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The stars who defined the era: Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, Chic, Sylvester, Gloria Gaynor, KC and the Sunshine Band, the Village People and Diana Ross.

Part of Disco

35 moments in this segment.

1. 1974-11 - LaBelle - Lady Marmalade. LaBelle's Lady Marmalade brought glam, funk and disco together for a 1975 number one.
2. 1975-07 - KC and the Sunshine Band - That's the Way (I Like It). The Miami sound of KC and the Sunshine Band was pure, joyful party disco.
3. 1976-05 - Tavares - Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel. The brothers Tavares delivered some of the smoothest vocal disco of the mid-seventies.
4. 1976-08 - ABBA - Dancing Queen. ABBA's Dancing Queen took the disco sound to the top of the charts around the world in 1976.
5. 1976-08 - Wild Cherry - Play That Funky Music. A white funk band's plea to 'play that funky music' became a 1976 number one.
6. 1976-11 - Thelma Houston - Don't Leave Me This Way. Thelma Houston's 1976 version turned a Philly ballad into a disco classic.
7. 1976-11 - Heatwave - Boogie Nights. Written by Rod Temperton, Heatwave's Boogie Nights was a transatlantic disco-funk smash.
8. 1977-09 - Chic - Dance, Dance, Dance. Chic's debut hit announced Rodgers and Edwards as disco's sharpest hitmakers.
9. 1977-12 - Bee Gees - Night Fever. Another Bee Gees smash from the Fever soundtrack, the best-selling album of its time.
10. 1977-12 - Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive. The Bee Gees' falsetto anthem, from Saturday Night Fever, became the sound of the entire era.
11. 1978-07 - Sylvester - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real). Sylvester's ecstatic falsetto and Hi-NRG sound made him disco's queer icon.
12. 1978-08 - A Taste of Honey - Boogie Oogie Oogie. A Taste of Honey's slap-bass anthem topped the charts and won a Grammy in 1978.
13. 1978-09 - Chic - Le Freak. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards wrote Le Freak after being turned away from Studio 54, it became a monster hit.
14. 1978-09 - Donna Summer - Live and More. Donna Summer's 1978 double live album made her the first woman with a number-one live LP.
15. 1978-10 - Donna Summer - MacArthur Park. The Queen of Disco topped the charts in 1978 with a soaring disco reinvention of MacArthur Park.
16. 1978-10 - Village People - Y.M.C.A.. The Village People turned camp into a global phenomenon with Y.M.C.A. and its arm-waving chorus.
17. 1978-10 - Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive. Gloria Gaynor's 1978 anthem of defiance became disco's most enduring song.
18. 1978-11 - Cheryl Lynn - Got to Be Real. Cheryl Lynn's Got to Be Real became one of disco's most sampled and beloved records.
19. 1978-11 - Earth, Wind & Fire - September. Earth, Wind & Fire's September is one of the most joyful and enduring songs of the disco years.
20. 1978-12 - The Jacksons - Blame It on the Boogie. The Jacksons' 1978 dancefloor smash showed the family fully in the disco era.
21. 1979 - Amii Stewart - Knock on Wood. Amii Stewart's electrifying disco reinvention of Knock on Wood topped the charts in 1979.
22. 1979-01-19 - Sister Sledge - We Are Family. Written and produced by Chic, We Are Family became a universal anthem.
23. 1979-03 - McFadden & Whitehead - Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now. A defiant Philadelphia anthem of pride and momentum from 1979.
24. 1979-04 - Donna Summer - Bad Girls. Donna Summer's 1979 Bad Girls made her the undisputed Queen of Disco.
25. 1979-05 - Anita Ward - Ring My Bell. Anita Ward's Ring My Bell, with its synth-drum sound, was a number one in 1979.
26. 1979-06 - Chic - Good Times. Chic's Good Times gave disco one of its greatest basslines, and hip-hop its first sample.
27. 1979-06 - Sister Sledge - Lost in Music. Another Chic-written Sister Sledge classic beloved on dancefloors for decades.
28. 1979-08 - Michael Jackson - Off the Wall. Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson turned disco into art on Off the Wall in 1979.
29. 1980-06 - Diana Ross - Upside Down. Chic-produced, Upside Down gave Diana Ross a number one and disco a late peak in 1980.
30. 2023-05-19 - The Trammps sing Disco Inferno again. The Trammps performed 'Disco Inferno' on Rai's 'I migliori anni' in May 2023. The 1977 record that Saturday Night Fever carried around the world is still being sung by the group that made it.
31. 2023-10-26 - Chic at the Tiny Desk. NPR's Tiny Desk hosted Nile Rodgers and Chic in October 2023. Stripped of the arena staging, the session puts Rodgers's rhythm guitar figure, the sound the archive traces from 1977 onward, in the foreground.
32. 2024-06-29 - Chic at Concert at Sea. Nile Rodgers and Chic played the Dutch festival Concert at Sea in June 2024. The short set ran 'Lost in Music' and 'Good Times' alongside the Daft Punk track Rodgers played on, the two halves of his career in one sequence.
33. 2025-06-30 - Le Freak at Glastonbury. BBC Music's footage of Nile Rodgers and Chic performing 'Le Freak' at Glastonbury in June 2025. Festival stages have become the main place a mass audience now hears the Chic catalogue played live.
34. 2026-07-01 - Chic at the Zenith de Paris. Nile Rodgers and Chic played the Zenith de Paris on 30 June 2026. The set moved through the records Rodgers wrote and produced for Diana Ross, Madonna and David Bowie, with Sheila joining on stage for 'Spacer'.
35. 2026-07-14 - Chic at North Sea Jazz. Nile Rodgers, at seventy-three, led Chic through a full set at North Sea Jazz in Rotterdam in July 2026. The band around him, horns, two keyboards, three vocalists, is still built to the shape of the 1970s records.