Euro Disco: Italy

We've visited a number of countries in Africa, we went to Australia for the Gibb brothers and Samantha Sang, and we've stopped over in many European countries. Today, before returning to the US, we will have our final European stop-over, this time in Italy.

Raffaella Carrà (pictured above), born Raffaella Maria Pelloni in Bologna, Italy, in 1943, first appeared in cinema at the age of 9, in Tormento del passato (1952). In the 1960s she was already a hot name in Italian cinema. Her most notable appearance was in Mario Monicelli's excellent political drama I Compagni (The Organizer/1963) starring alongside Marcello Mastroianni, Renato Salvatori, and Annie Girardot. The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Original Screenplay, a rare feat for a non-English-speaking film.

In 1965, she moved to the United States, signing with 20th Century Fox. As Carrà, she starred in the motion picture Von Ryan's Express (1965) with Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard. Feeling homesick, she decided to return to Italy where she starred in several Italian and French films.

In 1970 she decided to reinvent herself as a recording artist. Her debut single, Ma Che Musica Maestro, was a #2 hit in Italy:

Another big Italian hit was Tuca Tuca (1970-71):

The first song of hers to resonate internationally came in 1975 - it was a novelty dance hit and its title was a phone number; 5353456. It was recorded in many languages. This is the Spanish version:

The single's original A-side was a plush Italian ballad, Tornerai:

The single that became her greatest hit came in 1977; it was a Disco favorite called A Far L'amore Comincia Tu. This is the original version:

This is the English-speaking version, a top 10 in the UK in 1977:

Rafaella Carrà worked with Bob Sinclar on the new single Far L'Amore which was released on 17 March 2011:

Also in 1977, this is Fiesta:

In 1978, Tanti Auguri was a gay favorite:

In the late 1970s, Rafaella made a new professional turn and became a TV hostess, a choice which brought her prolonged success.

We now pay tribute to one of the most important names in Disco history: Giovanni Giorgio Moroder was born in Urtijëi, South Tyrol, Italy, in 1940. Moroder made his first steps in music in Aachen, Germany, and then moved to Berlin where he released a number of singles under the name "Giorgio" beginning in 1963, singing in Italian, Spanish, English, and German.

His first hits belonged to bubblegum pop. Looky Looky (1969) was #1 hit in France and was certified gold.

In 1972, he co-wrote Son Of My Father, a #1 UK hit for Chicory Tip. Giorgio's own version was a minor hit in France and Germany. It also managed to crack the US charts at #46:

In 1973, he released Lonely Lovers Symphony, based on Beethoven's Für Elise:

We have talked about his fateful meeting and collaboration with Donna Summer here. However, he kept making solo records, some of which are real Disco gems. Like this 1976 hit, Knights in White Satin, inspired by the Moody Blues' classic:

In 1977 he had two big hits. First came Let the Music Play:

The next one was even better; a Disco classic, From Here to Eternity:

1978 was a great year for Moroder; Donna Summer was riding high on the charts and he wrote the soundtrack to Alan Parker's Midnight Express, which awarded him an Oscar for Best Original Score. A single called Chase was released from the soundtrack and it became his most popular and celebrated hit:

Three notable Disco singles were released in 1979. First came If You Weren't Afraid:

Then came I Wanna Rock You:

... And then, What A Night:

In 1980, he composed and produced two film soundtrack albums: the first for Foxes and the second for American Gigolo. The Foxes soundtrack includes Donna Summer's hit single On the Radio, which Moroder both produced and co-wrote and also contains a song titled Bad Love, written and performed by Cher and produced by Moroder. American Gigolo featured the Moroder-produced Call Me by Blondie, a huge US and UK #1 hit. (Listen to it here). This is Bad Love:

In 1982 he wrote the soundtrack of the movie Cat People, including the hit single Cat People (Putting Out Fire) featuring David Bowie (more on Bowie here):

In 1983, Moroder produced the soundtrack for the film Scarface. He also co-wrote and produced many of the songs from the movie Flashdance. The song Flashdance... What a Feeling, performed by Irene Cara, was a big #1 hit - it was also his second Oscar win.

