Village People

Picking out the subject of these stories isn't always easy; case in point, the Village People were scheduled for next week. Today I had planned to present Gloria Gaynor. While I was doing my research, however, I've discovered that she's a born-again Christian and that she repeatedly refuses to say whether or not she thinks homosexuality is wrong. Her answer to the question whether she sees homosexuality as something sinful, is "I want to lead them to Christ, simply, and whatever he has for them." That could mean nothing, or it could mean conversion therapy and all these horrors... I decided I'm not going there. Plus, she recently requested no shirtless men be in her line of sight during her performance at a gay bar. Tchk! Tchk!

Then I started researching my next scheduled subject, K.C. & The Sunshine Band. I was doing OK, in fact, there are rumors that the band's leader, Harry Wayne Casey, might himself be gay, but then I stumbled upon the information that the band's co-founder, Richard (Rick) Finch, served a 7-year prison sentence for having sex with underage teenage boys. Given the current climate... I'm not going there either.

I will definitely present all the classic Disco hits by both Gloria Gaynor and K.C. & The Sunshine Band along with every other classic Disco hit. I'm just not doing a separate story about them. With that out of the way, let's deal with the act the got bumped up to today; the Village People.

Not that this subject is totally devoid of controversy. There is a lot of straight-washing of the band and their songs recently; a former member has declared that Y.M.C.A. was about straight cruising and that In The Navy was about convincing young men to join the Navy. So, I guess Fire Island and Go West were lessons in geography then?

I can understand the reasoning behind this, however; over the years, the Village People hits have been appropriated by possibly the most homophobic population in the Western world outside of religious fanatics - the sports fans.

There can be few venues in urban America less readily associated with gayness than Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY: those upright dads with kids in from the 'burbs to watch baseball on the terrain of their forefathers. But, at the bottom of the fifth inning, at every game, there they are: the groundsmen raking the pitch and leading the crowd in contorting themselves into the same shapes as their pretzels to spell out the letters set to music booming over the tannoy: Y.M.C.A. - the Village People's anthem to gay sex in the showers.

Similarly, the North Bank at Highbury, UK, was not exactly gay cruising territory, but there it was again, the favorite song: 'One-nil to the Arsenal/ one-nil to the Arsenal' - to the tune of another Village People gay hymn, Go West. It was adopted by the Londoners as a retort to: 'Allez, Paris St. Germain/ Allez, Paris St. Germain' - sung to Go West by les skinheads Français, but adapted by visiting fans when Arsenal went up by a goal at the Parc des Princes.

So, after three decades, these are the unexpected destinations of canticles by the most iconic gay band ever: sporting events, vodka-popping wedding receptions, solemnly religious bar mitzvahs, primary school discos and aerobics classes. In 2004, then US Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered a karaoke version of Y.M.C.A. at a ceremony concluding a summit with Asian foreign ministers: "They have everything for young men to enjoy / You can hang out with all the boys," indeed, Secretary Powell. Prince Charles and Nelson Mandela have shaken a bone to the same song. The Village People's hits, for all their bawdiness and gay spirit, have outlived 1970s Disco music like cockroaches after a nuclear attack. But how did it all begin?

Like Boney M. and the Spice Girls to follow, the Village People were a manufactured product, more panto package than pop group. They were molded by French producers Henri Bololo and Jaques Morali, who found Victor Willis - son of a Baptist pastor who had launched his son's voice in the church choir - singing in The Wiz on Broadway. They were instantly struck and Willis duly transferred to Casablanca studios (then of Donna Summer fame) to record a debut album with session musicians and background singers, none of whom were members of the band-to-be.

Not until Morali went to a gay disco called Les Mouches in Greenwich Village did the notion occur to entwine his studio tapes with what he beheld: a floorshow of macho homosexual stereotypes in 'theme' fancy dress. Morali, himself gay, spotted a professional dancer, Felipe Rose, shaking his stuff in an Indian headdress with bells on his toes, and the idea dawned: a troupe of brazen gay fantasy figures singing hit tunes aimed at a gay audience. Morali put out an advertisement seeking: "Gay singers and dancers, very good-looking and with moustaches" - a nod to the then voguish Freddie Mercury factor.

Rose - whose father, a Lakota Sioux high-beam welder, moved to New York from near the site of the Wounded Knee massacre, and whose mother was a Puerto Rican Jehovah's Witness and dancer at the Copacabana Club - was installed as Native American chief. Then auditions began of the mustachioed thousands heeding Morali's call: Alex Briley left a dancing troupe to join as the GI/Sailor; a roller-skating fire-eater, David Hodo, became the construction worker. Glenn Hughes, toll collector in a booth at the entrance to Brooklyn-Battery tunnel became the leatherman/biker, a role he fulfilled in real life. Television actor Randy Jones was appointed cowboy and the front man, Willis, would be a cop. All came from Greenwich Village, and the band's name thereby chose itself. The racy entendre was slapdash compared to some Seventies music being written in the heterosexual hemisphere, but what marked the Village People was that, with the Y.M.C.A., Macho Man, Go West and In the Navy, a Rubicon had been crossed: the first 'out' gay band hit the mainstream.

Whether the Village People were intended in earnest, as irony or a combination of both, their appeal - with young Madonna as an opening act for some shows - extended way beyond the gay hallmark they represented, across dance floors astride the Iron Curtain and the equator. "There are housewives who want me to whip them," lamented the late Glenn Hughes once. "I say, 'Sorry I've got a headache."' The band scored gold and platinum discs, won international awards and, to date, have sold some 65 million records.

Their debut album was released in 1977 and had their name as its title. Their first single, San Francisco, was a #9 hit and Sweden and a #15 hit in Australia. It didn't do much anywhere else, peaking at #45 in the UK and at #102 in the US.

