title: Disco

text: Also during the 1960s, the Motown record label developed its own approach, described as having "1) simply structured songs with sophisticated melodies and chord changes, 2) a relentless four-beat drum pattern, 3) a gospel use of background voices, vaguely derived from the style of the Impressions, 4) a regular and sophisticated use of both horns and strings, 5) lead singers who were half way between pop and gospel music, 6) a group of accompanying musicians who were among the most dextrous, knowledgeable, and brilliant in all of popular music (Motown bassists have long been the envy of white rock bassists) and 7) a trebly style of mixing that relied heavily on electronic limiting and equalizing (boosting the high range frequencies) to give the overall product a distinctive sound, particularly effective for broadcast over AM radio." Motown had many hits with early disco elements by acts like the Supremes (for instance "You Keep Me Hangin' On" in 1966), Stevie Wonder (for instance "Superstition" in 1972), The Jackson 5 and Eddie Kendricks ("Keep on Truckin'" in 1973).


title: Disco

text: At the end of the 1960s, musicians and audiences from the Black, Italian and Latino communities adopted several traits from the hippie and psychedelia subcultures. They included using music venues with a loud, overwhelming sound, free-form dancing, trippy lighting, colorful costumes, and the use of hallucinogenic drugs. In addition, the perceived positivity, lack of irony, and earnestness of the hippies informed proto-disco music like MFSB's album "Love Is the Message".


title: Disco

text: Partly through the success of Jimi Hendrix, psychedelic elements that were popular in rock music of the late 1960s found their way into soul and early funk music and formed the subgenre psychedelic soul. Examples can be found in the music of the Chambers Brothers, George Clinton with his Parliament-Funkadelic collective, Sly and the Family Stone and the productions of Norman Whitfield with The Temptations.


title: Disco

text: The long instrumental introductions and detailed orchestration found in psychedelic soul tracks by the Temptations are also considered as cinematic soul. In the early 1970s, Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes scored hits with cinematic soul songs that were actually composed for movie soundtracks: "Superfly" (1972) and "Theme from Shaft" (1971). The latter is sometimes regarded as an early disco song. From the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Philadelphia soul and New York soul developed as sub-genres that also had lavish percussion, lush string orchestra arrangements, and expensive record production processes. In the early 1970s, the Philly soul productions by Gamble and Huff evolved from the simpler arrangements of the late-1960s into a style featuring lush strings, thumping basslines, and sliding hi-hat rhythms. These elements would become typical for disco music and are found in several of the hits they produced in the early 1970s:


title: Disco

text: Other early disco tracks that helped shape disco and became popular on the dance floors of (underground) discotheque clubs and parties include:


title: Disco

text: Early disco was dominated by record producers and labels such as Salsoul Records (Ken, Stanley, and Joseph Cayre), West End Records (Mel Cheren), Casablanca (Neil Bogart), and Prelude (Marvin Schlachter), to name a few. The genre was also shaped by Tom Moulton, who wanted to extend the enjoyment of dance songs — thus creating the extended mix or "remix", going from a three-minute 45 rpm single to the much longer 12" record. Other influential DJs and remixers who helped to establish what became known as the "disco sound" included David Mancuso, Nicky Siano, Shep Pettibone, Larry Levan, Walter Gibbons, and Chicago-based Frankie Knuckles. Frankie Knuckles was not only an important disco DJ; he also helped to develop house music in the 1980s.


title: Disco

text: Disco hit the television airwaves as part of the music/dance variety show "Soul Train" in 1971 hosted by Don Cornelius, then Marty Angelo's "Disco Step-by-Step Television Show" in 1975, Steve Marcus' "Disco Magic/Disco 77", Eddie Rivera's "Soap Factory", and Merv Griffin's "Dance Fever", hosted by Deney Terrio, who is credited with teaching actor John Travolta to dance for his role in the film "Saturday Night Fever", as well as DANCE, based out of Columbia, South Carolina.


title: Disco

text: In the 1970s, the key counterculture of the 1960s, the hippie movement, was fading away. The economic prosperity of the previous decade had declined, and unemployment, inflation and crime rates had soared. Political issues like the backlash from the Civil Rights Movement culminating in the form of , the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, and the Watergate scandal, left many feeling disillusioned and hopeless. The start of the '70s was marked by a shift in the consciousness of the American people: the rise of the feminist movement, identity politics, gangs, etc. very much shaped this era. Disco music and disco dancing provided an escape from negative social and economic issues. The non-partnered dance style of disco music allowed people of all races and sexual orientations to enjoy the dancefloor atmosphere.


title: Disco

text: In "Beautiful Things in Popular Culture", Simon Frith highlights the sociability of disco and its roots in 1960s counterculture. "The driving force of the New York underground dance scene in which disco was forged was not simply that city's complex ethnic and sexual culture but also a 1960s notion of community, pleasure and generosity that can only be described as hippie", he says. "The best disco music contained within it a remarkably powerful sense of collective euphoria."


title: Disco

text: The birth of disco is often claimed to be found in the private dance parties held by New York City DJ David Mancuso's home that became known as The Loft, an invitation-only non-commercial underground club that inspired many others. He organized the first major party in his Manhattan home on Valentine's Day 1970 with the name "Love Saves The Day". After some months the parties became weekly events and Mancuso continued to give regular parties into the 1990s. Mancuso required that the music played had to be soulful, rhythmic, and impart words of hope, redemption, or pride.


title: Disco

text: When Mancuso threw his first informal house parties, the gay community (which made up much of The Loft's attendee roster) was often harassed in the gay bars and dance clubs, with many gay men carrying bail money with them to gay bars. But at The Loft and many other early, private discotheques, they could dance together without fear of police action thanks to Mancuso's underground, yet legal, policies. Vince Aletti described it "like going to party, completely mixed, racially and sexually, where there wasn't any sense of someone being more important than anyone else," and Alex Rosner reiterated this saying "It was probably about sixty percent black and seventy percent gay...There was a mix of sexual orientation, there was a mix of races, mix of economic groups. A real mix, where the common denominator was music."


title: Disco

text: Film critic Roger Ebert called the popular embrace of disco's exuberant dance moves an escape from "the general depression and drabness of the political and musical atmosphere of the late seventies." Pauline Kael, writing about the disco-themed film "Saturday Night Fever", said the film and disco itself touched on "something deeply romantic, the need to move, to dance, and the need to be who you'd like to be. Nirvana is the dance; when the music stops, you return to being ordinary."


title: Disco

text: In the late 1960s, uptempo soul with heavy beats and some associated dance styles and fashion were picked up in the British mod scene and formed the northern soul movement. Originating at venues such as the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, it quickly spread to other UK dancehalls and nightclubs like the Chateau Impney (Droitwich), Catacombs (Wolverhampton), the Highland Rooms at Blackpool Mecca, Golden Torch (Stoke-on-Trent) and Wigan Casino. As the favoured beat became more uptempo and frantic in the early 1970s, northern soul dancing became more athletic, somewhat resembling the later dance styles of disco and break dancing. Featuring spins, flips, karate kicks and backdrops, club dancing styles were often inspired by the stage performances of touring American soul acts such as Little Anthony & the Imperials and Jackie Wilson.


title: Disco

text: In 1974, there were an estimated 25,000 mobile discos and 40,000 professional disc jockeys in the United Kingdom. Mobile discos were hired deejays that brought their own equipment to provide music for special events. Glam rock tracks were popular, with, for example, Gary Glitter's 1972 single "Rock and Roll Part 2" becoming popular on UK dance floors while it did not get much radio airplay.


title: Disco

text: From 1974 to 1977, disco music increased in popularity as many disco songs topped the charts. The Hues Corporation's "Rock the Boat" (1974), a US number-one single and million-seller, was one of the early disco songs to reach number one. The same year saw the release of "Kung Fu Fighting", performed by Carl Douglas and produced by Biddu, which reached number one in both the UK and US, and became the best-selling single of the year and one of the best-selling singles of all time with 11 million records sold worldwide, helping to popularize disco to a great extent. Another notable disco success that year was George McCrae's "Rock Your Baby": it became the United Kingdom's first number one chart disco single.


title: Disco

text: In the northwestern sections of the United Kingdom, the northern soul explosion, which started in the late 1960s and peaked in 1974, made the region receptive to disco, which the region's disc jockeys were bringing back from New York City. The shift by some DJs to the newer sounds coming from the U.S.A. resulted in a split in the scene, whereby some abandoned the 1960s soul and pushed a modern soul sound which tended to be more closely aligned with disco than soul.


title: Disco

text: In 1975, Gloria Gaynor released her first side-long vinyl album, which included a remake of the Jackson 5's "Never Can Say Goodbye" (which, in fact, is also the album title) and two other songs, "Honey Bee" and her disco version of "Reach Out (I'll Be There)", first topped the Billboard disco/dance charts in November 1974. Later in 1978, Gaynor's number-one disco song was "I Will Survive", which was seen as a symbol of female strength and a gay anthem, like her further disco hit, a 1983 remake of "I Am What I Am"; in 1979 she released "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)", a single which gained popularity in the civil rights movements. Also in 1975, Vincent Montana Jr.'s Salsoul Orchestra contributed with their Latin-flavored orchestral dance song "Salsoul Hustle", reaching number four on the Billboard Dance Chart and their 1976 hits "Tangerine" and "Nice 'n' Naasty", the first being a cover of a 1941 song.


title: Disco

text: Songs such as Van McCoy's 1975 "The Hustle" and the humorous Joe Tex 1977 "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)" gave names to the popular disco dances "the Bump" and "the Hustle". Other notable early successful disco songs include Barry White's "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" (1974), Labelle's "Lady Marmalade" (1974), Disco-Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes' "Get Dancin'" (1974), Silver Convention's "Fly, Robin, Fly" (1975) and "Get Up and Boogie" (1976), Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" (1976), and Vicki Sue Robinson's hit single, "Turn the Beat Around" (1976).


title: Disco

text: Formed by Harry Wayne Casey (a.k.a. "KC") and Richard Finch, Miami's KC and the Sunshine Band had a string of disco-definitive top-five singles between 1975 and 1977, including "Get Down Tonight", "That's the Way (I Like It)", "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty", "I'm Your Boogie Man" and "Keep It Comin' Love". In this period, rock bands like the English Electric Light Orchestra featured in their songs a violin sound that became a staple of disco music, as in the 1975 hit "Evil Woman", although the genre was correctly described as orchestral rock.


