C & C Music Factory* Featuring Freedom Williams - Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)

A gay anthem if ever I've heard one. "Everybody Dance Now" was used in an episode of the Simpsons where Homer takes Bart to a steel mill. Unfortunately the mill is full of gay guys and the disco balls comes down from the ceiling. This tunes rings out loud and proud. Never has a tune been used so effectively!

There's no question this song is an anthem, both within the gay community and (should be) for the house community itself. For most of mainstream America (at least), this track and Black Box's "Everybody, Everybody" were most likely their first exposure to the sound that became urban house. It didn't hurt that the MTV-friendly gyrations of Freedom Williams and Zelma Davis (with Martha Wash's voice!) took advantage of the new format to help usher in a new sound for the 90's.

So, I'm not one bit ashamed of owning this one. I stumbled across a copy sitting innocently in the Times Square Virgin store's record racks (not normally my prime source for yummy 12" goodness, mind you) and just had to buy it. The record was still sealed in shrink-wrap, and I don't even think it's a re-pressing. Just sitting in a warehouse somewhere for (good god) 15 years. Is that dope enough? In-deed.

I am a bit ashamed now of owning this...I have a few C & C Music Factory 12" singles, one of them being very rare. I suppose it's easy to look back and say this was an over commercially done gay anthem. It wasn't. House music just wasn't popular and well known yet, right when it was released. These guys really helped bring house music to the main stream.