Disco might have had a brief reign in the 60s and 70s, but boy, did it seem like fun. Here are a few of the best first No. 1 hits from this period and genre of music.
“Le Freak” by Chic
This disco hit was released in 1978. It was written by musicians Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, who formed the group Chic in 1972.
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Originally, Chic’s record label wasn’t a big fan of the song. “Le Freak” would end up proving them wrong, though. The song took the No. 1 spot not one, not two, but three times after it was released.
“By the time the song ended, after about seven and a half minutes, we’d cleared the conference room,” Rogers shared with Big Issue. “We were just sitting there by ourselves – myself, Bernard Edwards and our attorney. Everybody else was outside trying to figure out how to tell us how much the song sucked, and wondering did we have anything else on the album that was better.”
“I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor
Few disco songs shine quite like “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor. Dino Fekaris wrote this track with Freddie Perren after he lost his position as a staff writer at Motown Records. In 1979, this song spent three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also won Best Disco Recording at the Grammys in 1980.
“Y.M.C.A” by Village People
You might not think of “Y.M.C.A” as a disco hit, but this jam was an international dance sensation back in the day. In the 70s, this song went No. 1 on several charts outside the U.S., where it peaked at No. 2.
Ironically, this song did not go No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart until 46 years later. “Y.M.C.A.” did manage to top the charts in 2024. Even though Village People frontman Victor Willis rejects the notion that “Y.M.C.A” is an overtly sexual song, he did want to make it a song that people of different sexual orientations could see themselves in.
“That was something that I credited myself on is writing my songs with what is called a double entendre,” he told Billboard. “I would write a song to where you can take it any kind of way you wanted it. If you’re straight, you can take the lyrics for somebody straight or if you were gay, you could take it for somebody gay.”
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