title: Disco

text: Other disco producers such as Tom Moulton took ideas and techniques from dub music (which came with the increased Jamaican migration to New York City in the 1970s) to provide alternatives to the "four on the floor" style that dominated. DJ Larry Levan utilized styles from dub and jazz and remixing techniques to create early versions of house music that sparked the genre.


title: Disco

text: Norman Whitfield was an influential producer and songwriter at Motown records, renowned for creating innovative "psychedelic soul" songs with many hits for Marvin Gaye, the Velvelettes, the Temptations and Gladys Knight & The Pips. From around the production of the Temptations' album "Cloud Nine" in 1968, he incorporated some psychedelic influences and started to produce longer, dance-friendly tracks, with more room for elaborate rhythmic instrumental parts. An example of such a long psychedelic soul track is "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", which appeared as a single edit of almost seven minutes and an approximately 12-minute-long 12" version in 1972. By the early 70s, many of Whitfield's productions evolved more and more towards funk and disco, as heard on albums by the Undisputed Truth and the 1973 album "" by The Jackson 5. The Undisputed Truth, a Motown recording act assembled by Whitfield to experiment with his psychedelic soul production techniques, found success with their 1971 song "Smiling Faces Sometimes". Their disco single "You + Me = Love" (number 43) was produced by Whitfield and made number 2 on the US Dance Charts in 1976.


title: Disco

text: In 1975, Whitfield left Motown and founded his own label Whitfield records, on which also "You + Me = Love" was released. Whitfield produced some more disco hits, including "Car Wash" (1976) by Rose Royce from the to the 1976 film "Car Wash". In 1977, singer, songwriter and producer Willie Hutch, who had been signed to Motown since 1970, now signed with Whitfield's new label, and scored a successful disco single with his song "In and Out" in 1982.


title: Disco

text: Other Motown artists turned to disco as well. Diana Ross embraced the disco sound with her successful 1976 outing "Love Hangover" from her self-titled album. Her 1980 dance classics "Upside Down" and "I'm Coming Out" were written and produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the group Chic. The Supremes, the group that made Ross famous, scored a handful of hits in the disco clubs without her, most notably 1976's "I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do the Walking" and, their last charted single before disbanding, 1977's "You're My Driving Wheel".


title: Disco

text: At the request of Motown that he produce songs in the disco genre, Marvin Gaye released "Got to Give It Up" in 1978, despite his dislike of disco. He vowed not to record any songs in the genre, and actually wrote the song as a parody. However, several of Gaye's songs have disco elements, including "I Want You" (1975). Stevie Wonder released the disco single "Sir Duke" in 1977 as a tribute to Duke Ellington, the influential jazz legend who had died in 1974. Smokey Robinson left the Motown group the Miracles for a solo career in 1972 and released his third solo album "A Quiet Storm" in 1975, which spawned and lent its name to the "Quiet Storm" musical programming format and subgenre of R&B. It contained the disco single "Baby That's Backatcha". Other Motown artists who scored disco hits include: Robinson's former group, the Miracles, with "Love Machine" (1975), Eddie Kendricks with "Keep On Truckin'" (1973), the Originals with "Down to Love Town" (1976) and Thelma Houston with her cover of the Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes song "Don't Leave Me This Way" (1976). The label continued to release successful songs into the 1980s with Rick James' "Super Freak" (1981), and the Commodores' "Lady (You Bring Me Up)" (1981).


title: Disco

text: Several of Motown's solo artists who left the label went on to have successful disco songs. Mary Wells, Motown's first female superstar with her signature song "My Guy" (written by Smokey Robinson), abruptly left the label in 1964. She briefly reappeared on the charts with the disco song "Gigolo" in 1980. Jimmy Ruffin, the elder brother of the Temptations lead singer David Ruffin, was also signed to Motown, and released his most successful and well-known song "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" as a single in 1966. Ruffin eventually left the record label in the mid-1970s, but saw success with the 1980 disco song "Hold On (To My Love)", which was written and produced by Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, for his album "Sunrise". Edwin Starr, known for his Motown protest song "War" (1970), reentered the charts in 1979 with a pair of disco songs, "Contact" and "H.A.P.P.Y. Radio". Kiki Dee became the first white British singer to sign with Motown in the US, and released one album, "Great Expectations" (1970), and two singles "The Day Will Come Between Sunday and Monday" (1970) and "Love Makes the World Go Round" (1971), the latter giving her first-ever chart entry (number 87 on the US Chart). She soon left the company and signed with Elton John's The Rocket Record Company, and in 1976 had her biggest and best-known single, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", a disco duet with John. The song was intended as an affectionate disco-style pastiche of the Motown sound, in particular the various duets recorded by Marvin Gaye with Tammi Terrell and Kim Weston.


title: Disco

text: Many Motown groups who had left the record label charted with disco songs. The Jackson 5, one of Motown's premier acts in the early 1970s, left the record company in 1975 (Jermaine Jackson, however, remained with the label) after successful songs like "I Want You Back" (1969) and "ABC" (1970), and even the disco song "Dancing Machine" (1974). Renamed as 'the Jacksons' (as Motown owned the name 'the Jackson 5'), they went on to find success with disco songs like "Blame It on the Boogie" (1978), "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" (1979) and "Can You Feel It?" (1981) on the Epic label.


title: Disco

text: The Isley Brothers, whose short tenure at the company had produced the song "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)" in 1966, went on release successful disco songs like "That Lady" (1973) and "It's a Disco Night (Rock Don't Stop)" (1979). Gladys Knight and the Pips, who recorded the most successful version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1967) before Marvin Gaye, scored commercially successful singles such as "Baby, Don't Change Your Mind" (1977) and "Bourgie, Bourgie" (1980) in the disco era. The Detroit Spinners were also signed to the Motown label and saw success with the Stevie Wonder-produced song "It's a Shame" in 1970. They left soon after, on the advice of fellow Detroit native Aretha Franklin, to Atlantic Records, and there had disco songs like "The Rubberband Man" (1976). In 1979, they released a successful cover of Elton John's "Are You Ready for Love", as well as a medley of the Four Seasons' song "Working My Way Back to You" and Michael Zager's "Forgive Me, Girl". The Four Seasons themselves were briefly signed to Motown's MoWest label, a short-lived subsidiary for R&B and soul artists based on the West Coast, and there the group produced one album, "Chameleon" (1972) – to little commercial success in the US. However, one single, "The Night", was released in Britain in 1975, and thanks to popularity from the Northern Soul circuit, reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart. The Four Seasons left Motown in 1974 and went on to have a disco hit with their song "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" (1975) for Warner Curb Records.


title: Disco

text: By far the most successful Euro disco act was ABBA (1972–1982). This Swedish quartet, which sang primarily in English, found success with singles such as "Waterloo" (1974), "Fernando" (1976), "Take a Chance on Me" (1978), "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" (1979), and their signature smash hit "Dancing Queen" (1976)—ranks as the Fourth best-selling act of all time.


title: Disco

text: In 1970s Munich, West Germany, music producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte made a decisive contribution to disco music with a string of hits for Donna Summer, which became known as the "Munich Sound". In 1975, Summer suggested the lyric "Love to Love You Baby" to Moroder and Bellotte, who turned the lyric into a full disco song. The final product, which contained the vocalizations of a series of simulated orgasms, initially was not intended for release, but when Moroder played it in the clubs it caused a sensation and he released it. The song became an international hit, reaching the charts in many European countries and the US (No. 2). It has been described as the arrival of the expression of raw female sexual desire in pop music. A nearly 17-minute 12-inch single was released. The 12" single became and remains a standard in discos today. In 1976 Donna Summer's version of "Could It Be Magic" brought disco further into the mainstream. In 1977 Summer, Moroder and Bellotte further released "I Feel Love", as the B-side of "Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over)", which revolutionized dance music with its mostly electronic production and was a massive worldwide success, spawning the Hi-NRG subgenre. Giorgio Moroder was described by AllMusic as "one of the principal architects of the disco sound". Another successful disco music project by Moroder at that time was Munich Machine (1976–1980).


title: Disco

text: Boney M. (1974–1986) was a West German Euro disco group of four West Indian singers and dancers masterminded by record producer Frank Farian. Boney M. charted worldwide with such songs as "Daddy Cool" (1976) "Ma Baker" (1977) and "Rivers Of Babylon" (1978). Another successful West German Euro disco recording act was Silver Convention (1974–1979). The German group Kraftwerk also had an influence on Euro disco.


title: Disco

text: In France, Dalida released "J'attendrai" ("I Will Wait") in 1975, which also became successful in Canada, Europe and Japan. Dalida successfully adjusted herself to disco era and released at least a dozen of songs that charted among top number 10 in whole Europe and wider. Claude François, who re-invented himself as the "king of French disco", released "La plus belle chose du monde", a French version of the Bee Gees song "Massachusetts", which became successful in Canada and Europe and "Alexandrie Alexandra" was posthumously released on the day of his burial and became a worldwide success. Cerrone's early songs, "Love in C Minor" (1976), "Supernature" (1977) and "Give Me Love" (1978) were successful in the US and Europe. Another Euro disco act was the French diva Amanda Lear, where Euro disco sound is most heard in "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)" (1978). French producer Alec Costandinos assembled the Euro disco group Love and Kisses (1977–1982).


title: Disco

text: In Italy Raffaella Carrà was the most successful Euro disco act, alongside La Bionda, Hermanas Goggi and Oliver Onions. Her greatest international single was "Tanti Auguri" ("Best Wishes"), which has become a popular song with gay audiences. The song is also known under its Spanish title "Para hacer bien el amor hay que venir al sur" (which refers to Southern Europe, since the song was recorded and taped in Spain). The Estonian version of the song "Jätke võtmed väljapoole" was performed by Anne Veski. "A far l'amore comincia tu" ("To make love, your move first") was another success for her internationally, known in Spanish as "En el amor todo es empezar", in German as "Liebelei", in French as "Puisque tu l'aimes dis le lui", and in English as "Do It, Do It Again". It was her only entry to the UK Singles Chart, reaching number 9, where she remains a one-hit wonder. In 1977, she recorded another successful single, "Fiesta" ("The Party" in English) originally in Spanish, but then recorded it in French and Italian after the song hit the charts. "A far l'amore comincia tu" has also been covered in Turkish by a Turkish popstar Ajda Pekkan as "Sakın Ha" in 1977.


