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Today's Song: Funkytown by Lipps, Inc

Showing up in 1980 when disco was virtually dead, Funkytown is considered by some to be the last #1 hit of the disco era. It's the only song by Lipps, Inc, whose name should serve was warning that this is probably not an actual band but something dreamed up in a studio. In truth, Steven Greenberg wrote and produced everything the band did, and they had a singer in Cynthia Johnson, but everything else was studio musicians and studio wizardry as you might expect.

Still, Funkytown is just too much fun. Yes, disco was dying, yes, it's got that electronic made-in-studio sound, and yes, it was pretty much their only hit song. It's another vapid overproduced disco dance tune. But I like it. And no, despite the song title, there really isn't a lot of funk involved in this particular tune. ^_^

Funkytown - Official Web Site

Lipps, Inc - Funkytown (video) Kinda painful to watch actually. This is not the original video but it's not any better.

M.I.A. in Funkytown (a mash-up video) This is more interesting than the original! M.I.A. is a Sri Lanka rapper based in Brittain. Bucky Done Gun video

My disco playlist contains mostly favorite songs of mine from the disco era, although a few songs are from much later (Red Elvises, Scissor Sisters, Swirling Eddies). What I don't include is a lot of the really big disco hits. Most of those I really didn't like that much -- Le Freak by Chic, I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor, Do You Think I'm Sexy? by Rod Stewart, pretty much anything by the Bee Gees. I admit that I've always liked Donna Summer so I included one of my favorite songs of hers, but a lot of what I like from the disco era is more funk-influenced than straight disco. (I also didn't include Heart of Glass or Call Me by Blondie, but not because I don't like them, I actually like Blondie a lot.)

As for K.C. and the Sunshine Band -- I still like Get Down Tonight especially, but even better is The Baha Men doing their mash-up cover of that plus That's The Way (I Like It) and even a little bit of Boogie Man thrown in. Let's face it, all three of those songs were pretty much one and the same song, and The Baha Men prove it by making them one song. Plus the Baha Men come by their Carribean dance vibe a little more honestly (in my opinion). Their cover is just plain better and more fun than the original.

I like ELO a lot, and they really did a lot of disco, from Turn To Stone and Sweet Talkin' Woman to their hits I'm Alive and All Over the World from the Xanadu soundtrack, to their ultimate disco cd, Discovery which contains the pure disco hits Shine A Little Love and Last Train To London. It's all good, and let's not forget that Discovery's biggest hit was Don't Bring Me Down which is more of a rocker than a disco tune. I could have included any of their disco songs, as I like them all, but in some ways Shine A Little Love seems to be the closest to a pure ELO disco tune to me.

Speaking of ELO... why is it that my favorite cd of theirs, Time, is barely represented in their greatest hit collections? Some collections include Hold On Tight and at least one also has Twilight, but seriously, that was for me ELO at their best. I guess not everybody thinks so. ^_^ You can't even find that album on iTunes, and just about everything else that they ever did is on iTunes, including some quite mediocre releases.

Anyway here's my disco playlist for the last week:

1. Everybody Disco by The Red Elvises
2. Serpentine Fire by Earth, Wind and Fire
3. Star Love by Cheryl Lynn
4. Shame by Evelyn "Champagne" King
5. Hot Stuff by Donna Summer
6. The Groove Line by Heatwave
7. One Nation Under A Groove by Funkadelic
8. Funkytown by Lipps, Inc
9. Knock On Wood by Amii Stewart
10. Car Wash by Rose Royce
11. Shake Your Groove Thing by Peaches & Herb
12. Shine A Little Love by Electric Light Orchestra
13. Get Off by Foxy
14. That's The Way I Get Down by The Baha Men
15. Tits on the Radio by Scissor Sisters
16. Strawberry Letter #23 by The Brothers Johnson
17. Rasputin by Boney M
18. (Disco) Love Grapes by The Swirling Eddies