Many dance hits walk the line between sensual and overtly provocative, especially disco songs. Here are a few disco hits that you probably know and love today. However, you might be surprised to learn that these were quite controversial back in their day.
“Y.M.C.A.” by Village People
This song was problematic, but maybe not for the reasons you might suspect. Many have hailed “Y.M.C.A.” as a gay anthem, including President Donald Trump, who once said, “They call it the gay national anthem. ‘Y.M.C.A.’ gets people up and it gets them moving,” in reference to the song. But when the news of the song reached the real-life “YMCA,” people weren’t exactly thrilled. The organization was ready to sue for copyright infringement since their name had been used without permission. However, the YMCA decided to let it go. After all, the funky disco track wasn’t exactly bad business for them.
“Love To Love You, Baby” by Donna Summer
If Donna Summer is the quintessential “bad girl” of disco music, then “Love To Love You Baby” is her magnum opus. If you’ve heard this song, then you know that it’s basically just Summer making love to a microphone. It’s also almost 17 minutes long. Not only was this one of the first disco songs released in extended form, but “Love To Love You Baby” was super controversial. In fact, in 1979, Summer stopped performing it. Apparently, riots broke out in certain countries whenever she did, according to an interview she did with The Telegraph.
“Lady Marmalade” by Labelle
While some songs hint at sex, “Lady Marmalade” gets right to the point. The song contains the lyric, “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?” which translates to, “Do you want to come to bed with me tonight?” The song’s outright provocativeness led to backlash from several groups, including a group of nuns. Ironically, though, the group members of Labelle didn’t even know that this song was about sex work when they recorded it.
“I didn’t know what it was about,” Patti Labelle even told Jet Magazine. “I don’t know French, and nobody, I swear this is God’s truth, nobody at all told me what I’d just sung a song about.”
Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images
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