title: Disco

text: Recently, Carrà has gained new attention for her appearance as the female dancing soloist in a 1974 TV performance of the experimental gibberish song "Prisencolinensinainciusol" (1973) by Adriano Celentano. A remixed video featuring her dancing went viral on the internet in 2008. In 2008 a video of a performance of her only successful UK single, "Do It, Do It Again", was featured in the "Doctor Who" episode "Midnight". Rafaella Carrà worked with Bob Sinclar on the new single "Far l'Amore" which was released on YouTube on March 17, 2011. The song charted in different European countries. Another prominent European disco act was the pop group Luv' from the Netherlands.


title: Disco

text: Euro disco continued evolving within the broad mainstream pop music scene, even when disco's popularity sharply declined in the United States, abandoned by major U.S. record labels and producers. Through the influence of Italo disco, it also played a role in the evolution of early house music in the early 1980s and later forms of electronic dance music, including early 1990s' Eurodance.


title: Disco

text: In December 1977, the film "Saturday Night Fever" was released. It was a huge success and its soundtrack became one of the best-selling albums of all time. The idea for the film was sparked by a 1976 "New York" magazine article titled "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" which supposedly chronicled the disco culture in mid-1970s New York City, but was later revealed to have been fabricated. Some critics said the film "mainstreamed" disco, making it more acceptable to heterosexual white males.


title: Disco

text: The Bee Gees used Barry Gibb's falsetto to garner hits such as "You Should Be Dancing", "Stayin' Alive", "Night Fever", "More Than A Woman" and "Love You Inside Out". Andy Gibb, a younger brother to the Bee Gees, followed with similarly styled solo singles such as "I Just Want to Be Your Everything", "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" and "Shadow Dancing".


title: Disco

text: In 1978, Donna Summer's multi-million selling vinyl single disco version of "MacArthur Park" was number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart for three weeks and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The recording, which was included as part of the "MacArthur Park Suite" on her double live album "Live and More", was eight minutes and 40 seconds long on the album. The shorter seven-inch vinyl single version of MacArthur Park was Summer's first single to reach number one on the Hot 100; it does not include the balladic second movement of the song, however. A 2013 remix of "MacArthur Park" by Summer topped the Billboard Dance Charts marking five consecutive decades with a number-one song on the charts. From mid-1978 to late 1979, Summer continued to release singles such as "Last Dance", "Heaven Knows" (with Brooklyn Dreams), "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls", "Dim All the Lights" and "On the Radio", all very successful songs, landing in the top five or better, on the Billboard pop charts.


title: Disco

text: The band Chic was formed mainly by guitarist Nile Rodgers—a self-described "street hippie" from late 1960s New York—and bassist Bernard Edwards. Their popular 1978 single, "Le Freak", is regarded as an iconic song of the genre. Other successful songs by Chic include the often-sampled "Good Times" (1979), "I Want Your Love" (1979), and "Everybody Dance" (1979). The group regarded themselves as the disco movement's rock band that made good on the hippie movement's ideals of peace, love, and freedom. Every song they wrote was written with an eye toward giving it "deep hidden meaning" or D.H.M.


title: Disco

text: Sylvester, a flamboyant and openly gay singer famous for his soaring falsetto voice, scored his biggest disco hit in late 1978 with "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)". His singing style was said to have influenced the singer Prince. At that time, disco was one of the forms of music most open to gay performers.


title: Disco

text: The Village People were a singing/dancing group created by Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo to target disco's gay audience. They were known for their onstage costumes of typically male-associated jobs and ethnic minorities and achieved mainstream success with their 1978 hit song "Macho Man". Other songs include "Y.M.C.A." (1979) and "In the Navy" (1979).


title: Disco

text: Also noteworthy are The Trammps' "Disco Inferno" (1976), (1978, reissue due to the popularity gained from the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack), Evelyn "Champagne" King's "Shame" (1977), Cheryl Lynn's "Got to Be Real" (1978), Alicia Bridges' "I Love the Nightlife" (1978), Patrick Hernandez's "Born to Be Alive" (1978), Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" (1978), Peaches & Herb's "Shake Your Groove Thing" (1978), Sister Sledge's "We Are Family" (1979), Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell" (1979), Kool & the Gang's "Ladies' Night" (1979), Stephanie Mills's "What Cha Gonna Do with My Lovin'" (1979), Lipps Inc.'s "Funkytown" (1980), The Brothers Johnson's "Stomp!" (1980), George Benson's "Give Me the Night" (1980), Donna Summer's "Sunset People" (1980), and Walter Murphy's various attempts to bring classical music to the mainstream, most notably his disco song "A Fifth of Beethoven" (1976), which was inspired by Beethoven's fifth symphony.


title: Disco

text: At the height of its popularity, many non-disco artists recorded songs with disco elements, such as Rod Stewart with his "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" in 1979. Even mainstream rock artists adopted elements of disco. Progressive rock group Pink Floyd used disco-like drums and guitar in their song "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" (1979), which became their only number-one single in both the US and UK. The Eagles referenced disco with "One of These Nights" (1975) and "Disco Strangler" (1979), Paul McCartney & Wings with "Silly Love Songs" (1976) and "Goodnight Tonight" (1979), Queen with "Another One Bites the Dust" (1980), the Rolling Stones with "Miss You" (1978) and "Emotional Rescue" (1980), Stephen Stills with his album "Thoroughfare Gap" (1978), Electric Light Orchestra with "Shine a Little Love" and "Last Train to London" (both 1979), Chicago with "Street Player" (1979), the Kinks with "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman" (1979), the Grateful Dead with "Shakedown Street", The Who with "Eminence Front" (1982), and the J. Geils Band with "Come Back" (1980). Even hard rock group KISS jumped in with "I Was Made for Lovin' You" (1979), and Ringo Starr's album "Ringo the 4th" (1978) features a strong disco influence.


title: Disco

text: The disco sound was also adopted by artists from other genres, including the 1979 U.S. number one hit "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" by easy listening singer Barbra Streisand in a duet with Donna Summer. In country music, in an attempt to appeal to the more mainstream market, artists began to add pop/disco influences to their music. Dolly Parton launched a successful crossover onto the pop/dance charts, with her albums "Heartbreaker" and "Great Balls of Fire" containing songs with a disco flair. In particular, a disco remix of the track "Baby I'm Burnin'" peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart; ultimately becoming one of the years biggest club hits.


title: Disco

text: Additionally, Connie Smith covered Andy Gibb's "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" in 1977, Bill Anderson recorded "Double S" in 1978, and Ronnie Milsap released "Get It Up" and covered blues singer Tommy Tucker's song "Hi-Heel Sneakers" in 1979.


title: Disco

text: Pre-existing non-disco songs, standards, and TV themes were frequently "disco-ized" in the 1970s, such as the "I Love Lucy" theme (recorded as "Disco Lucy" by the Wilton Place Street Band), "Aquarela do Brasil" (recorded as "Brazil" by The Ritchie Family), and "Baby Face" (recorded by the Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Corps). The rich orchestral accompaniment that became identified with the disco era conjured up the memories of the big band era—which brought out several artists that recorded and disco-ized some big band arrangements, including Perry Como, who re-recorded his 1945 song "Temptation", in 1975, as well as Ethel Merman, who released an album of disco songs entitled "The Ethel Merman Disco Album" in 1979.


title: Disco

text: Myron Floren, second-in-command on "The Lawrence Welk Show", released a recording of the "Clarinet Polka" entitled "Disco Accordion." Similarly, Bobby Vinton adapted "The Pennsylvania Polka" into a song named "Disco Polka". Easy listening icon Percy Faith, in one of his last recordings, released an album entitled "Disco Party" (1975) and recorded a disco version of his "Theme from "A Summer Place"" in 1976. Even classical music was adapted for disco, notably Walter Murphy's "A Fifth of Beethoven" (1976, based on the first movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony) and "Flight 76" (1976, based on Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee"), and Louis Clark's "Hooked On Classics" series of albums and singles.


title: Disco

text: Many original television theme songs of the era also showed a strong disco influence, such as "S.W.A.T." (1975), "Wonder Woman" (1975), "Charlie's Angels" (1976), "NBC Saturday Night At The Movies" (1976), "The Love Boat" (1977), "The Donahue Show" (1977), "CHiPs" (1977), "The Professionals" (1977), "Dallas" (1978), NBC Sports broadcasts (1978), "Kojak" (1977), and "The Hollywood Squares" (1979).


title: Disco

text: Disco jingles also made their way into many TV commercials, including Purina's 1979 "Good Mews" cat food commercial and an "IC Light" commercial by Pittsburgh's Iron City Brewing Company.


title: Disco

text: Several parodies of the disco style were created. Rick Dees, at the time a radio DJ in Memphis, Tennessee, recorded "Disco Duck" (1976) and "Dis-Gorilla" (1977); Frank Zappa parodied the lifestyles of disco dancers in "Disco Boy" on his 1976 "Zoot Allures" album and in "Dancin' Fool" on his 1979 "Sheik Yerbouti" album; "Weird Al" Yankovic's eponymous 1983 debut album includes a disco song called "Gotta Boogie", an extended pun on the similarity of the disco move to the American slang word "booger". Comedian Bill Cosby devoted his entire 1977 album "Disco Bill" to disco parodies. In 1980, "Mad Magazine" released a flexi-disc titled "Mad Disco" featuring six full-length parodies of the genre. Rock and roll songs critical of disco included Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" and, especially, The Who's "Sister Disco" (both 1978)—although The Who's "Eminence Front" (four years later) had a disco feel.


title: Disco

text: By the end of the 1970s, anti-disco sentiment developed among rock music fans and musicians, particularly in the United States. Disco was criticized as mindless, consumerist, overproduced and escapist. The slogans "Disco sucks" and "Death to disco" became common. Rock artists such as Rod Stewart and David Bowie who added disco elements to their music were accused of selling out.