In 1984, Moroder compiled a new restoration and edit of the silent film Metropolis (1927) and provided it with a contemporary soundtrack. This soundtrack includes tracks from Pat Benatar, Jon Anderson, Adam Ant, Billy Squier, Loverboy, Bonnie Tyler and Freddie Mercury (more on Mercury, here). This is Love Kills by the latter:

Also in 1984, Moroder worked with Philip Oakey of The Human League to make the album Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder, which included a UK singles #3 chart hit, Together in Electric Dreams, the title track to the 1984 film Electric Dreams:

The same year saw Giorgio collaborating with Kajagoogoo frontman Limahl for their worldwide hit The NeverEnding Story:

In 1986, Moroder collaborated with his protégé Harold Faltermeyer (of Axel F) and lyricist Tom Whitlock to create the score for the film Top Gun (1986) which included Kenny Loggins' hit Danger Zone and Berlin's Take My Breath Away. The latter was a #1 hit and a Best Song Oscar winner - Moroder's third win:

Moroder was the most prominent representative of the Italian Disco scene, but he wasn't the only one. There were a few Italian acts that had one or more Disco hits from the late-1970s to the mid-1980s. La Bionda was an Italian musical duo formed by the brothers Carmelo and Michelangelo La Bionda. They became popular when they turned to Disco music. They moved to Munich where they started recording under the pseudonym D. D. Sound (short for Disco Delivery Sound), a moniker that would accompany them for their entire recording career. Their first two disco singles, Disco Bass and Burning Love, became international hits.

This is Disco Bass:

This is Burning Love:

In 1978, they released their album, La Bionda. It included There for Me, as well as the worldwide hit One For You, One For Me. There for Me was subsequently covered by other artists, including Sarah Brightman & Josh Groban, Dalida, Patty Pravo and Paul Potts. This is their version of the song:

One For You, One For Me is their most popular Disco hit:

Gino Soccio (born on September 9, 1955, Verdun, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian disco record producer of Italian descent. His debut solo album Outline was released in 1979 and contained the hit Dancer, a #1 US Dance hit, but also a hit on the pop charts (#48 US, #46 UK):

Try It Out was another #1 US Dance hit:

It's Alright peaked at #2 US Dance:

He also assembled and produced the disco studio group, Witch Queen, best known for their hit, Bang A Gong / All Right Now (1979). It peaked at #8 on the US Dance chart:

Vivien Vee, born Viviana Andreattini in Italy (1960), had a minor hit on the US Dance chart with her 1979 single Give Me a Break:

Change was an Italian-American group formed in Bologna, Italy, in 1979. The band's original line up included Luther Vandross (read about him here) and Jocelyn Brown (known then as Jocelyn Shaw). The band's debut album, The Glow of Love, was released in 1980. The first single was the million-seller A Lover's Holiday:

The follow-up hits from the album, Searching and the title song feature lead vocals by Luther Vandross who had yet to come to prominence. The three songs combined set the all-time record, spending 9 weeks at #1 on Billboard's Club Play Singles chart, enough to make it the #1 Disco recording of the year and a strong seller in the US. It also made the Pop Top 40 that summer. The success of Searching and The Glow of Love exposed Luther's voice to mainstream and eventually led to a successful solo career soon afterward. This is Searching:

This is The Glow of Love:

The lead single from their next album, Paradise, was also a #1 hit on the US Dance chart:

Pino D'Angiò (born Giuseppe D. Chierchia in 1952 Pompei, Italy) is best known for his hit 1980 song, Ma Quale Idea, which sold over 2 million copies in Europe. The bassline of that song was taken from Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now by McFadden & Whitehead. It was later sampled in Madison Avenue's 1999 hit Don't Call Me Baby.

