't translate into much chart success.  The promo twelve inch of both of those songs have become quite collectible.  I'm providing them for you here. B.T. Zip

 The mighty Billy Nichols did come up with a solo track that was a favorite at The Paradise Garage with Give Your Body up to the Music on West End Records.

Loving You, Losing You Phyllis Hyman

Loving You, Losing You the first track on Phyllis Hyman's self-named 1977 l.p. has become one of the definitive morning music/sleaze tracks.  I've included it in a previous mega-post about morning music.  Here I have a zip with more versions including the Lary Sanders edit.  LOVING DOWNLOAD

Written and composed by the genius Tom Bell who is responsible for so much great music, the song has more of a bittersweet feel then ever due to Phyllis Hyman's suicide on June 30, 1995.  Though the song is from her debut l.p. it's not her first single.  Tall dark and lovely Phyllis was quite the looker!  I really hate to think about the pain she was going through to have taken her own life.  She did have a difficult career.  I think she had some bitterness over the fact that no label ever really was able to give her the huge success that she deserved.  Though she did have a few R and B hits, even a #1 in the early 90's and her talent and constant touring brought her to play at some prestigious venues.  I remember when living in N.Y.C. in the 90's she seemed to play pretty often.  I regret never having gone to one of her shows as I also greatly regret never seeing Angela Bofill another songbird who I adore.  Angela too had a hard time and suffered from a paralyzing stroke, that left her hardly able to speak.

That honor goes out to the one off single on Private Stock from 1975 called Leaving the Good Life Behind.  Mixed by the master Tom Moulton it only came out on a 7" single and remains highly collectible and mostly unknown.  Her second album Sing a Song from 1978 is the most collectible Phyllis costing hundreds of dollars if you can even find it.  Expensive even as a re-issue

Of course it took until 1979 to make her disco legendary the Mtume and Lucas produced and written gem You Know How to Love Me is certainly considered one of the best records of the disco era.

You're the One is a previously unreleased track from her disco years.  It has recently seen the light of day and can even be downloaded on Amazon.  YOU'RE THE ONE

THE LADY BUNNY TAKE ME UP HIGH

We at Disco Vinyl never really even mention current releases.  But The Lady Bunny is channeling her disco inner self in her latest dance release and it's not to be missed.  Just in time to capitalize on her t.v. success as an essential component of Logo T.V.'s Drag University, and her 17 years organizing Wigstock and starring in the film about it.  

 

The Lady Bunny spent 17 years creating and promoting Wigstock and is now an in demand DJ.  She has been flown to Morocco, Paris, London and many other destinations to spin her mix of disco classics and crowd pleasers.  She's currently touring her dance hit TAKE ME UP HIGH on Lybra Records.  She's got a real Sylvester groove to her voice and the beat can really take you up high.

She's charting too.  If you know anyone that buys current dance music do encourage them to check Take me Up High out.  Perhaps Bunny will go to the top!

Do check out Lady Bunny stuff on you tube.  In case you haven't been introduced to her whacky sense of humor you're in for a treat!

Take me up High is being promoted by industry legendary Bobby Shaw.

Lady Bunny can turn a glamour look when she wants to.

HERE'S A SNIPPET OF THE SWEET TEAM MIX of Take me Up High.

An avid animal rights activist here is a photo of Bunny and I at a PETA benefit in Rome a few years back. I introduced Bunny to Dan Mathews in the late 80's and their collaboration the FUR is a drag! events have become legendary all over the world.  PETA has aligned itself with camp and there ain't no goin' back.

BUNNY TWEETS

Ever the jet-setter for a price you can have Bunny at your next birthday!

Most don't know that Lady Bunny had a twelve inch dance single on Maxi Records in the mid 90's.  It was her re-make of the 1975 disco hit by Sheila and Company Shame, Shame, Shame.

If you are traveling to N.Y.C. you can catch Bunny at her weekly event at XL in Hell's Kitchen.