
Perhaps you remember the post I wrote about a year ago about my
return to the roller rink of my childhood. The image above was taken sometime around 1980-1981 and this time around, I'd like to talk about the music from that time that stays with me to this day.
I grew up primarily listening to AM radio and Mom's record collection- which at the time included Barry Manilow, The Bee-Gee's, Barbara Streisand, Sonny & Cher, and the soundtracks to Saturday Night Fever and Grease. (Some other time I'll tell you about how I threw out my Dad's old Santana and Jimi Hendrix 8-Tracks because the music scared me... D'oh!)
Around 8th grade, I started to spend an excessive amount of time at the local skating rink courtesy of neighbors who were there 4 days a week. While these days, my iPod is filled with extreme diversity such as heavy metal, ambient, world music, rock, jazz, swing, etc., the music below is what's really in my blood. It's why I can skate, dance, drum & shake the hell out of a shekere. Let me send out a big huge THANK YOU to the rink's DJ (I wish I knew who they were!) who helped create the soundtrack to my life.
I've always held the theory that the music from your early teen years, that time before high school and when things start to get all pubescent & wonky, is the music that stays with you forever.
Let me first preface that I have been working on assembling these songs for
YEARS...... Many were only available on 12" EP's and later on compilation tapes. (Which I would later replace with CD's) iTunes helped tremendously to fill in the final missing pieces with the exception of one song which I could
never find, (one of my all-time favorites) "On the Beat" by the BB&Q band which I finally found on You Tube - a tinny mono version but a version nonetheless that allowed me to stop thinking it was a figment of my imagination.
These are the ones that I specifically remember skating to. (or at least I think I did.... cut me a break, I'm old.) When one of these songs would come on you'd suck up the last bit of Pepsi from the cup, toss it in the trash and skate like hell to get out on the floor and feel the beat.
Oh heck. I just realized that I don't have a copy of "Always & Forever" or "Superfreak" or "17" or "Double Dutch Bus" arrrrgh!!!! I thought I was done! How could I forget those? iTunes, here I come! (I guess the more time passes, the more I recall though I can't seem to remember what I did 5 minutes ago...)
And so here you go. 49 songs from my roller disco days. There were 50, but I had to cut Michael Jackson's "Wanna be Startin' Somthing" because that came later.
Ai No Corrida | Quincy Jones |
Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now | McFadden & Whitehead |
And the Beat Goes On | The Whispers |
Apache | The Sugar Hill Gang |
Boogie Oogie Oogie | A Taste Of Honey |
Boogie Wonderland | Earth, Wind & Fire with The Emotions |
Brick House | Commodores |
Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me) | The Gap Band |
Celebration | Kool & The Gang |
Circles | Atlantic Starr |
Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) | Chic |
December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night) | Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons |
Disco Inferno | The Trammps |
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough | Micheal Jackson
|
Donna Summer - Bad Girls | Donna Summer |
Early In The Morning (12" Version) | The Gap Band |
Fantastic Voyage | Lakeside |
Forget Me Nots (12" Version) | Patrice Rushen |
Get Down On It | Kool & The Gang |
Got to Be Real | Cheryl Lynn |
The Hustle | Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony |
I'll Be Around | The Spinners |
I Got My Mind Made Up | Instant Funk |
I Will Survive | Gloria Gaynor |
Instant Replay | Dan Hartman |
It's a Love Thing | The Whispers |
Knock On Wood | Mary Griffin |
Ladies Night | Kool & The Gang |
Let's Groove | Earth, Wind & Fire |
Let's Start the Dance | Bohannon |
Mama Used to Say | Junior |
Never Can Say Goodbye | Gloria Gaynor |
Off the Wall | Michael Jackson |
On the Beat | BB&Q Band |
Que Sera Mi Vida | Gibson Brothers |
Rapper's Delight (Long Version) | The Sugar Hill Gang |
Rock The Boat | Hues Corporation |
Rock With You | Michael Jackson |
September | Earth, Wind & Fire |
She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked) | Carl Carlton |
Stomp! | The Brothers Johnson
|
Take My Heart (You Can Have It If You Want It) | Kool & The Gang |
Take Your Time (Do It Right) | The S.O.S. Band |
Too Hot | Kool & The Gang |
TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia) | MFSB/The Three Degrees |
Vertigo / Relight My Fire | Dan Hartman |
Working My Way Back To You | Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons |
You Dropped A Bomb On Me | The Gap Band |
8th Wonder | The Sugar Hill Gang |
Note: There of course were a few quintessential disco songs such as Chic's "Le Freak" and Lipps Inc's "Funkytown" that I really didn't care for which is why they don't live on my iPod.
Please enjoy.
FYI - Amazon often has music (MP3's) cheaper than iTunes. I'll give you one to get you started.