Search - Various Artists :: Casablanca Records Story

Outstanding collection

BP | Netherlands | 12/13/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Finally,the most important tracks from the 'disco' label Casablanca are available together. Most tracks are the 12" version. This gives the listener the opportunity to enjoy the famous orchestration in the tracks of Donna Summer. Although most tracks can be classified as 'pure 70's disco', you can also find nice (p)funk tracks from Parliament, Starpoint and Cameo. This box proves the importance of (euro)disco for the genesis of house music, just listen to the works of Giorgo Moroder, Donna Summer and Lipps. Inc.The 4 cd's are packed in a nice box and accompanied by a booklet with photo's and informative text."

Like Disco? You'll Love This Casablanca BOX SET!

Sheila Chilcote-Collins | Collinswood, Van Wert, OH USA | 06/02/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A Four Disc(o) Casablanca Collection. Sure, you get the standard, "Funkytown" by Lipps, "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)" by Parliament and pretty much EVERY hit that Donna Summer and The Village People recorded.You also get some hard to find/rarity selections like:Ain't Nothin' Gonna Keep Me from You - Teri DeSario
Let's Go All the Way (Down) - Brenda & the Tabulations
Like an Eagle - Dennis Parker
You Ought to Be Dancing - People's Choice
Medicine Song - Stephanie Mills
When She Was My Girl - The Four Tops
Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band - Meco
Do That to Me One More Time - Captain & Tennille
Yes, I'm Ready - Teri DeSario Depending on your age, this great box set will take you back to doing "The Hustle" on the lighted dancefloor with the disco ball spinning 'round and 'round. It might transport you back to your childhood roller rink while these disco greats played ALL NIGHT, along with the very popular "Hokey Pokey". Regardless of your age or sex, it will remind you of your TOTAL CRUSH on hip, cool and suave John Travolta, a la Saturday Night Fever! It might make you remember your first torn sweatshirt and first pair of legwarmers with the songs from "Flashdance". "Maniac" with Michael Sembello and "Flashdance, What A Feeling", with Irene Cara.Spanning several decades, this four disc set ends with the VERY HIGHLY appropriate song, "Last Dance" with disco diva, Donna Summer.Happy Listening!"

Flying High

Kevin Killian | San Francisco, CA United States | 10/03/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"CASABLANCA RECORDS was the brainchild of Neil Bogart, a man who parlayed his good taste and dark good looks into a position of personal fame and charisma seldom enjoyed by any record mogul, who are generally troll like and genuinely ugly. But Bogart had something extra. Some thought he was Humphrey Bogart's son. Like the elder Bogart, he radiated sheer magnetism everywhere he went, and when you went into his inner sanctum it was like paying a visit to Kubla Khan. There's a single disc with Casablanca's greatest hits on it-mostly Donna Summer records like HOT STUFF and BAD GIRLS, but this boxed set actually brings you a variety of rarities some of them for the first time on CD.



Casablanca was originally thought of as a sort of bubblegum disco, due to Bogart's previous involvement with Cameo Parkway Records and especially with Buddah, which had made hits out of a wide range of unlikely material, mostly by white artists but with the occasional black masterpiece like "Oo-o-h Child." When dance music threatened to become big in the early 1970s, Bogart was right in there, directing the attention of his fan base to the likes of Donna Summer. When disco hit, everyone wanted a piece of the Casablanca pie and he found himself stretched in many directions, some of them pretty dire! You can get a good sampling of the glory years in this boxed set, which boasts everything from LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY and FUNKY TOWN to more offbeat selections. Bogart signed everyone from Cher to George Clinton and matched them with house producers, and signed also a longterm contract with the enigmatic king of Eurodisco, Giorgio Moroder, the man whose dark, noir visions of dance music sometimes clashed with Bogart's more lighthearted, "Thank God It's Friday" philosophy. That was OK, it was like having Lennon and McCartney in the same band, there was dynamism going on.



The "Star Wars" theme by MECO was another monster hit, and Casablanca briefly became a house where instrumentals were given a new chance to dominate the charts. However it is for the vocals, often insufferably bad and sweetened by production, that Casablanca's great hits are known. Dennis Parker, for example, sang adequately, but fans bought up LIKE AN EAGLE primarily because he was so hot in his porn incarnation: as Wade Nichols he was one of porn's leading men of the 1970s, and Casablanca was doing their part during the first wave of porn-star chic. You can't go wrong with this package."