What Is Your Favorite Disco Album?

Answering the questions people have
asked (or I have asked myself) about
my past, present, or future.

This question came from Princess Sherri, obviously because she's seen a chunk of disco as part of my playlist (some of which I featured last summer here on 30/30). I don't have a favorite disco album. In fact, I don't have one period. But if you're talking singles, let me vote for this smash by Yvonne Elliman. Here she is performing it on "American Bandstand" in 1977.



Of course, it turned up in the epic movie Saturday Night Fever, penned by the Bee Gees. Originally, the Brothers Gibb were going to record it with Elliman singing "How Deep Is Your Love." But RSO records topper Robert Stigwood insisted on switching things up -- resulting in a smash for the Bee Gees and the biggest hit of Elliman's career.

If you insist on something more disco-y, I gotta go with this smash from The Trammps. Here's the promotional film for "Disco Inferno."



Watching this, I can't help but roll my eyes back at least a tinge. We wore that? The 18th Century fop didn't vanish; he just reinvented himself about 200 years later.

I also have to give honourable mention to this scene in Saturday Night Fever, set to the Bee Gees' "You Should Be Dancing." John Travolta just owns the floor, and he gets bonus points for Cossack moves.



According to Hollywood legend, director John Badham originally put this sequence in the film with tighter shots. Travolta was upset you couldn't see his feet -- as he would be after having to run and dance for several hours a day to train for the picture. He told the editor to stay on the wide shots, emulating the style of the Fred Astaire pictures, and the result is classic.