Tuesday Top Ten: Disco One-Hit Wonders

Having been in a disco mood the last few days, starting with watching The Bee Gees' HBO documentary Sunday night, and then featuring albums by Donna Summers and Tavares the last two days in CoronaVinyl.

While there were certainly groups and artists who had many disco hits -- like The Bee Gees, Summer, KC & The Sunshine Band, and The Village People, to name a few -- there were also plenty of one-hit wonders, some of which had songs that helped define disco.

Of course, this type of list always begs the question:  what exactly is a one-hit wonder?  There are varying definitions, but I think a true one-hit wonder requires more than just one song that made the Top 40.  If a song peaks at #39, is that really a "hit"?  So here are my rules:

• The song must have been in the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.  There might be a couple songs that are #21 or #22, as not every year had a ton of one-hit wonders with Top 20 songs to choose from (or one-hit wonders with Top 20 songs that I like).  Also, I'm focusing on the American charts, since that's where I've lived my whole life.  Plus, a look at one-hit wonders on the Dutch charts would require a lot more work.  There are certainly songs and artists who may be one-hit wonders here who have been successful in other countries, and vice versa.
• The band or artist cannot have any song other that broke into the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.  And just so you know I'm trying to keep everything on the level, I am truly focused on artists who didn't have a bunch of Top 40 hits.  For instance, if an artist had one Top 10 song and then five or six other Top 40 songs, I don't necessarily consider that a one-hit wonder.  On the other hand, if there is an artist who had one big hit and then another song that isn't as well know that happened to go to #21, I'm considering that artist.
• The band or artist cannot be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or have a band member who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I don't think there are any issues here, as the primarily disco acts that have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are not one-hit wonders.

Also, there are some songs that are technically considered "disco," but I don't put them in that genre, like Carl Douglas's "Kung Fu Fighting," which I think of as more of a soul song with an Asian twist.  And I'm certainly not giving any credence to the ridiculous disco novelty songs, like "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees, regardless of their success.

Here are my top ten disco one-hit wonders, in alphabetical order by artist and with the peak Billboard Hot 100 position for each:

1.  "I Love the Nightlife (Disco 'Round)" by Alicia Bridges (#5)
In 1978, Alicia Bridges scored her only big hit with her ode to disco nightclub culture, "I Love the Nightlife (Disco 'Round)," which reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 10 on the pop charts in five other countries.

2.  "Don't Leave Me This Way" by Thelma Houston (#1)
While Houston had one other Top 40 hit -- 1979's "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning," which reached #34 -- her 1976 cover of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes' "Don't Leave Me This Way" is one of disco's biggest and most enduring hits, reaching #1 in 1977.  It was ranked by VH-1 as the #86 one-hit wonder of all-time and the #2 spot on its list of the 100 Greatest Dance Songs.  The song also gained more significance in the '80s and '90s as an unofficial anthem in the gay community regarding the AIDS epidemic.

3.  "Rock Your Baby" by George McCrae (#1)
One of disco's earliest big hits was 1974's "Rock Your Baby" by George McCrae, which became a huge hit worldwide.  The song spent two weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it also reached #1 on the pop charts in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK.  It is one of the fewer than 40 all-time singles to have sold at least 10 million physical copies worldwide, and it was one of the first songs to featured a drum machine.  While McCrae had one other dalliance into the Top 40 -- 1975's "I Get Lifted," which reached #37 -- "Rock Your Baby" was by far his biggest hit.

4.  "The Hustle" by Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony (#1)
Van McCoy was already an accomplished producer, songwriter, and arranger when he decided to make a disco record in 1975, the largely instrumental Disco Baby.  One of the songs on that album was "The Hustle," which was written about the dance of the same name.  It went to #1 in the U.S. and was a huge international hit as well, going #1 in Canada and Spain, and reaching the Top 5 on the pop charts in various other countries.  Sadly, McCoy died of a heart attack in 1979 at age 39.

5.  "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy (#1)
Walter Murphy disco-fied the first movement of Beethoven's famous Symphony No. 5, and this song went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976.  It was also included on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack the following year, and it serendipitously landed at No. 5 on this list.

6.  "Turn the Beat Around" by Vicki Sue Robinson (#10)
In 1976, Vicki Sue Robinson had her only Top 40 hit with the energetic disco song "Turn the Beat Around," which reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Eighteen years later, Gloria Estefan would release a cover version that itself went to #13.

7.  "Knock On Wood" by Amii Stewart (#1)
In 1979, Amii Stewart had her only big hit with her chart-topping disco cover of Eddie Floyd's 1966 soul classic "Knock On Wood."  It hit #1 in the U.S. and Canada, and reached the Top 10 in ten other countries.

8.  "Disco Inferno" by The Trammps (#11)
Upon its original release in 1976, "Disco Inferno" only reached #53 on the Billboard Hot 100, but its inclusion on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack the following year propelled it to #11 in 1978.  And yes, The Trammps had a couple other minor hits that broke into the Top 40, but "Disco Inferno" is their only true big hit, and it has been featured in various movies, TV shows, and video games over the years.

9.  "More, More, More" by Andrea True Connection (#4)
Andrea True was truly a renaissance woman.  Though her main line of work was as a porn actress from the '60s to the early '80s, True found herself stranded in Jamaica in 1975 during an attempted coup when she was there to film a TV commercial.  Rather than waste a good coup, she called up record producer Gregg Diamond to join her in Jamaica to work on some songs, and he wrote "More, More, More," which True recorded in Jamaica under the name Andrea True Connection, which was conceivably her musical side project.  The line "But if you want to know / How I really feel / Just get the cameras rolling / Get the action going" takes on new meaning now that I know her main profession.  The song went to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 10 in a host of other countries.  The break was also sampled in Len's 1999 hit "Steal My Sunshine." 

10.  "Ring My Bell" by Anita Ward (#1)
Ward's first single was by far her biggest, as 1979's "Ring My Bell" topped the charts in the U.S., UK, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and Spain, and reached the Top 5 on the pop charts in ten other countries.