Tag: Disco

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History Home Life Music People Radio

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

Flashback to the Spring of 1977. I’m 9-years-old – getting ready to turn 10-years-old, and I’m hangin’ out with my friends down by the creek at the bottom end of Red Wing Lane in Lanham Maryland. One side of the creek I ruled. I was in charge. The territory was known as ‘Chris Day Valley’, and it stretched for as far as my imagination would allow. On the other side of the creek my friends ruled, and their territory was known as ‘Wolf Pack State’. Our two territories neighboured each other, and we were friendly nations. See – even back then I was mastering geographic boundaries !

As I was compiling the paragraph above (and wandering around on the web) I believe that I may have discovered two friends of mine (simultaneously) from that neighbourhood and that time period. I’m gonna try to connect with both of them. I see their pictures (avatars) online, and they look very much as I remember them from over 30 years ago. One of them lived in the last house on the street right before the creek and the two ‘territories’. The other lived in a house just behind mine, and he was one of my first good buddy friends.

Playing on the radio back in the old neighbourhood up and down Red Wing Lane was a lot of Disco music. ABBA (from Sweden) weren’t really a Disco act, but they got with the times when they had to. The result was their only # 1 smash stateside and perhaps their most memorable anthem of the era. It’s “Dancing Queen” !  RE-LIVE !

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Animals History Home Life Music Radio

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

Disco Ball

It’s Friday night, and it’s time to kick-off the weekend here on the totally groovy blog. I can’t think of any other way but to kick it old school like we used to do all of those years ago back in the day. So put on your favourite plaid leisure suit, grab your 8-track tapes, don’t forget the fondue, and I’ll meet you at the roller disco.

But anyway – are ya ready for this ?  Let us flashback here to a much simpler time of my life – and maybe yours too. It’s the hot Summer of 1974 in Bowie Maryland (near Washington D.C.), and I’m just an innocent 7-year-old kid hangin’ out with my lovable miniature sheep dog in the backyard of my Peach Walker Drive house. I’m listening to WWDC AM-1260 on my transistor radio, and this smash is playing as afternoon deejay Lou Katz rollz the hitz.

Here’s South Floridian George McCrae with a televised 1975 performance of his Summer of 1974 # 1 Disco smash !

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History Life Music

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

During the Spring of 1979 I was in the 6TH grade at Magnolia Elementary School right in the middle of my Lanham Maryland neighbourhood.

Magnolia Elementary School, Lanham Maryland
Magnolia Elementary School, Lanham Maryland

The school day began at precisely 9:08 AM, and it ended at precisely 3:08 PM. Magnolia was my school for Kindergarten (1972-1973) and 3RD through 6TH grades (1975-1979). Those last 4 years at Magnolia were perhaps the happiest four years of all of my school years. It would just get miserable for me after that in Junior High and Senior High School (although I do remember occasional pockets of fun and good times during those advanced school years).

In 1979 I was a trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent Boy Scout:

On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

It’s hard to believe that I’m 30 years removed from that part of my life. Some songs remind me of the bad times, but whenever I hear this song play it reminds me of some of those good times that I lived back then during my active preteen years.

Here’s Amii Stewart with her ‘pay all of the bills’ # 1 Platinum Disco SMASH !

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History Movies Music

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

One of the earliest movies that I can ever remember watching at the movie theatre when I was a little kid was the 1977 into 1978 box office smash “Saturday Night Fever” – arguably one of the greatest movies ever made. It featured the music of The Bee Gees, and together they totally defined the Disco era of the late-1970s.

Disco Ball

Some of the great Bee Gees songs from the movie include “You Should Be Dancing”, “How Deep Is Your Love”, “Stayin’ Alive”, and the biggest Disco smash of them all – “Night Fever”. It spent 8 weeks at # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March, April, and May of 1978, and it went platinum at retail.

Here it is. “Night Fever”. Let’s dance like it’s 1978. We know how to do it.