Feature Song: “Y.M.C.A.“
Village People is an American disco group known for its on-stage costumes and suggestive lyrics in their music. The group was originally formed by French producers Jacques Morali, Henri Belolo and lead singer Victor Willis following the release of the debut album Village People, which “targeted disco’s large gay audience. The group’s name pays tribute to Manhattan’s Greenwich, which at the time had a reputation as a gay neighborhood. The characters portrayed by The Village People represented a symbolic group of American masculinity and macho gay-fantasy personalities. As of today, Willis is the only original member still remaining with the group.
Their rather quick rise to popularity moved them into the mainstream, as they scored several disco and dance hits internationally, including the hit singles “Macho Man,” “In The Navy,” “Go West,” and my featured song “Y.M.C.A,” which was their biggest hit. In March of 2020, the Library of Congress described “Y.M.C.A.” as an “American phenomenon and added the song to the National Recording Registry, which preserves audio recordings considered to be “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.” The song was first released in October 1978 (making it 45 years old as of today) as the only single from their third studio album, Crusin’. The song was written by Jacques Morali (also the record’s producer) and singer Victor Willis. The song reached No. 2 on the Billboard’s Hot 100 charts in early 1979, placing behind both “Le Freak” by Chic, and Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy.” Outside the US, “Y.M.C.A.” reached No.1 in the UK around the same time, becoming the group’s biggest hit. It has sold 12 million copies worldwide.
The song remains popular to this day and is played at many sporting events in the US and Europe, with crowds joining in on the dance in which arm movements are used to spell out the four letters of the song’s title. On a side note, my personal history with this song played out in the same fashion. In 1980, I was living in Montreal and participated in a 350 mile bicycle trip from Toronto to Montreal with around forty13 and 14 year-olds from a neighborhood high school. One morning, one of the teachers and myself decided to prank the kids,(we had found out that they hated the song) by leading them in some morning exercises to get them prepared for that day’s ride, which was to be a rather long one. We assembled the kids in a semi-circle around us, started to spell out the letters of the song with our arms, telling them that we were going to stretch a little first. They were still half asleep and didn’t realize what we were doing, until one of the other teachers hit the play button on a cassette of the song and the kids all charged us as we ran for the hills. That was 43 years ago, and it still makes me laugh! In September 2000 “Y.M.C.A.” was used as the Space-Shuttle wake-up call on day 11 of the mission. In 2009, the song set a Guinness World Record when over 44,000 people danced to Village People’s live performance of the song at the 2008 Sun Bowl game in El Paso, Texas. The short clip below is not very good quality, but at least you will get the idea.
As I mentioned in DUTC#42, the longer the song has been around the more theories there will be as to what the song “means” or “symbolizes” and that is certainly true of this disco anthem. The song’s connection to the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), an eventually settled lawsuit brought about by the association, the song’s complicated “message” and who it was aimed at, and how the lyrics came to be, have all been analyzed ad nauseum. Adding to the aforementioned fact that the song still remains popular today, my featured cover was recorded at the end of August this year by Walk Off The Earth (W.O.T.E.), a group that I have featured in DUTC#’s 5 and 9. Warning: They definitely put a different twist to the song. Enjoy.
Village People. “Y.M.C.A.” Live performance, 1978.
Walk Off The Earth (W.O.T.E.). “Y.M.C.A.” August 27, 2023
Los Angeles 2023
Really didn’t know much about the song so that was interesting. I liked the W.O.T.E. version.
We read and commented on each others’ posts at nearly the exact same time! Being a young gay man in the late 70s, I was a massive fan of disco music, but ironically, I wasn’t crazy about Y.M.C.A. While it’s undeniably catchy as hell, I just thought it lacked the qualities that made earlier disco songs so compelling for me. Frankly, by 1979 disco had become so omnipresent and banal, it deserved to die off. Now, many years later, I’ve come to appreciate the song more. I really like Walk Off The Earth’s mellow take on the song.
We should both buy lottery tickets! I hear you about that song and agree that there were many other songs of that era that were much better. Glad you like the mellow version.