Tom Hooker was born in Los Angeles, USA, in 1957. In 1980, he moved to Italy, where he was discovered by Italian producers. His first hit was Flip Over:

He had his first major success in 1986 with Looking for Love:

Hooker co-wrote and sang uncredited lead vocals on the first two Den Harrow albums. Den Harrow was fronted by Stefano Zandri (born 4 June 1962), an Italian fashion model. After years of fame and popularity, it was revealed by Stefano Zandri and his producers that Zandri did not actually sing the Den Harrow songs; he was essentially a character who lip-synched to vocals recorded by a number of other singers, Hooker among them. The four songs that I'm presenting are all sung by Hooker. This is Bad Boy (1985), a hit in most of continental Europe:

This is the follow-up, Future Brain:

This is Catch the Fox (1986):

This is Don't Break My Heart (1987):

Kano was an Italo disco music project formed in Milan, Italy in 1979 by producers/musicians Luciano Ninzatti, Stefano Pulga and Matteo Bonsanto. Kano's debut single was the 1980 international hit I'm Ready:

Paul Mazzolini (born 18 February 1960), known as Gazebo, was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the son of an Italian diplomat and an American singer. His claim to fame is his 1983 release I Like Chopin, which sold 8 million copies worldwide and reached # 1 in Italy along with 15 other countries.

Koto is an Italian synthpop group that originally consisted of Anfrando Maiola and Stefano Cundari, later with the Dutch composer Michiel van der Kuy. Their first single in 1982, Chinese Revenge, proved to be very popular in Italy. It was also a minor hit in Germany and the Netherlands

Pink Project was formed in 1982, the brainchild of Italian DJ-composer-keyboardist-producer Stefano Pulga (of Kano fame), together with guitarist Luciano Ninzatti, keyboardist-programmer Matteo Bonsanto and sound engineer Massimo Noè. Their only hit single, Disco Project, was a mashup of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) and The Alan Parsons Project's Mammagamma.

Luis Romano Peris Belmonte (born 7 June 1954 in Rome, Lazio), better known as Gary Low, is an Italian-born Spanish recording artist who had a big European hit in 1983 with I Want You:

Righeira was a duo from Turin, Italy, founded in 1981 by Stefano Rota and Stefano Righi. They became famous for their 1983 single Vamos A La Playa (Let's Go To The Beach):

Their follow-up single, No Tengo Dinero was also a hit in Europe:

Ryan Paris (born Fabio Roscioli, March 12, 1953) gained international popularity in 1983 for the worldwide hit single Dolce Vita, a top 5 hit in all of Europe, even in the UK:

My Mine was a trio, founded in Terni, Italy, in 1983. Their first single, Hypnotic Tango, became a hit across Europe:

Alexander Robotnick (a.k.a. Maurizio Dami) attained popularity in 1983 with his track Problèmes D'Amour, which went on to become a "cult track" of dance music:

Producers Dario Raimondi and Alvaro Ugolini teamed up with studio vocalists Antonella Pepe, Angela Parisi and Ivana Spagna to create Fun Fun. After their debut album, Spagna left Fun Fun to pursue a solo career.

Colour My Love was a sizeable hit across Europe. It also peaked at #9 on the US Dance chart and was a big hit in South Africa:

... The same more or less applies to their next two big hits; Give Me Your Love:

... And also Baila Bolero:

Speaking of Spagna, she did manage to have 2 big international solo hits after leaving Fun Fun. The first came in 1986 and was called Easy Lady:

The second arrived in 1987. It was an even bigger hit, peaking at #2 in the UK and Italy, hitting the top 10 in most of Europe and South Africa and even registering in the US. It was called Call Me:

P. Lion (Pietro Paolo Pelandi) (born June 29, 1959, in Alzano Lombardo, Italy) had a big hit in 1983 with Happy Children:

Roberto Zanetti (born November 28, 1956, Tuscany, Italy), as a singer is known under the stage name Savage, and as a music producer, he uses the alias Robyx. His song Don't Cry Tonight was successful across Europe and has been frequently remixed since:

Club House was a studio group composed of Gianfranco Bortolotti, Carl Fanini, Hidalgo Serra, and Silvio Pozzoli. Their mashup medley of Steely Dan's Do It Again and Michael Jackson's Billie Jean (1983) was a top 10 hit in Belgium, Ireland, and the Netherlands, #11 in the UK, #41 in Germany, and #75 in the US:

They peaked at the very top of the US Dance chart with Deep In My Heart (1990-91):

