Disco’s influence on modern music is undeniable, as is the iconic, colorful art associated with the movement. David Hamsley’s new collection, To Disco With Love: The Records That Defined an Era, chronicles more than 250 record cover images from the funkiest era in music.
Here, a disco goddess all in gold—what could be better? Herb Breuer’s photograph for Ramey Lewis’s Sun Goddess album is fabulous perfection, suggesting the eternally mystical power of gold and giving us a true disco goddess. The album itself is the result of jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis teaming up with Earth, Wind & Fire, resulting in a superior blending of jazz and soul, two cornerstones of disco. Cover design: John Berg; Photography: Herb Breuer.
Courtesy Flatiron Books
The Village People, Village People
Eight years after the confontation at the Stonewall Inn, it was still technically criminal to be homosexual in 1977 New York. But that didn’t stop thousands of gay men and women from packing discos each night with an insatiable appetite for new songs and catchy beats. Producers Henri Belolo and Jacques Morali saw a demand and assembled an act made up of sexy archetypes: a cowboy and his Indian, the sailor and his cop, and a construction worker with a biker for good measure. Besides Felipe the Indian and lead singer Victor Willis, the group had not actually been formed and their first album cover is the result of an open casting call. Their other covers would go on to be much more theatrical to appeal to a wider audience—and it worked, launching the Village People to international stardom. Graphics: Gribbit!; Photography: Joseph Moss.
Courtesy Flatiron Books
Labelle, Nightbirds
Disco provided a lot of artists with a chance for a second act, and for Patti Labelle and the Bluebells, who had a string of hits in the 1960s, the transformation into Labelle was a smash, delivering “Lady Marmalade” to the dance floors. The song, about a New Orleans prostitute who asked, “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?” was dynamite. Suddenly the entire nation could speak French. Art direction: Ed Lee; Design: Andy Engel; Photography: Fred Lombardi
Saturday Night Fever Official Soundtrack
Just when disco didn’t seem like it could become any more popular, along came Saturday Night Fever. Released in November 1977, SNF introduced the entire world to Tony Manero, white suits, and the disco lifestyle. Compiled mostly of songs that were hits months earlier, the soundtrack was actually low budget. That aside, its worldwide popularity propelled the Bee Gees to superstardom and The Trammps and Kool & the Gang caught a free ride in the whale’s wake. Design: Susan Herr, Tom Nikosey.
Musique, Keep on Jumpin’
Cover concept: Ancona Design Atelier; Photography: Bob Lichtman and Trudy Schlacter.
Diana Ross, Diana Ross
She’s coming out. Ultra-galamazon Diana Ross knew that image was everything, and her solo disco career produced some of the most legendary tracks to hit the dance floor. Here her 1976 eponymous album contains the classis “Love Hangover.” Photography: Victor Skrebneski
Grace Jones, Muse
Grace Jones, a fashion model turned disco enchantress, was utterly unique, performing in outrageous costumes with over-the-top glamour as part of her “disco-theater” act. For her legendary album Muse, artist Richard Bernstein adapted Andy Warhol’s technique of using Polaroids as the foundation for a silk-screened portrait, elevating Jones from mere muse to icon. Art direction: Richard Bernstein and Grace Jones; Photography: Eric Bowman.
Donna Summer, Love to Love You Baby
Giorgio Moroder’s discovery of Donna Summer in 1975 changed everything. The spellbinding sexual energy of “Love to Love You Baby” was a sensational success on both dance floors and radio. Using a woman’s ecstatic groans, not just as a catchy device but as the focal point of the song, didn’t just push the envelope, but ripped it wide open. Miley Cyrus’s wagging tongue has nothing on Donna’s look of pure ecstasy against a starlit backdrop. Love to love it. Art direction: Stephen Lumel, Gribbit!; Photography: Zill Lazzaroni
The Love Machine, The Love Machine
Design: Mario Consoli.
To Disco, With Love: The Records That Defined an Era is available Nov. 24 via Flatiron Books.
On its cover, Wild Cherry's Wild Cherry.
Out of all the records collected for To Disco, With Love, the photograph on Wild Cherry’s debut album sums up the over-the-top quality of the disco era best. Photographer Frank Laffitte’s stunning capture of lips smeared in bulletproof gloss about to pop a juicy cherry is pure sex, but somehow not vulgar. Laffitte was sought after to bring his flair for the ultra-hot to the business of album art, and this album contains the legendary “Play That Funky Music,” which told of the once stubborn singer’s joyful discovery of funk, and his eventual surrender to the groove, a feeling shared by the masses in the fall of 1976. Photography: Frank Laffitte.
