Three of a Kind #88

We're going late-70s German compilation crazy today, with a record I found in a charity shop in Braintree yesterday: High Life - 20 Original Top Hits. "Aus der rundfunk und fernseh verbung" (as they say in Germany).

The album was released on Polystar Records - which sounds like a made-up label from Spinal Tap or something, but which, upon a spot of cursory research, turns out to have released countless albums in a similar vein down the years. Well I never.



And what an album High Life is! Quite possibly the best 50p I've spent all year. Let's take a look at the runners and riders.

A1. ABBA - Voulez-vous
A2. Clout - Under Fire
A3. Oliver Onions - Sheriff
A4. Luv - My Guy
A5. Gibson Brothers - Cuba
A6. Dollar - Who Were You With In The Moonlight
A7. Golden Earring - Weekend Love
A8. Blondie - Sunday Girl
A9. Overdrive - Constantinople
A10. Nick Straker Band - A Walk In The Park

B1. Luv - Eeny Meeny Miny Moe
B2. Roxy Music - Dance Away
B3. The Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
B4. Peaches & Herb - Reunited
B5. Milk And Honey with Gali - Goodbye New York
B6. Thom Pace - Maybe
B7. ABBA - Happy Hawaii
B8. The Sweet - Call Me
B9. John Stewart - Gold
B10. Rainbow - Since You Been Gone

A fantastic mixture of artists and styles, I'm sure you'll agree. I only knew nine of these songs before yesterday but I must say I've been mightily impressed with some of the tracks I wasn't already familiar with - even if the artists generally seem to be ever-so-slightly obsessed with aping the sound of Boney M or ABBA, or both.

Here's Dutch girl group Luv, for example, with the snappily-titled Eeny Meeny Miny Moe. (NB: No primates were hurt during the making of this song. Probably.)



Luv - Eeeny Meeny Miny Moe mp3

If you thought that sounded like Boney M, wait till you hear this bonkersly brilliant paean to the city currently known as Istanbul! I love this.

Overdrive - Constantinople mp3

Finally today, we wave ta-ta to the Big Apple in a song whose chorus is more or less an exact copy of Does Your Mother Know, only with different lyrics. Marvellous!

Milk & Honey with Gali* - Goodbye New York mp3

*So that's what Boutros-Boutros was up to before the U.N. gig came along. Figures.

They haven't stopped dancing yet (probably)

And now, live from the Empire Ballroom Leicester Square, it's... the Maudsley Hospital Patients' Day Release Party 1979 UK Disco Dance Finals!

Click here to watch Part Two (for some reason embedding's been disabled on this bit)




Sadly that seems to be that as far as available footage of this particular contest goes, so we may never know who won. It's probably just as well, mind, as, after twenty minutes or so of being force fed I Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet on a constant loop, together with all that energetic dancing, whooping from the audience and bad puns from cheesy voiceover man, you end up feeling quite worn out. It's well worth a look, though, as some of that dancing - not to mention the outfits - has to be seen to be believed.

Still, though, how about "Downtown" Julie Brown being one of the contestants! (What do you mean "Who?".) And what an impressive panel of judges: Anthea "Give us a twirl" Redfern, Tessa "I'm Free!" Wyatt and Patti "Mr Grimsdale!" Boulaye, to name but three. Those are some mightily impressive gigantic glasses the woman Boulaye's wearing there, too. She'd certainly give Su Pollard a run for her money in the specs appeal stakes. (Apologies for that last bit - I've clearly been infected with the spirit of cheesy voiceover man and his "hilarious" quips.)

Oh, and who is that smoothy presenter bloke with the open-necked shirt and FAB FM-esque mid-Atlantic drawl? Anyone know? What a git anyway! If he was made of chocolate he'd eat himself!

Anyway, there's loads more of these old UK disco dance final clips from similar years for you to gawp at over on YouTube if you're a masochist and/or slightly insane.

Three of a Kind #69

I dunno, you doze off for five minutes and all of a sudden it's 2009. What better way to start the new year, though, than with some tracks from the estimable 1978 compilation album Don't Walk - Boogie, which promises 20 Great Disco Sounds. And, like a milkman or midwife paid strictly on a commission basis, it certainly delivers.

That track listing in full:

Side One

A Taste Of Honey - Boogie Oogie Oogie
Tavares - More Than A Woman
Sheila B. Devotion - Singin' In The Rain
Macho - I'm A Man
Evolution - Summer In The City
Patsy Gallant - From New York To L.A.
Gonzalez - Just Let It Lay
Tavares - Whodunit
Gloria Jones - Bring On The Love (Why Can't We Be Friends Again)
Clout - Substitute

Side Two

La Belle Epoque - Black Is Black
Marshall Hain - Dancing In The City
Sylvester - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)
Tavares - Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel
Matumbi - Empire Road
Jesse Green - Nice And Slow
Sun - Sun Is Here
T. Rex - I Love To Boogie
John Forde - Stardance
Tom Robinson Band - 2-4-6-8 Motorway

Putting aside the decidedly undisco-ish credentials of the likes of Matumbi, T Rex and The Tom Robinson Band, this is a cracking album and, like pretty much all compilation LPs released when the songs would still have been contemporary, is about a squillion times better than any disco compilation CD you'd find in the shops in 2008 2009, which tend to concentrate on the same, overplayed best sellers time and time again.

Anyway, it's proved devilishly difficult, as you might imagine, to whittle Don't Walk - Boogie down to just three tracks for today's post. But I've managed it, somehow. God my life's hard sometimes!

Sheila B. Devotion - Singin' In The Rain mp3

Patsy Gallant - From New York To L.A. mp3

La Belle Epoque - Black Is Black mp3

Song of the Day

Disco album compilers and local radio DJs please note: there's more than one song by Gloria Gaynor. That is all.

Gloria Gaynor - Reach Out (I'll Be There) mp3

Jim Fixed It For Her (apparently)

Don't let the picture fool you - I don't actually own today's featured single at all. That's just an image I half-inched from Flickr. I do, however, have the song at my disposal, which is rather handy bearing in mind that I'm currently in the process of blogging about it.

Anyway, yes, Up In A Puff Of Smoke by Birmingham's own Polly Brown. What a tune! I stumbled upon this one quite by chance when it pitched up on an old K-Tel compilation I bought on one of my charity shop sprees recently. But it caught my disco ear the second I heard it, this being a pretty early example of the genre (it came out in 1974) and a belting good song to boot (even if it did, somewhat inexplicably, stall at #43 in the UK charts).

I was really surprised when I Googled for further info on Ms Brown, by the way, and found out that she was actually a white English lady rather than a black American soul diva, as she doesn't sound anything like you'd expect her to. Vocally, on this song at least, she sounds like she could have been in The Supremes or something, to my ears anyway. Have a listen and see what you think.

Polly Brown - Up In A Puff Of Smoke mp3

Mildly Interesting Pop Fact(s): Polly Brown had formerly been the lead singer with early-seventies popsters Pickettywitch, and had also sung on Sweet Dreams' (very) early ABBA cover and 1974 #10 smash Honey Honey. She was also romantically linked with professional oddball Jimmy Savile at one stage. 'ow's about that then?!

French Disco

80s francophone dancefloor classic with an equally groovy accompanying video, anyone? You know it makes sense!



Lio - Sage (Comme une Image) mp3 (for 7 days)

Mildly Interesting Pop Fact: A huge pop icon in French-speaking Europe during the eighties, Lio is now a judge on Nouvelle Star, the French version of Pop Idol. But don't let that put you off.

Buy Lio CDs and downloads here.