Essential Disco 12-Inch Records: 1973 – 1981

An early progenitor of proto-disco, historically Black-owned label Philadelphia International Records worked with a house band of over 30 studio musicians, known collectively as MFSB (“Mother Father Sister Brother”) to pioneer a sound of lush, orchestral production featuring strings and brass, shuffling rhythms, and soulful singing. “Love is the Message” and A-side “The Sound of Philadelphia” were precursors – and popular tracks at David Mancuso’s influential Loft parties – that set the template for the disco wave to come in the late 1970s.

Recorded in in 1975 and released by Motown in 1976, Diana Ross’ “Love Hangover” acts as a sort of bridge from classic soul to the disco floor, beginning as a slow strutting ballad draped in elegant strings before opening up at the three minute mark into a shuffling, upbeat disco vamp that doesn’t stop for the rest of the song’s nearly 8-minute duration. Producer Hal Davis reportedly had a strobe light installed in the recording studio to get Ross in a disco state of mind. Ross would go on to perform the song on the Muppet Show in 1980.

“Don’t Leave Me This Way” was originally recorded in 1975 by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, with Teddy Pendegrass on vocals, and was released by Philadelphia International Records as a single in 1976. Shortly thereafter, Motown aimed to release their own take on the song, giving the song to singer Thelma Houston. Both renditions of the song pivot from pleading verses into ebullient choruses bursting with ecstatic ardor; Houston’s in particular backed by a call-and-response gospel choir. Houston’s rendition topped the Billboard Hot 100 and won her a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, and both versions of the song became disco staples.

Originally released in France in 1972, Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango’s “Soul Makossa” found its way into disco when David Mancusso found a copy in a West Indian record store in NYC and made it a staple at his legendary parties at the Loft. With its funky rhythm, brassy sax lead, and casually commanding vocals intoned in Cameroon’s native Duala dialect, the song is a singular dance floor cut. Manu Dibango’s chant of “”ma-ma-ko, ma-ma-sa, ma-ko ma-ko-sa” was famously lifted for Michael Jackson’s 1983 single “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” from the album Thriller.

Donna Summer had already scored a hit with producer Giorgio Moroder with 1975’s “Love to Love You Baby” when they returned to his Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany in 1976 to record “I Feel Love.” Where most disco tracks had featured live rhythm sections and orchestral instrumentation, “I Feel Love” was recorded with only synthesizers (notably a Moog), sequencers, and single live kick drum beat. The result is an insistent, pulsing groove of modulating synth arpeggios, with Summer’s airy, ecstatic vocals floating high over the mix. The track’s 4/4 beat and synthesizer loops set a template for the later developments of house and techno to come in the 1980s. The “Special New Version” remixed by Patrick Cowley in 1982 took the track to the very limits of a 45 rpm 12”, clocking in at a heroic 15 minutes.

A sure sign of disco’s rising dominance was that even rock band the Rolling Stones found themselves dabbling in the genre. No strangers to borrowing from blues, psychedelia, or whatever else was at hand, by the time of the Rolling Stones’ sessions for 1978’s Some Girls, the steady thump of disco found its way into the studio. Mick Jagger and his wife Bianca were both notable celebrities at legendary disco club Studio 54, and on “Some Girls,” Jaggers summons a more than convincing disco version of his signature strut, culminating in a howling, catchy chorus that ranks among the Stones’ classics. The “Special Disco Version” stretches the track to eight and a half desperately groovy minutes.

Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards’ releases as Chic – and their productions as the Chic Organization – could easily fill this list all on their own and still have hits to spare. “Good Times” may be one of their most recognizable of those hits, thanks in no small part to its immortal, unstoppable bassline serving as the backbone for Sugarhill Gang’s foundational hip-hop record “Rapper’s Delight.” You can see why they nicked it. On “Good Times,” Edwards’ strutting bass is the star of the show, the center of gravity around which Rodgers’ funky guitar scratches, the band’s string stabs and flourishes, and their celebratory vocals all align. The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979 before being knocked off by the Knack’s “My Sharona.”

The second Chic Organization track on this list, Sister Sledge’s “He’s the Greatest Dancer” was written and produced by Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, and it has all of the hallmarks of their work at the peak of their powers: Rodgers’ nimble guitar scratches, Edwards’ bubbling bass line, the elegant string flourishes, and resounding piano chords. As the track shuffles and vamps along, Kathy Sledge sings a tale of dance floor infatuation and intrigue no less compelling for the fact that, according to Rodgers, Sister Sledge “had never even been in a disco.”

Originally released on 1970’s full-length of the same name, Cuban percussionist Cándido’s “Thousand Finger Man” can lay claim to being the earliest disco track on this list and maybe one of the earliest altogether. Already a seasoned Afro-Cuban jazz musician by that point, with careers in both Cuba and America on labels including Blue Note and Salsoul, Cándido was 59 years old by the time this track (and A-side “Jingo”) made it to 12” and enjoyed a second life in the discos. Loungey and with more than a whiff of tropicalia breeze billowing through it, “Thousand Finger Man” is driven by Cándido’s lively hand drumming and an occasional spooky refrain of the track’s title.

NYC disco was always in conversation with the city’s other music scenes and musicians, from the Latin explosion uptown to downtown’s experimental loft musicians. One such notable disco entrant was polymath musician and composer Arthur Russell, who was perhaps best known for his haunting avante-garde pop sketches for voice and cello on World of Echo. Russell was also a regular of David Mancusso’s Loft and an associate of the Paradise Garage’s Larry Levan, and he cut a handful of avant-garde disco tracks under the names Dinosaur L and Loose Joints. “Is It All Over My Face” appears twice here, in its looser original version with male vocals and in Levan’s dialed-in disco remix forefronting the track’s loping bassline and an alluring female vocal. 

Jamaican singer, actress, and model Grace Jones was also a regular at Studio 54 but disco was just one of many styles Jones synthesized into her idiosyncratic sound, along with reggae, dub, and new wave on 1981’s Nightclubbing, whose title track was a cover of the David Bowie and Iggy Pop song. On “Pull Up to the Bumper,” over bending funk guitars and an effortlessly hot rhythm section and synths from reggae all-stars Sly & Robbie, Jones purrs vocals that turn the tight squeeze of NYC street parking into sly innuendo and double entendre. An enduring disco classic.

French drummer and producer Marc Cerrone had already scored a number one on the US Dance Club singles chart with 1977’s mutant disco epic “Supernature,” a track which also presaged later developments in synth-heavy Italo disco. 1981’s “Hooked on You” is a more traditional – though no less compelling – disco affair, with Cerrone’s steady drumming, a funky bassline, and striking piano and synthesizers backing Jocelyn Brown’s powerfully soulful vocals.