Volume One of the greatest disco album ever
Pieter | Johannesburg | 10/30/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Wow! I wouldn't dispute this album title, if considered together with volume 2. This double disc contains a lot of the most commercially successful tracks from the disco era and plenty of classics. Appropriately it kicks off with Donna Summer's eurodisco classic I Feel Love. Other hits from this genre include Funkytown, Get Up And Boogie, Black Is Black and Silver Convention's Get Up And Boogie.The Chic family is also well represented by Le Freak and Sister Sledge's He's The Greatest Dancer, while the more soulful side of Disco comes in the form of Lady Marmalade by LaBelle, Shame by Evelyn Champagne King and Boogie Nights by Heatwave. Classic electrodisco is represented by Sylvester's unsurpassable You Make Me Feel Mighty Real, Amii Stewart's Knock On Wood and Dan Hartman's Instant Replay, while KC And The Sunshine Band, Shalamar and Kool And The Gang offer funky party style dance music.Amongst the obscure classics here The Michael Zager Band's Let's All Chant and The Ritchie Family's Best Disco In Town are the most charming. A song like Candi Staton's Young Hearts Run Free has the most beautiful lyrics, whilst anthemic million sellers include I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor, YMCA by Village People and Disco Inferno by The Trammps.Other favorites of mine are More Than A Woman by Tavares, Never Gonna Give You Up by the inimitable Barry White, Feels Like I'm In Love by Kelly Marie, Working My Way Back To You by The Detroit Spinners and the passionate and powerful Use It Up, Wear It Out by Odyssey.This is essential listening for Disco fanatics but make sure you get Volume 2 as well, since it contains more great classics of the time like Hot Stuff, theme from Shaft, Ma baker and Native New Yorker. When you have both volumes, you can truly claim that you have the best disco albums in the world ever, even though the Bee Gees aren't directly represented."
First of two great compilations of seventies disco music
Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 06/06/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"At the time of its original release, this was a TV-advertised album that sold in huge quantities in Britain. It brought together many classic tracks from the seventies and early eighties.
Inevitably, Donna Summer (I feel love), Gloria Gaynor (I will survive), KC and the Sunshine Band (Get down tonight), Earth Wind and Fire (Boogie wonderland), Sister Sledge (He's the greatest dancer), Odyssey (Use it up and wear it out), Barry White (Never never gonna give ya up), Chic (Le freak), Village People (YMCA), Rose Royce (Car wash) and Real Thing (Can you feel the force?) are all here, though not always with the songs that you'd expect to find. In some cases, the expected tracks are to be found on the second volume.
Perhaps the big surprise is that Boney M are represented by Rasputin and by Ma Baker on the other set, where we would have expected to find Rivers of Babylon and Brown girl in the ring. My personal favorites here are Young hearts run free (Candi Staton), Black is black (La Belle Epoque) and More than a woman (Tavares), but there's plenty of great music throughout the compilation.
Although long out of print, most of the tracks continue to be re-issued at regular intervals on multi-artist compilations, and some of them can also be found on releases by the individual artists. However, if you enjoy seventies disco music and you have the opportunity to buy this somewhere, you'll love it."
