The Hustle!

1975

Van McCoy

A new and funky, upbeat sound was easing it's way into music in 1975, and it's name was Disco. Oh, there had been Disco hits earlier...the genre started going mainstream in about 1974...but Van McCoy's 'The Hustle' was one of the most popular, one of the first to grab that elusive and coveted top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and remains to this day one of the best known and most popular Disco songs, ever.

Van McCoy himself wasn't exactly a stranger to the Music industry...he was a prolific songwriter, musical arranger, and well respected record company producer,, born and raised in D.C and introduced to music early in life...he was playing the piano, well, I might add, at the same age most of were learning the lyrics to 'Mary Had A Little Lamb, and was writing his own music at the tender age of 12...it was a pretty sure bet where life would take him, career-wise.

Name a well-known R&B act of the era, and you'll find that he either wrote one of their hits or produced an album for them. He was well respected and very much in demand, and the list of acts he wrote for, produced, and otherwise help raise to fame and renown is far far too long to include in this post.

Then, in 1975, he released an album of mostly instrumental Disco songs, titled 'Disco Baby', with the title track performed by The Styalistics, and...that one wasn't the biggest success...the albums very last track, and the last track released as a single, however, was..a nearly all-instrumental powerhouse with complicated movements, a frenetic, high-energy beat, and an intro that's arguably one of the most instantly recognizable intros of the entire decade.

Really, gang...you hear those lovely ladies singing that perfectly harmonized:

'OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,

with the guys kicking in with their semi-sung, semi-stage-whispered 'Do It!! every few beats and you know that you're on your way to hearing 3minutes and 34 seconds worth of 'Ya-Can't-Keep-Still' disco classic-ness. We loved it...enough I might add, to take it to #1.

The Hustle debuted just inside the Billboard Hot 100, at #95, on April 19, 1975, then skipped the top 20, and cracked the Top 10 two months later, on June 21^st, at #7. It stayed at #2 for three weeks before snagging #1 fifteen weeks in, on July 26^th. It dropped off the chart three weeks later after a nineteen week chart run.

The Hustle pretty much defined Disco, with it's very pronounced use of horns and orchestral instrument solos, no guitar to speak of, and a pronounced beat...it was dance music, and most definitely not slow dance music, and would define a short but iconic era in Pop music...and, for better or worse, us Seventies Kids got to watch it happen. We embraced it (In both music, dance style and fashion...I had some Disco shirts that I am truly glad no photographs of me wearing exist!).

You heard that iconic intro all summer long 39 years ago, in discos and dance clubs, and of course, on both the classic AM Top 40 powerhouses, and the upstart FM Top 40 stations that would be replacing them within a couple of years. Thirty Nine years later, the song's still goin' strong. You'll still regularly hear those golden-voiced ladies harmonizing to kick it off very regularly on Oldies stations like Richmond's WBBT...107.3, and Hampton Roads' WVVW, 92.9.

When that intro starts up now on one of those oldies stations, we still can't listen to this song and sit still...try it. Can't do it! It's a classic now, and will be considered an icon of a culture 100 years hence...and that's a good thing!

So Enjoy...The Hustle, by Van McCoy!

And as a bonus...a Filipino traffic cop shows off his moves in Manila, with 'The Hustle' as Background music!