title: Disco

text: The punk subculture in the United States and United Kingdom was often hostile to disco, although in the UK, many early Sex Pistols fans such as the Bromley Contingent and Jordan liked disco, often congregating at nightclubs such as Louise's in Soho and the Sombrero in Kensington. The track "Love Hangover" by Diana Ross, the house anthem at the former, was cited as a particular favourite by many early UK punks.


title: Disco

text: The film "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" and its soundtrack album contained a disco medley of Sex Pistols songs, entitled "Black Arabs" and credited to a group of the same name.


title: Disco

text: However, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, in the song "Saturday Night Holocaust", likened disco to the cabaret culture of Weimar-era Germany for its apathy towards government policies and its escapism. Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo said that disco was "like a beautiful woman with a great body and no brains", and a product of political apathy of that era. New Jersey rock critic Jim Testa wrote "Put a Bullet Through the Jukebox", a vitriolic screed attacking disco that was considered a punk call to arms. Steve Hillage, shortly prior to his transformation from a progressive rock musician into an electronic artist at the end of the 1970s with the inspiration of disco, disappointed his rockist fans by admitting his love for disco, with Hillage recalling "it's like I'd killed their pet cat."


title: Disco

text: Anti-disco sentiment was expressed in some television shows and films. A recurring theme on the show "WKRP in Cincinnati" was a hostile attitude towards disco music. In one scene of the 1980 comedy film "Airplane!", a wayward airplane slices a radio tower with its wing, knocking out an all-disco radio station. July 12, 1979, became known as "the day disco died" because of the Disco Demolition Night, an anti-disco demonstration in a baseball double-header at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Rock station DJs Steve Dahl and Garry Meier, along with Michael Veeck, son of Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck, staged the promotional event for disgruntled rock fans between the games of a White Sox doubleheader which involved exploding disco records in centerfield. As the second game was about to begin, the raucous crowd stormed onto the field and proceeded by setting fires, tearing out seats and pieces of turf, and other damage. The Chicago Police Department made numerous arrests, and the extensive damage to the field forced the White Sox to forfeit the second game to the Detroit Tigers, who had won the first game.


title: Disco

text: Disco's decline in popularity after Disco Demolition Night was rapid. On July 12, 1979, the top six records on the U.S. music charts were disco songs. By September 22, there were no disco songs in the US Top 10 chart, with the exception of Herb Alpert's instrumental "Rise", a smooth jazz composition with some disco overtones. Some in the media, in celebratory tones, declared disco "dead" and rock revived. Karen Mixon Cook, the first female disco DJ, stated that people still pause every July 12 for a moment of silence in honor of disco. Dahl stated in a 2004 interview that disco was "probably on its way out [at the time]. But I think it [Disco Demolition Night] hastened its demise".


title: Disco

text: The anti-disco movement, combined with other societal and radio industry factors, changed the face of pop radio in the years following Disco Demolition Night. Starting in the 1980s, country music began a slow rise in American main pop charts. Emblematic of country music's rise to mainstream popularity was the commercially successful 1980 movie "Urban Cowboy". The continued popularity of power pop and the revival of oldies in the late 1970s was also related to disco's decline; the 1978 film "Grease" was emblematic of this trend. Coincidentally, the star of both films was John Travolta, who in 1977 had starred in "Saturday Night Fever", which remains one of the most iconic disco films of the era.


title: Disco

text: During this period of decline in disco's popularity, several record companies folded, were reorganized, or were sold. In 1979, MCA Records purchased ABC Records, absorbed some of its artists, and then shut the label down. Midsong International Records ceased operations in 1980. RSO Records founder Robert Stigwood left the label in 1981 and TK Records closed in the same year. Salsoul Records continues to exist in the 2000s, but primarily is used as a reissue brand. Casablanca Records had been releasing fewer records in the 1980s, and was shut down in 1986 by parent company PolyGram.


title: Disco

text: Many groups that were popular during the disco period subsequently struggled to maintain their success—even those that tried to adapt to evolving musical tastes. The Bee Gees, for instance, had only one top-10 entry (1989's "One") and three more top-40 songs (despite recording and releasing far more than that and completely abandoning disco in their 1980s and 1990s songs) in the United States after the 1970s, even though numerous songs they wrote and had "other" artists perform were successful. Of the handful of groups "not" taken down by disco's fall from favor, Kool and the Gang, Donna Summer, the Jacksons and Gloria Gaynor in particular—stand out: In spite of having helped "define" the disco sound early on, they continued to make popular and danceable, if more refined, songs for yet another generation of music fans in the 1980s and beyond. Earth, Wind & Fire also survived the anti-disco trend and continued to produce successful singles at roughly the same pace for several more years, in addition to an even longer string of R&B chart hits that lasted into the 1990s.


title: Disco

text: Six months prior to the chaotic event (in December 1978), popular progressive rock radio station WDAI (WLS-FM) had suddenly switched to an all-disco format, disenfranchising thousands of Chicago rock fans and leaving Dahl unemployed. WDAI, who survived the change of public sentiment and still had good ratings at this point, continued to play disco until it flipped to a short-lived hybrid Top 40/rock format in May 1980. Another disco outlet that also competed against WDAI at the time, WGCI-FM, would later incorporate R&B and pop songs into the format, eventually evolving into an urban contemporary outlet that it continues with today. The latter also helped bring the Chicago house genre to the airwaves.


title: Disco

text: Factors that have been cited as leading to the decline of disco in the United States include economic and political changes at the end of the 1970s, as well as burnout from the hedonistic lifestyles led by participants. In the years since Disco Demolition Night, some social critics have described the "Disco sucks" movement as implicitly macho and bigoted, and an attack on non-white and non-heterosexual cultures. It was also interpreted being part of a wider cultural "backlash", the move towards conservatism, that also made its way into US politics with the election of conservative president Ronald Reagan in 1980, which also led to Republican control of the United States Senate for the first time since 1954, plus the subsequent rise of the Religious Right around the same time.


title: Disco

text: In January 1979, rock critic Robert Christgau argued that homophobia, and most likely racism, were reasons behind the movement, a conclusion seconded by John Rockwell. Craig Werner wrote: "The Anti-disco movement represented an unholy alliance of funkateers and feminists, progressives and puritans, rockers and reactionaries. Nonetheless, the attacks on disco gave respectable voice to the ugliest kinds of unacknowledged racism, sexism and homophobia." Legs McNeil, founder of the fanzine "Punk", was quoted in an interview as saying, "the hippies always wanted to be black. We were going, 'fuck the blues, fuck the black experience'." He also said that disco was the result of an "unholy" union between homosexuals and blacks.


title: Disco

text: Steve Dahl, who had spearheaded Disco Demolition Night, denied any racist or homophobic undertones to the promotion, saying, "It's really easy to look at it historically, from this perspective, and attach all those things to it. But we weren't thinking like that." It has been noted that British punk rock critics of disco were very supportive of the pro-black/anti-racist reggae genre as well as the more pro-gay new romantics movement. Christgau and Jim Testa have said that there were legitimate artistic reasons for being critical of disco.


title: Disco

text: In 1979, the music industry in the United States underwent its worst slump in decades, and disco, despite its mass popularity, was blamed. The producer-oriented sound was having difficulty mixing well with the industry's artist-oriented marketing system. Harold Childs, senior vice president at A&M Records, reportedly told the "Los Angeles Times" that "radio is really desperate for rock product" and "they're all looking for some white rock-n-roll". Gloria Gaynor argued that the music industry supported the destruction of disco because rock music producers were losing money and rock musicians were losing the spotlight.


title: Disco

text: Disco was instrumental in the development of electronic dance music genres like house, techno and eurodance. The Eurodisco song "I Feel Love", produced by Giorgio Moroder for Donna Summer in 1976, has been described as a milestone and blueprint for electronic dance music because it was the first to combine repetitive synthesizer loops with a continuous four-on-the-floor bass drum and an off-beat hi-hat, which would become a main feature of techno and house ten years later.


title: Disco

text: During the first years of the 1980s, the traditional disco sound characterized by complex arrangements performed by large ensembles of studio session musicians (including a horn section and an orchestral string section) began to be phased out, and faster tempos and synthesized effects, accompanied by guitar and simplified backgrounds, moved dance music toward electronic and pop genres, starting with hi-NRG. Despite its decline in popularity, so-called club music and European-style disco much remained "relatively" successful in the early 1980s with songs like, The Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb on Me", The Weather Girls's "It's Raining Men", Donna Summer's "She Works Hard for the Money", Irene Cara's "Flashdance... What a Feeling" (theme to the film "Flashdance", Madonna's "Lucky Star", Laura Branigan's "Self Control", and The Pointer Sisters's album, "Break Out." However, a revival of the traditional-style disco called nu-disco has been popular since the 1990s.


title: Disco

text: House music displayed a strong disco influence, which is why house music, regarding its enormous success in shaping electronic dance music and contemporary club culture, is often described being "disco's revenge." Early house music was generally dance-based music characterized by repetitive four on the floor beats, rhythms mainly provided by drum machines, off-beat hi-hat cymbals, and synthesized basslines. While house displayed several characteristics similar to disco music, it was more electronic and minimalist, and the repetitive rhythm of house was more important than the song itself. As well, house did not use the lush string sections that were a key part of the disco sound.


title: Disco

text: The rising popularity of disco came in tandem with developments in the role of the DJ. DJing developed from the use of multiple record turntables and DJ mixers to create a continuous, seamless mix of songs, with one song transitioning to another with no break in the music to interrupt the dancing. The resulting DJ mix differed from previous forms of dance music in the 1960s, which were oriented towards live performances by musicians. This in turn affected the arrangement of dance music, since songs in the disco era typically contained beginnings and endings marked by a simple beat or riff that could be easily used to transition to a new song. The development of DJing was also influenced by new turntablism techniques, such as beatmatching and scratching, a process facilitated by the introduction of new turntable technologies such as the Technics SL-1200 MK 2, first sold in 1978, which had a precise variable pitch control and a direct drive motor. DJs were often avid record collectors, who would hunt through used record stores for obscure soul records and vintage funk recordings. DJs helped to introduce rare records and new artists to club audiences.