The B-side was Fire Island:

Their next single, In Hollywood (Everybody Is a Star), peaked at #27 in the Netherlands:

Their second album was released in 1978 and was called Macho Man. The first single was called I Am What I Am. Village People member Randy Jones (the cowboy) describes the song as "a gay liberation statement, aimed directly at gays and lesbians who were standing up without apology for their lifestyle" and as the group's "first gay liberation song." I Am What I Am peaked at #32 in Germany:

The B-side was Key West. Jones described Key West as "a salute to the Florida town that Ernest Hemmingway and Tennessee Williams, along with gay men and women, had made a vacation destination."

It was their next single that propelled them to superstardom: the title track from Macho Man hit #25 in the US and achieved gold status. It also peaked at #3 in Australia, #7 in New Zealand and #16 in Canada. Randy Jones recalled, "The Monday after Thanksgiving (1977), we signed contracts and the Tuesday after, we were in studio recording Macho Man, with Victor Willis' handwritten lyrics that were written in the morning with egg stains and coffee rings on it. Everything was happening that quickly."

The B-side was their cover of the golden oldie, Just a Gigolo:

If Macho Man introduced the Village People to the record-buying public, their next single, Y.M.C.A., from the album Cruisin' (also 1978), sealed the deal: a #1 hit in the UK, Germany, Canada, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland, #2 in the US and Norway, #3 in France and South Africa, and #4 in Spain.

It has sold over 2 million records in the US, over 1.5 million in the UK and France, and over 300 000 in Japan, Canada, and Germany. The song's influence was so great, that a gay man that I intimately knew while visiting the US in 1979, chose to stay in the Los Angeles Y.M.C.A., even though he could afford a more luxurious hotel.

VH1 placed Y.M.C.A. at #7 on their list of 100 Greatest Dance Songs in 2000 and Paste Magazine ranked the song number 1 on their list of The 60 Best Dancefloor Classics in February 2017.

Y.M.C.A. was so successful that there was no need for another single to help sell Cruisin'. It became 4x platinum in Canada, platinum in the US, and gold in Germany. But how does one follow this up? Simply by releasing an album that contains not one, but two Disco classics. The album was called Go West (1979).

The first single from Go West was In the Navy. In 1979, the United States Navy considered using In the Navy in a television and radio recruiting campaign. Belolo offered them permission if the Navy would help film a music video for it. The Navy provided them access to the San Diego Navy base, where the USS Reasoner (FF-1063), several aircraft, and the crew of the ship would be used. In the end, the Navy did not use the video, choosing to remain with the traditional Anchors Aweigh.

In the Navy made the top 3 in the US, Canada, and most European countries, while it also made the top 10 in Australia and New Zealand.

The title track from Go West was their next single. It wasn't as big a hit, which is a pity because it was equally good. In 1993, the Pet Shop Boys did a great remake of the song. Listen to it here.

The group's fame peaked in 1979 when they made several appearances on The Merv Griffin Show and traveled with Bob Hope to entertain US troops. They were also featured on the cover of Rolling Stone. Willis left the group at the end of an international tour in 1979, and a decline in popularity followed. In the meantime, their record company released Live and Sleazy, a mixture of live and studio recordings. Some tracks feature lead vocals from Victor Willis, some by his replacement, Ray Simpson (brother of Valerie Simpson, of Ashford & Simpson), one track was sung by David Hodo and another by Alex Briley. The album did manage to be certified gold in the US and platinum in Canada.

Ready for the 80's was sung by Ray Simpson. It peaked at #52 in the US.

Sleazy was sung by David Hodo. It peaked at #9 in Norway.

Can't Stop the Music, the Village People's disaster of a film was made after Willis left the band. Starring Steve Guttenberg, the film was considered to be so bad, it inspired the creation of the Golden Raspberry Awards, winning the first Worst Picture Golden Raspberry Award. It's also a cult classic. The Razzies' founder John Wilson listed the film as one of "The 100 Most Enjoyable Bad Movies Ever Made."

The album did better than the film, reaching #1 in Australia and Spain and hitting the top 10 in much of Europe, including the UK. The title track also hit #1 in Australia, #2 in New Zealand, and #11 in the UK:

The soundtrack also featured the talents of David London, who under his real name Dennis "Fergie" Frederiksen became the lead singer of Toto for a brief spell and was one of the main contributors to Village People's next album.

The follow-up single, Magic Night, was a flop:

In 1981, with New Wave music becoming more popular than Disco, the Village People took off their stage costumes, and reinvented their look inspired by the New Romantic movement, and released the album Renaissance. It only attracted minor – mostly negative – attention and produced no hits.

Do You Wanna Spend the Night was the closest they came to a hit - it made #48 in Australia:

The other three singles were: 5 O'Clock in the Morning:

... Action Man:

... And finally, Jungle City:

What people don't talk about enough is the Village People’s ability to predict the invention of Grindr. By the time the band released Sex Over the Phone in 1985, the group had endured lots of line-up changes. The single returned them to the UK (#59) and German (#40) charts after five dry years:

The album Sex Over the Phone would be their last full album of new material, though they continue to tour to this day. The next single from this album, New York City, came and went without making much of an impression:

Livin' in the Wildlife was a single-only release in 1989. It didn't register on any chart:

Far Away in America was released in 1994. In it, the Village People were joined by the German national football (soccer) team. It was produced on the occasion of the World Cup 1994 that took place in the United States. The single made #44 in Germany:

Let's Go Back to the Dance Floor is their last single (so far), released in 2013:

I know that not all of the Village People members are gay, although they did a pretty good job convincing us that they were. But the fact remains that for the gay people living their life in the late-1970s, they were their group. And, as much as many desire to alter history - it can't be done, you guys. We were there. We lived through it...