Silvio (a.k.a Silver) Pozzoli, apart from being a member of Club House, also had a few solo hits, especially Around My Dream (#21 in France, #9 Germany, #21 Netherlands, #25 Switzerland, #1 South Africa):

Ken Laszlo (born as Gianni Coraini, 1954), an Italian of Mexican origin, had his first hit in 1984; it was called Hey Hey Guy:

His next hit, Tonight (1985), also made some waves:

Miko Mission (born Pier Michele Bozzetti; June 22, 1945, in Alessandria, Italy) had been recording since 1964. In 1984 he had a hit with the Italo Disco track How Old Are You?:

Scotch had a number of mid-table European hits. Their most popular was Disco Band (1984):

Sandy Marton is a Croatian singer with an Italian career. His biggest hit was People from Ibiza (1984):

Alberto Carrara (born 1958, in Bergamo, Italy), best known as Carrara, had a big hit in 1984 with Shine on Dance:

Valerie Dore (Valérie Doré) is an Italo disco musical project formed in 1984 by producer Roberto Gasparini. They had three big hits between 1984-85. First came The Night:

Then there was Get Closer:

... And finally, It's So Easy:

In early 1984, Maurizio Bassi, a music producer, and musician from Milan met Jimmy McShane, a native of Derry, Northern Ireland. They decided to form a band fronted by McShane, who was a talented dancer with a good voice. Baltimora's first single, Tarzan Boy, was released in April 1985, and became a huge European success, peaking at #6 in Italy and entering the top 5 in numerous European countries, including Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, and Norway. The song eventually made it to the UK charts, where it reached #3 in August 1985.

Tarzan Boy was released in Canada in October 1985 and peaked at #5 by the end of the year. However, it took a while for the single to enter the Hot 100 in the US. When it did, it remained on the Hot 100 chart for 6 months, peaking at #13 in February 1986.

Tarzan Boy is among my favorite Italo Disco tracks. Baltimora had a few more hits, mainly in Italy, but the success of Tarzan Boy was not replicated. Of these hits, Woody Boogie did relatively well:

Taffy (born Katherine Quaye, 1963, New York, US) is best known for her hit, I Love My Radio. The song, produced by Claudio Cecchetto, was originally a top 5 hit in Italy in 1985:

The song's sentiments were about a disc jockey broadcasting in the early hours. However, as very few radio stations in the United Kingdom broadcast after midnight in the late 1980s, this reference in the record was changed. A re-recorded version called I Love My Radio (Dee Jay's Radio) was released instead. This is the version that reached #6 on the UK chart:

Edward "Eddy" Huntington (born 29 October 1965) is a pop singer from the UK who began his professional singing career in Italy. Huntington became popular in Europe and the former USSR mainly with his song U.S.S.R. which peaked at #6 in Switzerland and #23 in Germany in 1986:

Louise Tracy Freeman (born 5 January 1962 in London, England), better known as Tracy Spencer, managed to have a #1 hit in Italy with Run To Me:

Finally, we end our story with a star. Norma Sabrina Salerno (born 15 March 1968 in Genoa, Italy), is known in her singing career as Sabrina. During her career, she has sold millions of records worldwide and scored 10 international hits, including her biggest one; Boys (Summertime Love) peaked at #1 in France and Switzerland, #2 in Germany, Belgium, and Finland, #3 in the UK and Italy, #4 in the Netherlands, #5 in Sweden, and #11 in Australia.

As Italo Disco was fading away, a sped-up version of Euro Disco with Eurobeat elements became successful in the US, under the term "Hi-NRG". But that would be the subject of another story...

Euro Disco: France, Belgium, and Switzerland

With a small delay, today we'll present the part of Euro Disco that originated mainly from France, but also from Belgium and Switzerland. "Les pays francophones."

Let's begin with France: Amanda Lear (pictured above) is a French singer, lyricist, painter, television presenter, actress and former model. Lear grew up in the south of France and in Switzerland and studied art in Paris and at Saint Martin's School of Art in London. She began her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s and went on to model for Paco Rabanne and Ossie Clark among others. Around that time she met the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and would remain his closest friend and muse for the next 15 years. Lear first came into the public eye as the cover model for Roxy Music's album For Your Pleasure in 1973. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, she was a million-album-selling disco queen, mainly in Continental Europe and Scandinavia, signed to Ariola Records.