title: Disco

text: In the 1970s, individual DJs became more prominent, and some DJs, such as Larry Levan, the resident at Paradise Garage, Jim Burgess, Tee Scott and Francis Grasso became famous in the disco scene. Levan, for example, developed a cult following among club-goers, who referred to his DJ sets as "Saturday Mass". Some DJs would use reel-to-reel tape recorders to make remixes and tape edits of songs. Some DJs who were making remixes made the transition from the DJ booth to becoming a record producer, notably Burgess. Scott developed several innovations. He was the first disco DJ to use three turntables as sound sources, the first to simultaneously play two beat matched records, the first user of electronic effects units in his mixes and an innovator in mixing dialogue in from well-known movies into his mixes, typically over a percussion break. These mixing techniques were also applied to radio DJs, such as Ted Currier of WKTU and WBLS. Grasso is particularly notable for taking the DJ "profession out of servitude and [making] the DJ the musical head chef". Once he entered the scene, the DJ was no longer responsible for waiting on the crowd hand and foot, meeting their every song request. Instead, with increased agency and visibility, the DJ was now able to use their own technical and creative skills to whip up a nightly special of innovative mixes, refining their personal sound and aesthetic, and building their own reputation.


title: Disco

text: The post-disco sound and genres associated with it originated in the 1970s and early 1980s with R&B and post-punk musicians focusing on a more electronic and experimental side of disco, spawning boogie, Italo disco, and alternative dance. Drawing from a diverse range of non-disco influences and techniques, such as the "one-man band" style of Kashif and Stevie Wonder and alternative approaches of Parliament-Funkadelic, it was driven by synthesizers, keyboards, and drum machines. Post-disco acts include D. Train, Patrice Rushen, ESG, Bill Laswell, Arthur Russell. Post-disco had an important influence on dance-pop and was bridging classical disco and later forms of electronic dance music.


title: Disco

text: The disco sound had a strong influence on early hip hop. Most of the early hip hop songs were created by isolating existing disco bass-guitar lines and dubbing over them with MC rhymes. The Sugarhill Gang used Chic's "Good Times" as the foundation for their 1979 song "Rapper's Delight", generally considered to be the song that first popularized rap music in the United States and around the world.


title: Disco

text: With synthesizers and Krautrock influences, that replaced the previous disco foundation, a new genre was born when Afrika Bambaataa released the single "Planet Rock," spawning a hip hop electronic dance trend that includes songs such as Planet Patrol's "Play at Your Own Risk" (1982), C-Bank's "One More Shot" (1982), Cerrone's "Club Underworld" (1984), Shannon's "Let the Music Play" (1983), Freeez's "I.O.U." (1983), Midnight Star's "Freak-a-Zoid" (1983), Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You" (1984).


title: Disco

text: House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago in the early 1980s (also see: Chicago house). It quickly spread to other American cities such as Detroit, where it developed into the harder and more industrial techno, New York City (also see: garage house) and Newark – all of which developed their own regional scenes.


title: Disco

text: In the mid- to late 1980s, house music became popular in Europe as well as major cities in South America, and Australia. Early house music commercial success in Europe saw songs such as "Pump Up The Volume" by MARRS (1987), "House Nation" by House Master Boyz and the Rude Boy of House (1987), "Theme from S'Express" by S'Express (1988) and "Doctorin' the House" by Coldcut (1988) in the pop charts. Since the early to mid-1990s, house music has been infused in mainstream pop and dance music worldwide.


title: Disco

text: House music in the 2010s, while keeping several of these core elements, notably the prominent kick drum on every beat, varies widely in style and influence, ranging from the soulful and atmospheric deep house to the more aggressive acid house or the minimalist microhouse. House music has also fused with several other genres creating fusion subgenres, such as euro house, tech house, electro house and jump house.


title: Disco

text: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, rave culture began to emerge from the house and acid house scene. Like house, it incorporated disco culture's same love of dance music played by DJs over powerful sound systems, recreational drug and club drug exploration, sexual promiscuity, and hedonism. Although disco culture started out underground, it eventually thrived in the mainstream by the late 1970s, and major labels commodified and packaged the music for mass consumption. In contrast, the rave culture started out underground and stayed (mostly) underground. In part, this was to avoid the animosity that was still surrounding disco and dance music. The rave scene also stayed underground to avoid law enforcement attention that was directed at the rave culture due to its use of secret, unauthorized warehouses for some dance events and its association with illegal club drugs like ecstasy.


title: Disco

text: The post-punk movement that originated in the late 1970s both supported punk rock's rule breaking while rejecting its move back to raw rock music. Post-punk's mantra of constantly moving forward lent itself to both openness to and experimentation with elements of disco and other styles. Public Image Limited is considered the first post-punk group. The group's second album "Metal Box" fully embraced the "studio as instrument" methodology of disco. The group's founder John Lydon, the former lead singer for the Sex Pistols, told the press that disco was the only music he cared for at the time.


title: Disco

text: No wave was a subgenre of post-punk centered in New York City. For shock value, James Chance, a notable member of the no wave scene, penned an article in the "East Village Eye" urging his readers to move uptown and get "trancin' with some superradioactive disco voodoo funk". His band James White and the Blacks wrote a disco album titled "Off White". Their performances resembled those of disco performers (horn section, dancers and so on). In 1981 ZE Records led the transition from no wave into the more subtle mutant disco (post-disco/punk) genre. Mutant disco acts such as Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Was Not Was, ESG and Liquid Liquid influenced several British post-punk acts such as New Order, Orange Juice and A Certain Ratio.


title: Disco

text: Nu-disco is a 21st-century dance music genre associated with the renewed interest in 1970s and early 1980s disco, mid-1980s Italo disco, and the synthesizer-heavy Euro disco aesthetics. The moniker appeared in print as early as 2002, and by mid-2008 was used by record shops such as the online retailers Juno and Beatport. These vendors often associate it with re-edits of original-era disco music, as well as with music from European producers who make dance music inspired by original-era American disco, electro and other genres popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is also used to describe the music on several American labels that were previously associated with the genres electroclash and French house.


title: Disco

text: In the 1990s, after a decade of backlash, disco and its legacy became more accepted by pop music artists and listeners alike, as more songs, films, and compilations were released that referenced disco. This was part of a wave of 1970s nostalgia that was taking place in popular culture at the time. Examples of songs during this time that were influenced by disco included Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" (1990), U2's "Lemon" (1993), Blur's "Girls & Boys" (1994) and "Entertain Me" (1995), Pulp's "Disco 2000" (1995), and Jamiroquai's "Canned Heat" (1999), while films such as "Boogie Nights" (1997) and "The Last Days of Disco" (1998) featured primarily disco soundtracks.


title: Disco

text: In the early 2000s, an updated genre of disco called "nu-disco" began breaking into the mainstream. A few examples like Daft Punk's "One More Time" and Kylie Minogue's "Love at First Sight" and "Can't Get You Out of My Head" became club favorites and commercial successes. Several nu-disco songs were crossovers with funky house, such as Spiller's "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" and Modjo's "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)", both songs sampling older disco songs and both reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart in 2000. Robbie Williams' disco single "Rock DJ" was the UK's fourth best-selling single the same year. Jamiroquai´s song "Little L" and "Murder on the Dancefloor" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor were hits on 2001 too. Rock band Manic Street Preachers released a disco song, "Miss Europa Disco Dancer", in 2001. The song's disco influence, which appears on "Know Your Enemy", was described as being "much-discussed". In 2005, Madonna immersed herself in the disco music of the 1970s, and released her album "Confessions on a Dance Floor" to rave reviews. In addition to that, her song "Hung Up" became a major top-10 song and club staple, and sampled ABBA's 1979 song "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)". In addition to her disco-influenced attire to award shows and interviews, her Confessions Tour also incorporated various elements of the 1970s, such as disco balls, a mirrored stage design, and the roller derby. In 2006, Jessica Simpson released her album "A Public Affair" inspired on disco and 1980s Music. The first single of the album "A Public Affair" was reviewed as a disco-dancing competition influenced by Madonna's early works. The video of the song was filmed on a skating rink and features a line dance of hands.


title: Disco

text: The success of the "nu-disco" revival of the early 2000s was described by music critic Tom Ewing as more interpersonal than the pop music of the 1990s: "The revival of disco within pop put a spotlight on something that had gone missing over the 90s: a sense of music not just for dancing, but for dancing with someone. Disco was a music of mutual attraction: cruising, flirtation, negotiation. Its dancefloor is a space for immediate pleasure, but also for promises kept and otherwise. It's a place where things start, but their resolution, let alone their meaning, is never clear. All of 2000s great disco number ones explore how to play this hand. Madison Avenue look to impose their will upon it, to set terms and roles. Spiller is less rigid. 'Groovejet' accepts the night's changeability, happily sells out certainty for an amused smile and a few great one-liners."


title: Disco

text: In 2013, several 1970s-style disco and funk songs charted, and the pop charts had more dance songs than at any other point since the late 1970s. The biggest disco song of the year as of June was "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk, featuring Nile Rodgers on guitar. "Random Access Memories" also ended up winning Album of the Year at the 2014 Grammys. Other disco-styled songs that made it into the top 40 were Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" (number one), Justin Timberlake's "Take Back the Night" (number 29), Bruno Mars' "Treasure" (number five) Arcade Fire's "Reflektor" featured strong disco elements. In 2014, disco music could be found in Lady Gaga's "Artpop" and Katy Perry's "Birthday". Other disco songs from 2014 include "I Want It All" By Karmin, 'Wrong Club" by the Ting Tings, "Blow" by Beyoncé and the William Orbit mix of "Let Me in Your Heart Again" by Queen.


title: Disco

text: In 2014 Brazilian Globo TV, the second biggest television network in the world, aired Boogie Oogie, a telenovela about the Disco Era that takes place between 1978 and 1979, from the hit fever to the decadence. The show's success was responsible for a Disco revival across the country, bringing back to stage, and to Brazilian record charts, local disco divas like Lady Zu and As Frenéticas.


