THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

287-Gary’s Gang-Keep on Dancin.’

1979-Number 8 single.

Best Bit-At 3.42. This Gary will not want to be confused with the other Gary, who was the leader of a completely different, and infamous gang.

‘Gary’s Gang’ were formed in 1977, in Queens, New York, United States, by Eric Matthew, (vocals and guitar) Gary Turnier, (percussion) Al Lauricella, (keyboards) Rino Minetti, (keyboards) Bob Forman, (saxophone and flute) Jay Leon, (trombone) and Bill Catalano, (percussion) Catalano is not the same William Catalano (1934-2005) who was a renowned Jazz trumpet player. ‘Gary’s Gang released two studio Albums, both were issued in 1979, the first was called ‘Keep on Dancin” and the other was called ‘Gangbusters.’ They also released nine singles, and although never achieving an American Billboard top 100 single, two of the songs,’Keep on Dancin” and ‘Let’s Lovedance Tonight,’ both made Number 1 on the U.S. Dance chart. In the UK ‘Keep on Dancin” is their only top 40 hit, although two of their other tracks ‘Let’s Lovedance Tonight,’ (Number 49) and ‘Knock Me Out,’ (Number 45) just missed out on being hits.

‘Keep on Dancin” was co-written by band members Eric Matthew, and Gary Turnier. Matthew was born Joseph William Tucci, in 1953, in Queens. New York, after the success of this song Matthew set up his own record label ‘Radar Records,’ and produced artists signed to the label. On a personal note I would highly recommend the 1982 song ‘Beat the Street’ by Sharon Redd,’ which Matthew co-wrote, and co-produced with Darryl Payne.

‘Keep on Dancin’ is one of the classic dance songs of the 1970’s Disco era. You wouldn’t be too far wide of the mark if you described the song as ‘cheesy-ish,’ but it is for all that, still definitely cool to like. The lyrics tell us that the narrator is really enjoying dancing to the music, but things would be even better if his love interest would join him on the dance floor.

‘Touch my body, make it Funky, got a feeling like I wanna fly, will you love me tonight. Dancin’ baby, don’t say maybe, don’t you really wanna fly with me, will you get high with me tonight.’