It was almost a year ago that I put up a ROY article for one of the big disco anthems, KC and the Sunshine Band's "That's the Way (I Like It)", and I recall stating that I wasn't sure which one that I had heard first, that or Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony's "The Hustle". Whichever the case, once the horns, strings and funk hit the radio, that was pretty much a lot of the music for the next few years at least. For me, when I saw a morning kids' program robot begin strutting to disco on a regular basis, I figured that this was definitely a thing.
As I mentioned in the Sunshine Band article, musician/songwriter Van McCoy's magnum opus "The Hustle" was first released in April 1975, and along with the exhortation "DO THE HUSTLE!", the other notable things about the disco tune was the encouraging chorus and that flighty piccolo leading the way for all of those line dancers in the dance clubs. What was also a surprise was that "The Hustle" wasn't all that long...just three minutes and forty-seven seconds (or thereabouts); that and the fact that drum legend Steve Gadd helped out in the recording booth.
Wow! Would you get a load of that fashion and dancing back then? Yep, I actually lived in those times. Mind you, I was not even ten years old at the time of the release of "The Hustle" so entering a disco was out of the question but I remember watching enough K-Tel commercials and the odd "American Bandstand" episode on Saturday to get a glimpse of what disco was all about. Oh, and Promo the Robot, too.
"The Hustle" hit the top of the charts in Canada, the US and Spain. So, according to the Showa Pops site, what other singles were being released in April 1975 (although one of the articles states that its song had come out in March instead)?
Hiromi Iwasaki -- Duet（二重唱～デュエット）
Momoe Yamaguchi -- Mizuumi no Kesshin（湖の決心）
Shigeru Suzuki -- Hachi-gatsu no Nioi（八月の匂い）
"The Hustle" was one of the most popular songs at my family's wedding receptions up until 1982 or so. Not quite as popular as "The Beer Barrel Polka," but it was up there. When we started taking ballroom dance lessons about a decade ago, I was surprised to see that Hustle lessons were not only still a thing, but it was still one of their more popular classes. Due to a lack of polyester and gold chains, I didn't think I'd fit in at those.
ReplyDeleteMorning, Scott. My family did have those decade-specific clothes including bell-bottoms and wide lapels, but I don't recall too much in the way of attending parties in the 1970s so I never got to exercise those Hustle muscles.
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