title: Disco

text: Other top-10 entries from 2015 like Mark Ronson's disco groove-infused "Uptown Funk", Maroon 5's "Sugar", the Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face" and Jason Derulo's "Want To Want Me" also ascended the charts and have a strong disco influence. Disco mogul and producer Giorgio Moroder also re-appeared with his new album "Déjà Vu" in 2015 which has proved to be a modest success. Other songs from 2015 like "I Don't Like It, I Love It" by Flo Rida, "Adventure of a Lifetime" by Coldplay, "Back Together" by Robin Thicke and "Levels" by Nick Jonas feature disco elements as well. In 2016, disco songs or disco-styled pop songs are showing a strong presence on the music charts as a possible backlash to the 1980s-styled synthpop, electro house, and dubstep that have been dominating the current charts. Justin Timberlake's 2016 song "Can't Stop the Feeling!", which shows strong elements of disco, became the 26th song to debut at number-one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the history of the chart. "The Martian", a 2015 film, extensively uses disco music as a soundtrack, although for the main character, astronaut Mark Watney, there's only one thing worse than being stranded on Mars: it's being stranded on Mars with nothing but disco music. "Kill the Lights", featured on an episode of the HBO television series "Vinyl" (2016) and with Nile Rodgers' guitar licks, hit number one on the US Dance chart in July 2016.


title: Disco

text: In 2020, disco continued its mainstream popularity and has become a recent fad in popular music. In early 2020, disco-influenced hits such as Doja Cat's "Say So", Lady Gaga's "Stupid Love", and Dua Lipa's "Don't Start Now" experienced widespread success on global music charts, with the three songs charting at numbers 1, 5 and 2, respectively, on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. At the time, "Billboard", declared that Lipa was "leading the charge toward disco-influenced production" a day after her retro and disco-influenced album "Future Nostalgia" was released on March 27, 2020. By mid 2020, multiple disco albums and songs had been released. In early September 2020, South Korean group BTS debuted at number 1 in the US with their English–language disco single "Dynamite" having sold 265,000 downloads in its first week in the US, marking the biggest pure sales week since Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" (2017). Other critically acclaimed disco albums from the year include Jessie Ware's "What's Your Pleasure?" and Róisín Murphy's "Róisín Machine".


title: Disco

text: In July 2020, Australian singer Kylie Minogue announced she would be releasing her fifteenth studio album, "Disco", on November 6, 2020. The album was preceded by two singles, the lead single from the album, "Say Something", was released on July 23 of the same year and premiered on BBC Radio 2. The second single, "Magic", was released on September 24. Both singles received critical acclaim, with critics praising Minogue for returning to disco roots, which were prominent in her albums "Light Years" (2000), "Fever" (2001) and "Aphrodite" (2010).


title: Lee Marvin

text: Lee Marvin (born Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr.; February 19, 1924August 29, 1987) was an American film and television actor. Known for his bass voice and premature white hair, he is best remembered for playing hardboiled "tough guy" characters. Although initially typecast as the "heavy" (i.e. villainous character), he later gained prominence for portraying anti-heroes, such as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger on the television series "M Squad" (1957–1960). Marvin's notable roles in film included Charlie Strom in "The Killers" (1964), Rico Fardan in "The Professionals" (1966), Major John Reisman in "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), Ben Rumson in "Paint Your Wagon" (1969), Walker in "Point Blank" (1967), and the Sergeant in "The Big Red One" (1980).


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin achieved numerous accolades when he portrayed both gunfighter Kid Shelleen and criminal Tim Strawn in a dual role for the comedy Western film "Cat Ballou" (1965), alongside Jane Fonda, a surprise hit which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor, along with a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, an NBR Award, and the Silver Bear for Best Actor.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Lee Marvin was born in New York City to Lamont Waltman Marvin, WWI veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers and an advertising executive, and Courtenay Washington (née Davidge), a fashion writer. As with his elder brother, Robert, he was named in honor of Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was his first cousin, four times removed. His father was a direct descendant of Matthew Marvin Sr., who emigrated from Great Bentley, Essex, England in 1635, and helped found Hartford, Connecticut. Marvin studied violin when he was young. His father was abusive and his mother failed to provide mother love kids need. In childhood, Lee Marvin suffered from dyslexia and ADHD. As a teenager, Marvin "spent weekends and spare time hunting deer, puma, wild turkey, and bobwhite in the wilds of the then-uncharted Everglades".


title: Lee Marvin

text: He attended Manumit School, a Christian socialist boarding school in Pawling, New York, during the late 1930s, and Peekskill Military Academy in Peekskill, New York. He later attended St. Leo College Preparatory School, a Catholic school in St. Leo, Florida, after being expelled from several other schools for bad behavior (smoking cigarettes and fights).


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on August 12, 1942. Before finishing School of Infantry, he was an quartermaster. Lee served in the 4th Marine Division as a scout sniper in the Pacific Theater during World War II, including assaults on Eniwetok and Saipan-Tinian. While serving as a member of "I" Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, Lee participated in 21 Japanese islands landings and was wounded in action on June 18, 1944, during the assault on Mount Tapochau in the Battle of Saipan, during which most of his company were casualties. He was hit by machine gun fire, which severed his sciatic nerve, and then was hit again in the foot by a sniper. After over a year of medical treatment in naval hospitals, Marvin was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class. He previously held the rank of corporal, but had been demoted for troublemaking.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin's decorations include the Purple Heart Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon.


title: Lee Marvin

text: After the war, while working as a plumber's assistant at a local community theatre in upstate New York, Marvin was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals. He caught the acting bug and got a job with the company at $7 a week. He moved to Greenwich Village and used the G.I. Bill to study at the American Theatre Wing.


title: Lee Marvin

text: He appeared on stage in a production of "Uniform of Flesh", the original version of "Billy Budd" (1949). It was performed at the Experimental Theatre, where a few months later, Marvin also appeared in "The Nineteenth Hole of Europe" (1949).


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin began appearing on television shows like "Escape", "The Big Story", and "Treasury Men in Action".


title: Lee Marvin

text: He made it to Broadway with a small role in a production of "Uniform of Flesh", now titled "Billy Budd", in February 1951.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin's film debut was in "You're in the Navy Now" (1951), directed by Henry Hathaway, a movie that also marked the debuts of Charles Bronson and Jack Warden. This required some filming in Hollywood. Marvin decided to stay in California.


title: Lee Marvin

text: He had a similar small part in "Teresa" (1951), directed by Fred Zinnemann. As a decorated combat veteran, Marvin was a natural in war dramas, where he frequently assisted the director and other actors in realistically portraying infantry movement, arranging costumes, and the use of firearms.


title: Lee Marvin

text: He guest starred on episodes of "Fireside Theatre", "Suspense" and "Rebound". Hathaway used him again on "Diplomatic Courier" (1952) and he could be seen in "Down Among the Sheltering Palms" (1952), directed by Edmund Goulding, "We're Not Married!" (1952), also for Goulding, "The Duel at Silver Creek" (1952) directed by Don Siegel, and "Hangman's Knot" (1952), directed by Roy Huggins.


title: Lee Marvin

text: He guest starred on "Biff Baker, U.S.A." and "Dragnet", and had a decent role in a feature with "Eight Iron Men" (1952), a war film produced by Stanley Kramer (Marvin's role had been played on Broadway by Burt Lancaster).


title: Lee Marvin

text: He was a sergeant in "Seminole" (1953), a Western directed by Budd Boetticher, and was a corporal in "The Glory Brigade" (1953), a Korean War film.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin guest starred in "The Doctor", "The Revlon Mirror Theater ", "Suspense" again and "The Motorola Television Hour".


title: Lee Marvin

text: He was now in much demand for Westerns: "The Stranger Wore a Gun" (1953) with Randolph Scott, and "Gun Fury" (1953) with Rock Hudson.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin received much acclaim for his portrayal as villains in two films: "The Big Heat" (1953) where he played Gloria Grahame's vicious boyfriend, directed by Fritz Lang; and "The Wild One" (1953) opposite Marlon Brando (Marvin's gang in the film was named "The Beetles"), produced by Kramer.


title: Lee Marvin

text: He continued in TV shows such as "The Plymouth Playhouse" and "The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse". He had support roles in "Gorilla at Large" (1954) and had a notable small role as smart-aleck sailor Meatball in "The Caine Mutiny" (1954), produced by Kramer.


title: Lee Marvin

text: He had a part as Hector, the small-town hood in "Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955) with Spencer Tracy. Also in 1955, he played a conflicted, brutal bank-robber in "Violent Saturday". A critic wrote of the character, "Marvin brings a multi-faceted complexity to the role and gives a great example of the early promise that launched his long and successful career."


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin played Robert Mitchum's friend in "Not as a Stranger" (1955), a medical drama produced by Kramer. He had good supporting roles in "A Life in the Balance" (1955) (he was third billed), and "Pete Kelly's Blues" (1955) and appeared on TV in "Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre" and "Studio One in Hollywood."


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin was in "I Died a Thousand Times" (1955) with Jack Palance, "Shack Out on 101" (1955), "Kraft Theatre", and "Front Row Center."


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin was the villain in "7 Men from Now" (1956) with Randolph Scott directed by Boetticher. He was second-billed to Palance in "Attack" (1956) directed by Robert Aldrich.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin had roles in "Pillars of the Sky" (1956) with Jeff Chandler, "The Rack" (1956) with Paul Newman, "Raintree County" (1956) and "The Missouri Traveler" (1958). He also guest starred on "Climax!" (several times), "Studio 57", "The United States Steel Hour" and "Schlitz Playhouse".


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin debuted as a leading man in "M Squad" as Chicago cop Frank Ballinger in 100 episodes of the successful 1957–1960 television series. One critic described the show as "a hyped-up, violent "Dragnet" ... with a hard-as-nails Marvin" playing a tough police lieutenant. Marvin received the role after guest-starring in a "Dragnet" episode as a serial killer.


title: Lee Marvin

text: When the series ended Marvin appeared on "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse", "Sunday Showcase", "The Barbara Stanwyck Show", "The Americans", "Wagon Train", "Checkmate", "General Electric Theater, Alcoa Premiere", "The Investigators", "Route 66" (he was injured during a fight scene), "Ben Casey", "Bonanza", "The Untouchables" (several times), "The Virginian", "The Twilight Zone" ("The Grave" and "Steel"), "The Dick Powell Theatre", and "The Investigators".


