By

Rob Jones

To be perfectly honest my primary years were spent listening to the stomp of Slade with a nod to those other glam rock greats of a 70’s Top of the Pops era. I then meandered into the excesses of rock, heavy metal and prog but then punk came along and as a 15/16 year old this hit home at a time of teenage angst and as the universal strains of youthful rebellion were to the fore. Therefore, by this point the toes had been firmly dipped into a range of genres. However, there was more to come as instead of gorging on a lot of gung ho guitar and other extremities I developed a love of the beat buoyancy of the bass and that mainly came through a double hit of the alternative approaches of Jah Wobble of PIL and Bernard Edwards of Chic.

From that juncture the charts were awash with those timeless tunes and disco didn’t suck when done with aplomb and treated as an art form rather than a glossy, cheesy, throwaway. This called for a personal search for a look back buzz into what created the glitter ball phenomenon and a whole host of soul and funk appeared as other stellar sounds were on the way in what became two decades of celebration and flamboyance,

The below set is a real testament to those TNT tunes that lit up dancefloors and even got the most hardened of characters to strut their stuff. Post punk filtered into the consciousness and used those tasty templates and that four string boom led the way for everybody to dance.

Even The Fall got ‘Lost in Music’ and if you like a range of rhythms that resonate the 42 tracks here offer plenty of music to get lost in, especially in the 12” format. Please enjoy, it is impossible not to get that foot tapping and throw a few shapes and sample a vivid snapshot of a golden period of pop!

Just check out the facts and then thrive on the goods!

• ‘The Greatest Soul / Funk & Disco 12” Inch Singles of The 70s & 80s’ is packed with anthems aplenty and liner notes by journalist Charles Waring against every track in the booklet.

Like many crucial inventions, the 12” single was born out of necessity. Although it’s widely seen as an innovation born in the disco era to help DJs keep people dancing by stretching out songs much further than the conventional three-minute mark defined by the 7” single, the very first 12” single appeared in 1970. It was a novelty that didn’t catch on but a few years later in 1974, an innovative New York producer called Tom Moulton resurrected the 12” single format as a vehicle for making extended mixes of dance tracks.

It was an innovation that helped stoke the flames of the Disco Inferno and introduced the concept of instrumental breakdowns or “breaks”.

Initially, 12” pressings targeted DJs and were only used for promotional purposes but such was their desirability that it wasn’t long before record companies made them commercially available; the first one sold to the public was Double Exposure’s ‘Ten Percent’ in 1976, that is included in this package. Its success opened the floodgates and from that moment, the 12” single became the format that defined Disco’s glory years.

Track Listing:

DISC ONE
1. The Undisputed Truth – You + Me = Love
2 McFadden & Whitehead – Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now
3 Earth, Wind & Fire with The Emotions – Boogie Wonderland – Special Disco Version
4 T-Connection – Do What You Wanna Do
5 People’s Choice – Do It Any Way You Wanna – A Tom Moulton Mix
6 Instant Funk – Got My Mind Made Up
7 Crown Heights Affair – You Gave Me Love
8 Whispers – And The Beat Goes On
9 Arthur Adams – You Got The Floor
10 Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes – Expansions
11 Chaz Jankel Feat Brenda Jones – You’re My Occupation (Extended)

DISC TWO
1 Brass Construction – Movin’
2 Skyy – Call Me
3 Parliament – Flashlight
4 Zapp – More Bounce to the Ounce (Pts. I and II)
5 Midnight Star – No Parking On The Dance Floor
6 S.O.S. Band – Just Be Good To Me
7 The Jimmy Castor Bunch – Space Age
8 Lakeside – Fantastic Voyage
9 Aquarian Dream – You’re A Star
10 Maze/Frankie Beverly – Twilight (Instrumental)

DISC THREE
1 Chic – Good Times
2 Sister Sledge – He’s the Greatest Dancer
3 G.Q. – Disco Nights (Rock Freak)
4 Double Exposure – Ten Percent
5 Loleatta Holloway – Love Sensation
6 Edwin Starr – Contact
7 Narada Michael Walden – I Should’ve Loved Ya
8 Voyage – From East To West
9 C.J. & Co – Devil’s Gun
10 The Trammps – Disco Inferno

DISC FOUR
1 Change – Searching
2 Roy Ayers – Running Away
3 Valentine Brothers – Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)
4 Evelyn “Champagne” King – Shame
5 Rose Royce – Is It Love You’re After
6 Third World – Now That We Found Love (Disco Mix)
7 Hi-Tension – Hi-Tension
8 Freeez – Southern Freeez
9 Ultrafunk – Gotham City Boogie
10 Level 42 – Love Games
11 Atmosfear – Dancing In Outer Space