THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

105-Village People-Y.M.C.A.

1978-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 1.02. Village People band members dress as policemen, naval officers, leather clad bikers, construction workers, Native American Indians, and cowboys. They say that ladies are attracted to men dressed in uniform, but I don’t think they will have much luck with this lot.

The Village People were formed in Greenwich Village, New York City, United States, in 1977, by Jacques Morali, (1947-1991) Henri Belolo, (1936-2019) and Victor Willis (see also best songs 630.) Prior to the forming of the Village People, both Morali, and Belolo had worked successfully together creating the female Disco group ‘The Ritchie Family,’ who had hits with ‘Brazil.’ (1975) and ‘The Best Disco in Town’ (1976.) Morali got the idea for creating the Village People after attending a costume ball at ‘Les Mouches,’ a gay disco in Greenwich Village, as he gazed around the room, he was impressed by all the ‘macho male stereotypes’ portrayed by the party guests.

The six members of the Village People who sang the vocals on ‘Y.M.C.A.’ and performed in the video were Victor Willis, (policeman) Felipe Rose, (Native American) Glenn Hughes, (1950-2001) (leather clad biker) Alex Briley, (soldier) David Hodo, (construction worker) and Randy Jones (cowboy.) In total there have been 24 different members of the Village People come and go, and they remain active with Victor Willis being the only original member. The discography of the Village People includes 10 studio Albums issued between 1977-2018, and 34 singles released between 1977-2020. In America on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, three of their singles have made the top 40, with ‘Y.M.C.A.’ reaching Number 2, while in the UK, they have achieved seven top 40 singles, including the 1993 remix of ‘Y.M.C.A.’ which peaked at Number 12, and also the 1999 ‘Millennium Mix’ of the song which made Number 35.

At the time of writing ‘Y.M.C.A.’ is currently the 21st best selling song of all time, with worldwide with sales in excess of 12 million copies. It was co-written by Jacques Morali, and Victor Willis, and produced by Morali, and first appeared as the opening track on the Village People’s third studio Album ‘Cruisin’ from September 1978.

The ‘YMCA’ which stands for ‘Young Men’s Christian Association’ was originally founded in London, England,in 1844 by George Williams (1821-1905.) In the United States, the YMCA began building single room occupancy facilities in the 1880’s to house people from rural areas who moved into cities to look for work. By the 1970’s, the typical YMCA tenants were more likely to be homeless people, and youth’s facing life issues, rather than people migrating from rural areas. The YMCA that Jaques Morali saw that inspired the song was the ‘McBurney YMCA,’ on West 23rd Street, in New York City, between 7th and 8th avenues. This is the building that the Village People perform in front of in the songs video.

‘Y.M.C.A.’ has become a staple at celebrations, mainly because of it’s now famous dance moves that people perform to it. The dance moves incorporate the moving of your arms to spell out the songs letters. It came about in 1979 when the Village People were appearing on the ‘Dick Clark American Bandstand’ television programme (similar to ‘Top of the Pops’ in the UK.) Legend has it that audience members randomly began doing the now famous actions, after the show Dick Clark showed Victor Willis the tape of the hand gestures. Clark said to Willis,’Victor, think you can work this dance into your routine? Willis responded,’I think we’re gonna’ have to.’

‘Young man, there’s a place you can go, I said, young man, when you’re short on your dough. You can stay there, and I’m sure you will find many ways to have a good time. It’s fun to stay at the YMCA.’