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin returned to feature films with a prominent role in "The Comancheros" (1961) starring John Wayne. He played in two more films with Wayne, both directed by John Ford: "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962), and "Donovan's Reef" (1963). As the vicious Liberty Valance, Marvin played his first title role and held his own with two of the screen's biggest stars (Wayne and James Stewart).


title: Lee Marvin

text: In 1962 Marvin appeared as Martin Kalig on the TV western "The Virginian" in the episode titled "It Tolls for Thee." He continued to guest star on shows like "Combat!", "Dr. Kildare" and "The Great Adventure". He did "The Case Against Paul Ryker" for "Kraft Suspense Theatre."


title: Lee Marvin

text: For director Don Siegel, Marvin appeared in "The Killers" (1964) playing an efficient professional assassin alongside Clu Gulager, grappling with villain Ronald Reagan and Angie Dickinson. "The Killers" was the first film in which Marvin received top billing.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin finally became a star for his comic role in the offbeat Western "Cat Ballou" (1965) starring Jane Fonda. This was a surprise hit and Marvin won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He also won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival in 1965.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Playing alongside Vivien Leigh and Simone Signoret, Marvin won the 1966 National Board of Review Award for male actors for his role in "Ship of Fools" (1965) directed by Kramer.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin next performed in the Western "The Professionals" (1966), in which he played the leader of a small band of skilled mercenaries (Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode) rescuing a kidnap victim (Claudia Cardinale) shortly after the Mexican Revolution.


title: Lee Marvin

text: He followed that film with the hugely successful World War II epic "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) in which top-billed Marvin again portrayed an intrepid commander of a colorful group (played by John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, and Donald Sutherland) performing an almost impossible mission. Robert Aldrich directed. In an interview, Marvin stated his time in the Marine Corps helped shape that role "for playing an officer how I felt it should have been seen, from the bias of an enlisted man's viewpoint".


title: Lee Marvin

text: In the wake of these two films and after having received his Oscar, Marvin was a huge star, given enormous control over his next film "Point Blank". In "Point Blank", an influential film for director John Boorman, he portrayed a hard-nosed criminal bent on revenge. Marvin, who had selected Boorman for the director's slot, had a central role in the film's development, plot, and staging.


title: Lee Marvin

text: In 1968, Marvin also appeared in another Boorman film, the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful World War II character study "Hell in the Pacific", also starring famed Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. Boorman recounted his work with Lee Marvin on these two films and Marvin's influence on his career in the 1998 documentary "". "Paul Ryker", which Marvin shot for TV in 1963 was released theatrically as "Sergeant Ryker".


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin was originally cast as Pike Bishop (later played by William Holden) in "The Wild Bunch" (1969), but fell out with director Sam Peckinpah and pulled out to star in the Western musical "Paint Your Wagon" (1969), in which he was top-billed over a singing Clint Eastwood. Despite his limited singing ability, he had a hit with the song "Wand'rin' Star". By this time, he was getting paid $1 million per film, $200,000 less than top star Paul Newman was making at the time, yet he was ambivalent about the movie business, even with its financial rewards:


title: Lee Marvin

text: You spend the first forty years of your life trying to get in this business, and the next forty years trying to get out. And then when you're making the bread, who needs it?


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin had a much greater variety of roles in the 1970s, with fewer 'bad-guy' roles than in earlier years. His 1970s movies included "Monte Walsh" (1970), a Western with Palance and Jeanne Moreau; the violent "Prime Cut" (1972) with Gene Hackman; "Pocket Money" (1972) with Paul Newman, for Stuart Rosenberg; "Emperor of the North" (1973) opposite Ernest Borgnine for Aldrich; as Hickey in "The Iceman Cometh" (1973) with Fredric March and Robert Ryan, for John Frankenheimer; "The Spikes Gang" (1974) with Noah Beery Jr. for Richard Fleischer; "The Klansman" (1974) with Richard Burton; "Shout at the Devil" (1976), a World War I adventure with Roger Moore, directed by Peter Hunt; "The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday" (1976), a comic Western with Oliver Reed; and "Avalanche Express" (1978), a Cold War thriller with Robert Shaw who died during production. None of these films were big box-office hits.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin was offered the role of Quint in "Jaws" (1975) but declined, stating "What would I tell my fishing friends who'd see me come off a hero against a dummy shark?"


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin's last big role was in Samuel Fuller's "The Big Red One" (1980), a war film based on Fuller's own war experiences.


title: Lee Marvin

text: His remaining films were "Death Hunt" (1981), a Canadian action movie with Charles Bronson, directed by Hunt; "Gorky Park" (1983) with William Hurt; and "Dog Day" (1984), shot in France.


title: Lee Marvin

text: For TV he did "" (1985; a sequel with Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Richard Jaeckel picking up where they had left off despite being 18 years older).


title: Lee Marvin

text: His final appearance was in "The Delta Force" (1986) with Chuck Norris, playing a role turned down by Charles Bronson.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin was a Democrat. He publicly endorsed John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. Due to injures sustained in the war, that led to PTSD, Lee became anti-war minded and opposed the Vietnam War. In a 1969 Playboy interview, Marvin said he supported gay rights.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Marvin married Betty Ebeling in April 1952 and together they had four children, son Christopher Lamont, and three daughters: Courtenay Lee, Cynthia Louise, and Claudia Leslie. After a separation of two years, they divorced in January 1967. In her 2010 book, "Tales of a Hollywood Housewife: A Memoir by the First Mrs. Lee Marvin", Betty claimed that Lee had an affair with actress Anne Bancroft.


title: Lee Marvin

text: He married Pamela Feeley in 1970 following his famous relationship with Michelle Triola. Pamela had four children from three previous marriages; they had no children together and remained married until his death in 1987.


title: Lee Marvin

text: In 1971, Marvin was sued by Michelle Triola, his live-in girlfriend from 1965 to 1970, who legally changed her surname to "Marvin". Although the couple never married, she sought financial compensation similar to that available to spouses under California's alimony and community property laws. Triola claimed Marvin made her pregnant three times and paid for two abortions, while one pregnancy ended in miscarriage. She claimed the second abortion left her unable to bear children. The result was the landmark "palimony" case, "Marvin v. Marvin", 18 Cal. 3d 660 (1976).


title: Lee Marvin

text: In 1979, Marvin was ordered to pay $104,000 to Triola for "rehabilitation purposes", but the court denied her community property claim for one-half of the $3.6 million which Marvin had earned during their six years of cohabitation – distinguishing nonmarital relationship contracts from marriage, with community property rights only attaching to the latter by operation of law. Rights equivalent to community property only apply in nonmarital relationship contracts when the parties expressly, whether orally or in writing, contract for such rights to operate between them. In August 1981, the California Court of Appeal found that no such contract existed between them and nullified the award she had received. Michelle Triola died of lung cancer on October 30, 2009, having been with actor Dick Van Dyke since 1976.


title: Lee Marvin

text: Later there was controversy after Marvin characterized the trial as a "circus", saying "everyone was lying, even I lied". There were official comments about possibly charging Marvin with perjury, but no charges were filed.


title: Lee Marvin

text: This case was used as fodder for a mock debate skit on "Saturday Night Live" called "Point Counterpoint", and on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" as a skit with Carson as Adam, and Betty White as Eve.


title: Lee Marvin

text: A heavy smoker and drinker, Marvin had health problems by the end of his life. In December 1986, Marvin was hospitalized for more than two weeks because of a condition related to coccidioidomycosis. He went into respiratory distress and was administered steroids to help his breathing. He had major intestinal ruptures as a result, and underwent a colectomy. Marvin died of a heart attack on August 29, 1987, aged 63. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is a patriotic recited verse that promises allegiance to the flag of the United States and the republic of the United States of America. The first version, with a text different from the one used at present, was written in 1885 by Captain George Thatcher Balch, a Union Army officer in the Civil War who later authored a book on how to teach patriotism to children in public schools. In 1892, Francis Bellamy revised Balch's verse as part of a magazine promotion surrounding the World's Columbian Exposition, which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas. Bellamy, the circulation manager for "The Youth's Companion" magazine, helped persuade President Benjamin Harrison to institute Columbus Day as a national holiday and lobbied Congress for a national school celebration of the day. The magazine sent leaflets containing part of Bellamy's Pledge of Allegiance to schools across the country and on October 21, 1892, over 10,000 children recited the verse together.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: Bellamy's version of the pledge is largely the same as the one formally adopted by Congress 50 years later, in 1942. The official name of "The Pledge of Allegiance" was adopted in 1945. The most recent alteration of its wording came on Flag Day (June 14) in 1954, when the words "under God" were added.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: Congressional sessions open with the recital of the Pledge, as do many government meetings at local levels, and meetings held by many private organizations. All states except Nebraska, Hawaii, Vermont, and Wyoming require a regularly scheduled recitation of the pledge in public schools. However, many states have a variety of exemptions for reciting the pledge, such as California which requires a "patriotic exercise" every day, which would be satisfied by the Pledge, but it is not enforced. The Supreme Court has ruled in "West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette" that students cannot be compelled to recite the Pledge, nor can they be punished for not doing so. In several states, state flag pledges of allegiance are required to be recited after the pledge to the American flag.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: Historians point to surges in American patriotic oaths and pledges to the flag after the Civil War, when tensions surrounding political loyalties persisted, and in the 1880s, as rates of immigration increased dramatically.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: An early pledge was created in 1887 by Captain George T. Balch, a veteran of the Civil War, who later became auditor of the New York Board of Education. Balch's pledge, which was recited contemporaneously with Bellamy's until the 1923 National Flag Conference, read:


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: Balch was a proponent of teaching children, especially those of immigrants, loyalty to the United States, even going so far as to write a book on the subject and work with both the government and private organizations to distribute flags to every classroom and school. Balch's pledge, which predates Francis Bellamy's by five years and was embraced by many schools, by the Daughters of the American Revolution until the 1910s, and by the Grand Army of the Republic until the 1923 National Flag Conference, is often overlooked when discussing the history of the Pledge.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: The pledge that later evolved into the form used today is believed to have been composed in August 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855–1931) for the popular children's magazine "The Youth's Companion". However, in February 2022, Barry Popik tweeted a May 1892 newspaper report from Hays, Kansas, of a school flag-raising on 30 April accompanied by an almost identical pledge. An alternative theory is that the pledge was submitted to an 1890 patriotic competition in "The Youth's Companion" by a 13-year-old Kansas schoolboy, coincidentally named Frank E. Bellamy. Fred R. Shapiro regards Popik's discovery as favouring Frank E. Bellamy rather than Francis Bellamy as the originator. Francis Bellamy, who was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist, and the cousin of Edward Bellamy (1850–1898), described the text of Balch's pledge as "too juvenile and lacking in dignity." The Bellamy "Pledge of Allegiance" was first published in the September 8, 1892 issue of "The Youth's Companion" as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, as a campaign to instill the idea of American nationalism in students and to encourage children to raise flags above their schools. According to author Margarette S. Miller, this campaign was in line both with Upham's patriotic vision as well as with his commercial interest. According to Miller, Upham "would often say to his wife: 'Mary, if I can instill into the minds of our American youth a love for their country and the principles on which it was founded, and create in them an ambition to carry on with the ideals which the early founders wrote into The Constitution, I shall not have lived in vain. In 1957, Kenneth Keating instigated a report by Congress' Legislative Research Service that it was Francis Bellamy, and not James B. Upham, who authored the September 8, 1892 article; Keating represented New York's 38th congressional district, which included Bellamy's birthplace, Mount Morris.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: The Pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be recited in 15 seconds. As a socialist, he had initially also considered using the words "equality" and "fraternity" but decided against it.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: Francis Bellamy and Upham had lined up the National Education Association to support the "Youth's Companion" as a sponsor of the Columbus Day observance and the use in that observance of the American flag. By June 29, 1892, Bellamy and Upham had arranged for Congress and President Benjamin Harrison to announce a proclamation making the public school flag ceremony the center of the Columbus Day celebrations. This arrangement was formalized when Harrison issued Presidential Proclamation 335. Subsequently, the Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892, during Columbus Day observances organized to coincide with the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition (the Chicago World's Fair), Illinois.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: In his recollection of the creation of the Pledge, Francis Bellamy said, "At the beginning of the nineties patriotism and national feeling was (sic) at a low ebb. The patriotic ardor of the Civil War was an old story ... The time was ripe for a reawakening of simple Americanism and the leaders in the new movement rightly felt that patriotic education should begin in the public schools." James Upham "felt that a flag should be on every schoolhouse," so his publication "fostered a plan of selling flags to schools through the children themselves at cost, which was so successful that 25,000 schools acquired flags in the first year (1892–93).


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: As the World's Columbian Exposition was set to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas, Upham sought to link the publication's flag drive to the event, "so that every school in the land ... would have a flag raising, under the most impressive conditions." Bellamy was placed in charge of this operation and was soon lobbying "not only the superintendents of education in all the States, but [he] also worked with governors, Congressmen, and even the President of the United States." The publication's efforts paid off when Benjamin Harrison declared Wednesday October 12, 1892, to be Columbus Day for which "The Youth's Companion" made "an official program for universal use in all the schools." Bellamy recalled that the event "had to be more than a list of exercises. The ritual must be prepared with simplicity and dignity."


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: Edna Dean Proctor wrote an ode for the event, and "There was also an oration suitable for declamation." Bellamy held that "Of course, the nub of the program was to be the raising of the flag, with a salute to the flag recited by the pupils in unison." He found "There was not a satisfactory enough form for this salute. The Balch salute, which ran, "I give my heart and my hand to my country, one country, one language, one flag," seemed to him too juvenile and lacking in dignity." After working on the idea with Upham, Bellamy concluded, "It was my thought that a vow of loyalty or allegiance to the flag should be the dominant idea. I especially stressed the word 'allegiance'. ... Beginning with the new word allegiance, I first decided that 'pledge' was a better school word than 'vow' or 'swear'; and that the first person singular should be used, and that 'my' flag was preferable to 'the.'" Bellamy considered the words "country, nation, or Republic," choosing the last as "it distinguished the form of government chosen by the founding fathers and established by the Revolution. The true reason for allegiance to the flag is the Republic for which it stands." Bellamy then reflected on the sayings of Revolutionary and Civil War figures, and concluded "all that pictured struggle reduced itself to three words, one Nation indivisible."


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: Bellamy considered the slogan of the French Revolution, "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" ("liberty, equality, fraternity"), but held that "fraternity was too remote of realization, and … [that] equality was a dubious word." Concluding "Liberty and justice were surely basic, were undebatable, and were all that any one Nation could handle. If they were exercised for all. They involved the spirit of equality and fraternity."


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: After being reviewed by Upham and other members of "The Youth's Companion", the Pledge was approved and put in the official Columbus Day program. Bellamy noted that "in later years the words 'to my flag' were changed to 'to the flag of the United States of America' because of the large number of foreign children in the schools." Bellamy disliked the change, as "it did injure the rhythmic balance of the original composition."


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: In 1906, The Daughters of the American Revolution's magazine, "The American Monthly", used the following wording for the pledge of allegiance, based on Balch's Pledge:


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: In subsequent publications of the Daughters of the American Revolution, such as in 1915's "Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Continental Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution" and 1916's annual "National Report," the previous pledge (adjusted to read "I pledge my head, my hand, my heart..."), listed as official in 1906, is now categorized as "Old Pledge" with Bellamy's version under the heading "New Pledge." However, the "Old Pledge" continued to be used by other organizations until the National Flag Conference established uniform flag procedures in 1923.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: In 1923, the National Flag Conference called for the words "my Flag" to be changed to "the Flag of the United States," so that new immigrants would not confuse loyalties between their birth countries and the US. The words "of America" were added a year later. Congress officially recognized the Pledge for the first time, in the following form, on June 22, 1942:


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: Louis Albert Bowman, an attorney from Illinois, was the first to suggest the addition of "under God" to the pledge. The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution gave him an Award of Merit as the originator of this idea. He spent his adult life in the Chicago area and was chaplain of the Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. At a meeting on February 12, 1948, he led the society in reciting the pledge with the two words "under God" added. He said that the words came from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Although not all manuscript versions of the Gettysburg Address contain the words "under God", all the reporters' transcripts of the speech as delivered do, as perhaps Lincoln may have deviated from his prepared text and inserted the phrase when he said "that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom." Bowman repeated his revised version of the Pledge at other meetings.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: During the Cold War era, many Americans wanted to distinguish the United States from the state atheism promoted by Marxist-Leninist countries, a view that led to support for the words "under God" to be added to the Pledge of Allegiance.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: In 1951, the Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization, also began including the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. In New York City, on April 30, 1951, the board of directors of the Knights of Columbus adopted a resolution to amend the text of their Pledge of Allegiance at the opening of each of the meetings of the 800 Fourth Degree Assemblies of the Knights of Columbus by addition of the words "under God" after the words "one nation." Over the next two years, the idea spread throughout Knights of Columbus organizations nationwide. On August 21, 1952, the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus at its annual meeting adopted a resolution urging that the change be made universal, and copies of this resolution were sent to the President, the Vice President (as Presiding Officer of the Senate), and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The National Fraternal Congress meeting in Boston on September 24, 1952, adopted a similar resolution upon the recommendation of its president, Supreme Knight Luke E. Hart. Several State Fraternal Congresses acted likewise almost immediately thereafter. This campaign led to several official attempts to prompt Congress to adopt the Knights of Columbus policy for the entire nation. These attempts were eventually a success.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: At the suggestion of a correspondent, Representative Louis C. Rabaut (D-Mich.), of Michigan sponsored a resolution to add the words "under God" to the Pledge in 1953.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: Before February 1954, no endeavor to get the pledge officially amended had succeeded. The final successful push came from George MacPherson Docherty. Some American presidents honored Lincoln's birthday by attending services at the church Lincoln attended, New York Avenue Presbyterian Church by sitting in Lincoln's pew on the Sunday nearest February 12. On February 7, 1954, with President Eisenhower sitting in Lincoln's pew, the church's pastor, George MacPherson Docherty, delivered a sermon based on the Gettysburg Address entitled "A New Birth of Freedom." He argued that the nation's might lay not in arms but rather in its spirit and higher purpose. He noted that the Pledge's sentiments could be those of any nation: "There was something missing in the pledge, and that which was missing was the characteristic and definitive factor in the American way of life." He cited Lincoln's words "under God" as defining words that set the US apart from other nations.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: President Eisenhower had been baptized a Presbyterian very recently, just a year before. He responded enthusiastically to Docherty in a conversation following the service. Eisenhower acted on his suggestion the next day and on February 8, 1954, Rep. Charles Oakman (R-Mich.), introduced a bill to that effect. Congress passed the necessary legislation and Eisenhower signed the bill into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954. Eisenhower said:


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: The phrase "under God" was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954, by a Joint Resolution of Congress amending § 4 of the Flag Code enacted in 1942.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: On October 6, 1954, the National Executive Committee of the American Legion adopted a resolution, first approved by the Illinois American Legion Convention in August 1954, which formally recognized the Knights of Columbus for having initiated and brought forward the amendment to the Pledge of Allegiance.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: Even though the movement behind inserting "under God" into the pledge might have been initiated by a private religious fraternity and even though references to God appear in previous versions of the pledge, historian Kevin M. Kruse asserts that this movement was an effort by corporate America to instill in the minds of the people that capitalism and free enterprise were heavenly blessed. Kruse acknowledges the insertion of the phrase was influenced by the push-back against Soviet and Chinese atheistic communism during the Cold War, but argues the longer arc of history shows the conflation of Christianity and capitalism as a challenge to the New Deal played the larger role.


title: Pledge of Allegiance

text: Swearing of the Pledge is accompanied by a salute. An early version of the salute, adopted in 1887, was known as the Balch Salute. This salute accompanied the Balch pledge and instructed students to stand with their right hand outstretched toward the flag, the fingers of which are then brought to the forehead, followed by being placed flat over the heart, and finally falling to the side.