Lear's origins are unclear, with the singer herself providing different information about her background and keeping her birth year a secret even from her long-term husband. Contested facts include her birth date and place, her birth gender, names and nationalities of her parents, and the location of her upbringing. Most sources claim 18 November 1939 to be her birth date, including GEMA, but Lear has variously given her date of birth as 1946, 1948 and 1950. During a 2010 interview with a French newspaper Libération, Lear presented her identity card to a journalist, which read: "born 18 November 1950 in Saigon". This date seems to be age fabrication, as public records show that she began university in September 1964 and that she married in December 1965.

As for her birthplace, Saigon and British Hong Kong appear to be the most credible versions, but places like Singapore, Switzerland or even Transylvania have also been rumored as the singer's birthplace by different sources. She was an only child to her parents who later divorced. Most sources, including Lear's 1965 wedding certificate, confirm that her father was a French army officer, possibly of British origin. Her mother appears to have had a Russo-Asiatic background. In a 1976 interview with Carmen Thomas for a German television show, Lear confirmed that her father was British and mother was Russian and that they had already both died. However, she would later claim her mother had a French background.

Lear's alleged transgender background has been commented upon in the media and in the biographies of those who knew Lear earlier in her life, including Salvador Dalí, with Dali's biographer Ian Gibson even devoting an entire chapter to her. April Ashley, a famous transgender entertainer and model, has long claimed that in the 1950s and early 1960s, she and Lear, whose birth name she claimed was Alain Tap, were working together in transvestite revues in Paris at Madame Arthur and Le Carrousel. In her book, April Ashley's Odyssey, she recalls Lear performing drag acts under the stage name Peki d'Oslo. Similar facts have been reported by Romy Haag, a transgender artist living in Germany, who ran a popular nightclub Chez Romy in Berlin and knew Amanda closely, and Bibiana Fernández, a Spanish transgender actress and singer. Some sources even insinuate that it was Dalí himself who sponsored Lear's sex reassignment operation in Casablanca in 1963, carried out by doctor Georges Burou, and also that it was he who invented her stage name based on the pun of the Catalan language "L'Amant de Dalí" (Dalí's lover). Rumours claiming that Lear was a non-operative transgender woman or intersex were circulating at the beginning of her singing career, which stopped after she posed nude for Playboy in the late 1970s.

Despite Lear herself contradicting transgender rumors already in the 1970s and explaining they were a part of a strategy to draw public attention, they have persisted to date. When asked by Carmen Thomas in a 1976 interview whether it was true that she was assigned male at birth, Lear replied that it was "a crazy idea from some journalist". She would later claim in Interview magazine that it was David Bowie who started the rumor. She would also address these rumors in her songs Fabulous (Lover, Love Me) and I'm a Mistery (deliberately misspelled as to reference the word "mister"). Despite some sources claiming her transgender background is an open secret, she would always flatly deny it, even when confronted by Dalí's biographer Ian Gibson during a TV show. However, an excerpt from an article from an Italian newspaper surfaced online in November 2011, including a reproduction of a copy of Lear's birth certificate, which states that she was born Alain Maurice Louis René Tap on 18 June 1939 in Saigon, and a picture of Lear before her transition.

Amanda recorded her share of Disco classics, especially in the late-70s. This is La Bagarre (Trouble) (1976):

This is Blood And Honey (1976-77):

This is The Lady In Black (1977):

The same year, another song; Queen Of China-Town:

Also this one, Tomorrow:

Her most iconic songs came in 1978; one was called Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me):

... The other was called Follow Me:

The Sphinx also came out in 1978:

Lili Marlen was a big hit in 1979:

... Also Fashion Pack:

... Also from 1979, Oh Boy:

... also Forget It:

... Intellectually:

... and Never Trust A Pretty Face:

In 1980, she gave us Solomon Gundie:

... Ho Fatto L'amore Con Me:

... and Diamonds:

In 1981, Lear released Égal:

... The tantalizingly titled If I Was A Boy:

... Nostalgia (Berlin Lady):

... and Hollywood Is Just A Dream When You're Seventeen:

In 1982 there was Incredibilmente Donna:

... and Fever:

Sheila was one of the biggest pop stars in France. Her career had begun in 1962, at the time when the Beatles had their first UK hit. In 1977 she reinvented herself as a Disco Diva and joined forces with Black Devotion, the combo taking the name Sheila B. Devotion. Their first big hit, Love Me Baby, was a top 3 hit in France and Italy:

Singin' in the Rain was an even bigger hit, a top 3 hit in the Netherlands and Sweden as well as in France and Italy, also #6 in Germany, #11 in the UK, and #30 on the US Dance chart:

You Light My Fire was a lesser hit in 1978 and yet managed to enter the European top 20:

Their biggest and most influential hit came in 1979. Spacer managed to crack the US R&B top 30, as well as the UK top 20:

The #1 track in a list of the best 700 Disco songs, compiled by 12 of the most famous DJs from the US, Canada, and Europe is by French artist Cerrone. Marc Cerrone (born 1952 in Vitry-sur-Seine, near Paris, France)  is considered as one of the most influential disco producers of the 70s and 80s in Europe.

The #1 in question is his first big hit, Love in C Minor (1976), which chalked up sales of three million copies in France alone:

With Supernature (1977), Cerrone merged symphonic orchestrations with the rigid sounds of synthesizers and sold eight million copies more. At the 1978 Billboard Disco Forum, Cerrone took home six awards including Disco Artist of the Year. It was also a UK top 10 hit.

Give Me Love (1978) was also on the DJs top 100:

... As well as Call Me Tonight (1979):

Cerrone's first big hits were co-written and co-produced by Alec R. Costandinos. Alec was born Alexandre Kouyoumdjian in 1944 in Cairo, Egypt. His father was Armenian and his mother was Greek. Costandinos was the publisher of hits for various artists, including French chanteuse Dalida. He has also written under the pseudonym R. Rupen. His hit I've Found Love (Now That I've Found You) under the monicker of Love And Kisses, is at #2 on the DJs' list:

Romeo And Juliet (Acts 1&2), under his own name, is at #7:

Winds of Change is at #115:

You Must Be Love, once again under the monicker of Love And Kisses, is at #304:

Love And Kisses are also responsible for the theme song from Thank God It's Friday:

Finally, under the name Sumeria, he released Golden Tears; it is at #329 on the DJs list:

We have just mentioned Dalida; Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti (17 January 1933 – 3 May 1987), better known as Dalida and already presented here was a French Egyptian-Italian singer and actress. She performed and recorded in ten languages (French, Italian, Greek, Spanish, German, English, Japanese, Hebrew, Dutch, and Arabic). She won the Miss Egypt beauty contest in 1954. She spent most of her adult life in France and acquired French citizenship in 1961 upon marriage while maintaining her original dual Egyptian-Italian citizenship. Twice honored with the “Oscar Mondial du Succès du Disque” (World Oscar of Recording Success), she is the only singer to have won this award more than once. Her 30-year career began in 1956 and ended with her last album in 1986, half a year before her death while continuing to sing at concerts until her last days. Her suicide only served to strengthen her myth. She has sold 140 million records worldwide.

By the end of 1975, Dalida released an album that contained J'Attendrai, a disco song. It was released as a single in January 1976 and reached #1 on the French and other European charts, as well as being a big disco hit, especially in France and the Benelux.

Besame Mucho was a big hit for her in 1976. This is from a TV special in 1979:

In 1977, her release Salma Ya Salama was the biggest hit of the year: 

Also in 1977, this is Femme Est La Nuit:

In 1978 she worked with Bruno Guillain and released two singles, that were, in fact, a medley of her greatest hits set to Disco. First came Génération 78:

... Then came Ça Me Fait Rêver:

In 1979 Dalida recorded her biggest disco hit Monday Tuesday... Laissez-Moi Danser:

By the end of 1979 she released the semi-biographical song Comme Disait La Mistinguett where she makes fun of the press' stories about her:

In 1980 she released Gigi in Paradisco, the sequel to her giant hit, Gigi L'Amoroso:

Then came Rio do Brasil, another big hit for her:

We leave Dalida with a favorite of mine, Je Suis Toutes Les Femmes:

Another artist that we've already presented here is Patrick Juvet. The Swiss model-turned-popstar had a string of hits since 1971. He found, however, international success as a Disco star in the latter half of the 1970s. His first big Disco hit came in 1977 and was called Ou Sont Les Femmes:

His biggest international hit came a year later and was called I Love America:

He had two hits in 1979; the first was Lady Night:

... The next was Swiss Kiss (there is a 90-second interview before the actual song):

Another Patrick was Patrick Hernandez. Born in France by Spanish parents, he had a massive international hit in 1979 with the tautologically titled Born to Be Alive - a Disco classic:

He followed it up with the less successful Disco Queen:

Ottawan was a duo, fronted by Caribbean-born Jean Patrick Baptiste and Annette Eltice and masterminded by French producers Daniel Vangarde and Jean Kluger. They had two huge Disco hits. In 1979, D.I.S.C.O. was a hit everywhere:

Two years later, Hands Up (Give Me Your Heart) was as big a hit:

Meanwhile, back in 1977, French band Space watched Magic Fly fly all the way to #2 in the UK:

Carry On, Turn Me On features vocals by Madeline Bell:

Deliverance also features vocals by Madeline Bell:

Santa Esmeralda was formed in 1977, by French producers Nicolas Skorsky and Jean Manuel de Scarano. Upon meeting Leroy Gómez a Massachusetts native of Cape Verdean descent, in Paris, the duo recruited him for the group's first record, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, a cover of the song that was originally written for Nina Simone and made a hit by the Animals in the 1960s. Santa Esmeralda's version was an international hit:

They followed it up, unimaginatively, with a dance version of another song made famous by The Animals, The House of the Rising Sun. Meanwhile, Leroy Gómez had been replaced by Jimmy Goings.

In 1978 they recorded the song Sevilla Nights for the Thank God It's Friday soundtrack:

1978 also saw the release of Another Cha-Cha:

The Gibson Brothers (Chris, Patrick, and Alex) were born on Martinique in the West Indies but were French-based. Heaven (1977) was one of the songs that originally caught the public's attention:

But it was Cuba, in 1978, that propelled them to international stardom:

They followed it up with Ooh, What a Life, a UK top 10 hit in 1979:

The following year was even bigger for them; Que Sera Mi Vida was a UK top 5 hit:

Then, they re-released Cuba, coupled with Better Do It Salsa and this new release peaked at #12 in the UK. Here's Better Do It Salsa:

Their final big hit, Mariana, peaked at #11 in the UK at the tail end of 1980:

Belle Epoque was the name of a female vocal trio, based in Paris, France. The group first rose in popularity during the late 1970s with a disco remake of the song Black Is Black, originally a hit in 1966 for the Spanish group Los Bravos. Belle Epoque's version hit #2 in the UK:

In the US, Belle Epoque is better known for another song, Miss Broadway, which charted at #26 on the US R&B chart and at #92 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978:

Claude François, also known by the nickname Cloclo, a French pop star in the 60s and 70s, is mainly famous (in the rest of the world) for co-writing the original French lyrics of My Way, as well as of Elvis' hit My Boy. Since he died in 1978, he didn't have the time to get too deep into the Disco scene, but his last single, Alexandrie Alexandra, was, in fact, a disco hit:

There’s an interesting pattern of French and francophone songs from this period obsessing over outer-space. Tout Petit La Planete is a dark and stormy, but heavy-hitting track from Plastic Bertrand, the Belgian musician who gave us Ça Plane Pour Moi. This is Tout Petit La Planete:

And this is Ça Plane Pour Moi, which is New Wave rather than Disco, but let's listen to it anyway; to read how this figures in a gay-themed song by Elton Motello, click here:

Also from Belgium, the synth-pop trio Telex released the Kraftwerk influenced Moskow Disco in 1979:

Before we leave "les pays Francophones", a small reminder that the Village People may be American, but they were founded by two French producers looking to target gay audiences. Their names were Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo. But the Village People will get their own day in the sun, so, this is a good place to stop. Our next story will be about Italian Disco.