| "Disco Clone" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Cristina | ||||
| Released | 1978 | |||
| Recorded | May–June 1978 | |||
| Studio | Blank Tape Studios | |||
| Genre | Disco | |||
| Length | 4:07 | |||
| Label | ZE | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Ronald Melrose | |||
| Producer(s) | John Cale | |||
| Cristina singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Disco Clone" is a song by American singer Cristina and written by Ronald Melrose. It was released as a single on ZE Records in 1978.
"Disco Clone" was written by Ronald Melrose, a classmate of Cristina's from Harvard University. [1] Her boyfriend Michael Zilkha wanted to take advantage of the disco boom and record the song. [2] She called it "the worst song I have ever heard" and decided to perform it as a "Brechtian pastiche". [3]
Tony de Portago, a friend of Cristina's, was the first to record the male vocals for "Disco Clone", but his were thrown out as sounding "too foreign" and "insufficiently jaded". Anthony Haden-Guest recorded the part in both English and French, which appear on song's first release. Kevin Kline, a little known actor at the time, appears on the re-release. [4] [5] Tom Moulton was approached to mix the track, but he did not want to be involved with something that mocked disco. Island Records founder Chris Blackwell mixed it instead. [6]
The song's writer, Ronald Melrose, later became an arranger and musical director on Broadway shows, including Jersey Boys . [7] [8]
"Disco Clone" uses a common disco rhythm, with a four-on-the-floor bass drum pattern and prominent hi-hat. It features a large string section, with 24 violinists double tracked. [6] The song's lyrics poke fun at the idea of men wanting to hook up with attractive women who look alike. [9]
The original version of "Disco Clone" had a limited release of 1,500 twelve-inch singles, the first release by Zilkha's fledgling label ZE Records. [10] It received a re-release shortly after. The re-release includes a remix that was later retitled "The Ballad of Immoral Manufacture", in reference to "The Ballad of Immoral Earnings" from Brecht's The Threepenny Opera . [11] The single was not commercially successful. [12]
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars.
Daniel Earl Hartman was an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter and original frontman for several bands, including The Soploids, Mak and the Turnarounds, Our Wringer, Last Wing, and Orion. Among songs he wrote and recorded were "Free Ride" as a member of the Edgar Winter Group, and the solo hits "Relight My Fire", "Instant Replay", "I Can Dream About You", "We Are the Young" and "Second Nature". "I Can Dream About You", his most successful song, reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984 and No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart in 1985. The James Brown song "Living in America", which Hartman co-wrote and produced, reached No. 4 on March 1, 1986.
Recent Songs is the sixth studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1979. Produced by Cohen alongside Henry Lewy, it was a return to his normal acoustic folk music sound after the Phil Spector-driven experimentation of Death of a Ladies' Man, but now with many jazz and Oriental influences.
Cristina Monet Zilkha, known during her recording career simply as Cristina, was an American singer and writer, best known for her no wave recordings made for ZE Records in the late 1970s and early 1980s in New York City. She "was a pioneer in blending the artsiness and attitude of punk with the joyful energy of disco and pop.... [which] helped pave the way for the massive successes of her contemporaries, like Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, and anticipated the rise of confrontational but danceable alt-pop acts..." in a mode that was at once "campy, self-aware, and infectious."
Baccara was a Spanish female vocal duo formed in 1977 by Spanish artists Mayte Mateos and María Mendiola. The duo rapidly achieved international success with their debut single "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie", which reached number one across much of Europe and became the best-selling single of all time by a female group, eventually selling more than 16 million copies worldwide. A successful follow-up single and European tour led to a number of album releases, numerous television appearances and the duo's selection to represent Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978.
Martine-Elisabeth Mercier Descloux was a French musician, singer-songwriter, composer, actress, writer and painter.
Suicide: Alan Vega and Martin Rev is the second studio album by the American band Suicide. It was produced by Ric Ocasek of The Cars for Ze Records in 1980. Recorded in January 1980, Ocasek gave keyboardist Martin Rev new equipment to perform on while Alan Vega distanced himself from the music to concentrate on the vocals. Michael Zilkha of Ze pushed to give the album a more dance music oriented sound, hoping that disco musician Giorgio Moroder would produce it.
Go for Your Guns is the fifteenth album by the Isley Brothers. Released on April 16, 1977, on their T-Neck label, it was also the band's fifth album to be distributed by their deal with Epic. Released in mid-April 1977, the album peaked a month later at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Soul chart, and at No. 6 on the Billboard 200.
"Everybody" is a song co-written and recorded by Australian country music artist Keith Urban. It was released in September 2007 as the fourth and final single from his 2006 album Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing. The song peaked at number 5 on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in early 2008. Urban wrote this song with Richard Marx.
Off White is a 1979 album by American no wave band James White and the Blacks.
Anthony Haden-Guest is a British-American writer, reporter, cartoonist, art critic, poet, and socialite who lives in New York City and London. He is a frequent contributor to major magazines and has had several books published.
Ronald Bruce Rogers , better known as Ron Rogers or Ronnie Rogers, is a songwriter, composer, recording artist and record producer from New York City. His career spanned from the late 1970s until the 1990s.
Marie et les Garçons were a French new wave band formed in Lyon in 1976. After Marie Girard left, the remaining members continued as Garçons.
A Christmas Record is an LP originally released in 1981 by ZE Records. It was recorded by various musicians from that label's roster, including Was, August Darnell, Material, Suicide, Cristina, and The Waitresses, all performing original seasonal songs. The album was reissued in 1982, as a "Special Edition", with a revised track listing. In 2004, a further revised version was issued on CD, as ZE Xmas Record Reloaded 2004. The 2004 version was remastered and re-released again in 2016 under its original title and artwork, with one of the 1982 "Special Edition" songs restored.
ZE Records was originally a New York–based record label, started in 1978 by Michael Zilkha and Michel Esteban. It was reestablished by Esteban in 2003.
"To Be a Lover" is a song written by William Bell and Booker T. Jones originally as "I Forgot to Be Your Lover", but best known as a cover by Billy Idol on his third studio album Whiplash Smile (1986). As the album's lead single, it became Idol's second top ten hit in the US, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 22 on the UK Singles Chart.
Sleep It Off is the second album from no wave pop singer Cristina.
A + No Poder is the fourteenth studio album by Mexican recording artist Alejandra Guzmán. It was released on September 11, 2015, by Sony Music Latin. After the success of her previous live album, Primera Fila (2013) and its promotional tour, Guzmán recorded the album with original songs, composed and produced by her and Argentinian musician José Luis Pagán.
Born to Touch Your Feelings: Best of Rock Ballads is a compilation album by German rock band Scorpions. It includes the most popular Scorpions ballads, with a brand new acoustic studio version of the song "Send Me an Angel", a new full band studio version of the song "Follow Your Heart" and two brand new songs "Melrose Avenue" and "Always Be with You" that were written specifically for this compilation.
"Real Groove" is a song by Australian singer Kylie Minogue from her fifteenth studio album, Disco (2020). The song was written by Minogue, Teemu Brunila, Nico Stadi and Alida Garpestad Peck, with a sense of optimism for days ahead during the COVID-19 pandemic. Brunila and Stadi also handled the production. It is a disco-pop song with house and R&B elements and features vocoders, a funk bass and post-disco synths. The lyrics see Minogue attempting to win an ex back. A new version, a duet with English-Albanian singer Dua Lipa entitled "Studio 2054 remix", was released on 31 December 2020 as the album's third single. The remix added William Bowerman as a producer with additional instrumentation and Lipa incorporating layered vocals and new lyrics.
