Three Tune Tuesday #174 .:. Disco! - pt.1

The post is fuelled with memories and nostalgia for my teen years and first steps in music. I even took a special photo of the tape reel - an old recording media from 70-es. I wonder if any of my readers used such reels? For some of us the starting point was compact cassettes, for others compact discs, for some it was mp3 technology. Today it is streaming services - of course, everybody is in the know about mp3 files, but do not use them anymore, considering the technology dated... But my post is not about technology, this was just a nostalgic intro.

When I started listening to music, I did not have my own tape recorder or vinyl player - but my parents had :) so, naturally, my first acquaintance with music began with their record library. My mother was fond of classical music, so I was introduced early on to Mozart, Vivaldi, Chopin, Bach and other great composers - my mother had a solid record collection on vinyl. She also had a small stack of reel tapes - which contained completely different music. These were modern bands, mostly foreign pop music, which was not officially released in the USSR.

Today we are well-acquainted with such names as ABBA, Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Ottawan - but at that time they meant absolutely nothing to a Soviet person living behind the Iron Curtain. When records with such music came to the USSR from abroad, people copied them from each other. One of the reels in my mother's collection contained a collection of dance music hits in the disco style.

"This song really moves me!" - Homer Simpson used to say. The track of American band from Minnesota became a smash hit in March 1980. Later I listened to their other tracks and was not impressed much, but this one was a real killer... So, yes, in my opinion this band was a typical one-hit wonder :) and typically it is arranger and producer of the song are to blame for its success, rather than the "talented" artist.

In US charts the single immediately peaked to #8 position, and became #1 in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and West Germany (also peaked to #2 in Finland, Sweden and UK).

If you’re ever asked to define the Disco genre in one song, this is it. Pure disco, dance floor perfection. Ottawan was a French pop music duo. It became well-known in early 1980s with smash hits "D.I.S.C.O." and "Hands Up". Wiki has its full story, so I dont need to retell it.

Сегодняшний пост будет полон воспоминаний. Я даже сделал специальное фото старинного звуконосителя родом из 1970-х. Любопытно, пользовался ли кто-то из моих читателей такими магнитофонными бобинами? кто-то начинал с компакт-кассет, кто-то с компакт-дисков, а кто-то с mp3. Сегодняшнее положение дел таково что почти все используют стриминг-сервисы - конечно, все в курсе про mp3, но уже не используют, считая технологию отжившей... Но мой пост не про технологии. Это просто ностальгическое интро.

Когда я начинал слушать музыку, у меня не было своего магнитофона или винилового проигрывателя - но они были у моих родителей :) поэтому, естественно, и мое первое знакомство с музыкой началось с их фонотеки. Моя мама любила классическую музыку и я рано познакомился с Моцартом, Вивальди, Шопеном, Бахом и другими великими композиторами - мама имела солидную коллекцию пластинок. Также она имела и небольшую стопку магнитофонных пленок - которые содержали совершенно другую музыку. Это были современные банды, преимущественно зарубежная эстрада, которая не издавалась в СССР официально.