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’ who were a ‘Disco,’ ‘R&B,’ ‘Rock,’ and ‘Pop’ group were formed in 1977, in Queens, New York, United States, by Eric Matthew, (vocals and guitar) Gary Turnier, (percussion) Al Lauricella, (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. They remained active util parting ways in 1985. The discography of Gary’s Gang includes two studio Albums which were both issued in 1979, the first was called ‘Keep on Dancin,” which peaked at Number 42 in America on Billboard, while the other was called ‘Gangbusters,’ which failed to chart. Gary’s Gang also released nine singles between 1978-1990, and although none of them reached the Billboard Hot 100, two of them ‘Keep on Dancin” and ‘Let’s Lovedance Tonight,’ both made Number 1 on the Billboard ‘Dance Club Songs’ chart. In the UK, their only top 40 single is ‘Keep On Dancin,” which reached Number 8, although two of their other tracks ‘Let’s Lovedance Tonight,’ (1979-Number 49) and ‘Knock Me Out,’ (1982-Number 45) just missed out on being hits. In 1990 a remix of ‘Keep On Dancin” called ‘Keep On Dancin’ 1990,’ made Number 98 in the UK.

‘Keep On Dancin” was the debut release, and the first of three singles released from the debut studio Album by Gary’s Gang of the same name, from 1979, ‘Keep On Dancin” was co-written and co-produced by the groups members Eric Matthew, and Gary Turnier. Eric Matthew was born Joseph William Tucci in 1953, in Queens, New York, United States, he is a record label owner, music producer, engineer, songwriter and guitarist, Eric Matthew started his career in music performing at weddings and other celebrations in the New York area. It was after producing a demo with fellow band member Gary Turnier, that he landed a record deal with the indie label ‘SAM Records.’ After the success of Gary’s Gang, Matthew established his own record label called ‘Radar Records,’ to write and produce for other artists, which included Toney Lee, France Joli, and Sharon Redd (1945-1992.) 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 the American music producer Darryl Payne.

‘Keep on Dancin’ can firmly be filed under the musical genre of ‘Disco.’ ‘Disco’ is a genre of ‘Dance Music’ that emerged in the late 1960’s from the United States’ urban nightlife scene. Disco was mostly developed from music that was popular on the dance floor in clubs that had started playing records instead of having a live band. These clubs were initially known as ‘discotheques,’ the term ‘disco’ is shorthand for the word discothèque, a French word for ‘library of phonograph records,’ derived from ‘bibliothèque.’ Discothèque became used in French for a type of nightclub in Paris, after they had resorted to playing records during the Nazi occupation in the early 1940’s. It was the Belgium born singer and nightclub impresario Régine Zylberberg, (1929-2022) who claimed to have started the first discotheque, and to have been the first club DJ in 1953, in the ‘Whisky à Go-Go’ in Paris. She installed a dance floor with coloured lights and two turntables so she could play records without having a gap in the music.

Disco music as a genre started as a mixture of music from venues popular among African Americans, Latino Americans, and Italian Americans, in New York City, and Philadelphia during the late 1960’s to the mid-to-late 1970’s. Disco can be seen as a reaction by the 1960’s counterculture to both the dominance of ‘Rock’ music and the stigmatisation of dance music at the time. Several dance styles were developed during the period of 1970’s Disco’s popularity in the United States, including ‘The Bump,’ ‘The Hustle,’ (see also best songs 690) and ‘The Bus Stop’ (see also best songs 798.) As with all popular genres of music, commercialism steps in, diluting the original product on occasions, for consumption by the masses. During the mid to late 1970’s when Disco was at it’s peak it seemed that everybody was jumping on the bandwagon, including ‘Rock Royalty’ of the calibre of The Rolling Stones (Miss You) (see also best songs 160) and Rod Stewart (Da Ya Think I’n Sexy?) Disco hit it’s peak in 1977 with the release of ‘Saturday Night Fever,’ an American dance drama film, and it’s soundtrack Album (see also best songs 211-184 and 35.)

What goes up must come down. In the late 1970’s Disco music received a major backlash from Rock music fans. Known as ‘Disco Demolition Night,’ on July 12th, 1979, at 6:00,pm CDT, at Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois, United States, at the end of a Major League Baseball game between Chicago White Sox, and the Detroit Tigers, a crate filled with Disco records was blown up on the field. The Chicago ‘shock jock’ and ‘anti-disco’ campaigner Steve Dahl was hired for the promotion. Dahl’s sponsoring radio station was ‘WLUP,’ 97.9 FM, and admission was discounted to 98 cents for attendees who turned up with a Disco record. Dahl was to destroy the collected vinyl in an explosion. A crowd of around 20,000 was expected, but it was closer to 50,000 that attended. Many of the records were not collected by staff and were thrown like flying discs from the stands. After Steve Dahl blew up the collected records, thousands of fans stormed the field and remained there until dispersed by riot police. Thankfully no one was killed, although there was in the region of 30 injuries. A second Baseball game planned for later in the evening had to be postponed. ‘Disco Demolition Night’ preceded, and may have helped precipitate, the decline of Disco in late 1979. Some scholars and disco artists have debated whether the event was expressive of racism and homophobia. ‘Disco Demolition Night’ remains well known as one of the most extreme promotions in ‘MLB’ history.

‘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.’