Carl Douglas - "Kung Fu Fighting" (1974)

"Kung Fu Fighting" is a disco song written by Carl Douglas, published by Edition Carren / SMV Schacht Musikverlage GmbH & Co. KG and produced by Biddu. It was released as a single in 1974, at the cusp of a chopsocky film craze, and eventually rose to the top of the British and American charts, in addition to reaching number one on the Soul Singles chart. It received a Gold certification from the RIAA in 1974, won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Selling Single, and popularized disco music. It eventually went on to sell eleven million records worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. The song uses the quintessential Oriental riff, a short musical phrase that is used to signify Chinese culture. Kung Fu Fighting was rated number 100 in VH1's 100 Greatest one-hit wonders, and number 1 in the UK Channel 4's Top 10 One Hit Wonders list in 2000, the same channel's 50 Greatest One Hit Wonders poll in 2006 and Bring Back ... the one-hit Wonders, for which Carl Douglas performed the song in a live concert.

Rod Stewart - "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" (1978)

"Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" is a 1978 hit song for Rod Stewart. It was written by Stewart and Carmine Appice, and produced by Tom Dowd. "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" spent one week at the top of the British charts in December 1978 and four weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, starting 10 February 1979. It also topped the charts in Australia for two weeks. Royalties from the song were donated to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Stewart performed the song at the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly in January 1979. The song was criticized by many in the rock press as a betrayal of Stewart's blues-oriented rock roots due to its disco-like arrangement, but Stewart and others were quick to point out that other widely respected artists, such as Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones, had also released disco-flavoured songs. It was also alleged that Stewart created the song through partial musical plagiarism. Carmine Appice, who played drums on this song told Songfacts: "This was a story of a guy meeting a chick in a club. At that time, that was a cool saying. If you listen to the lyrics, 'She sits alone, waiting for suggestions, he's so nervous...' it's the feelings of what was going on in a dance club. The guy sees a chick he digs, she's nervous and he's nervous and she's alone and doesn't know what's going on, then they end up at his place having sex, and then she's gone." In 2004 Rolling Stone ranked the song #301 on their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Paul McCartney and Wings - "Goodnight Tonight" (1979)

I heard this while at the 24-Hour Fitness gym in SOHO New York yesterday (September 6, 2011) and recalled how much I liked it.


"Goodnight Tonight" is Wings' disco-inflected single which included a spirited flamenco guitar break. It peaked at number five in both the United Kingdom and United States during 1979. The track did not appear on Wings' then-current LP Back to the Egg (from which sessions this song was recorded), and was finally released on an album as a bonus track on the 1993 reissue of McCartney II. The B-side of this single was "Daytime Nighttime Suffering". An extended version of the song appears on a digital iTunes re-issue of Back to the Egg.


"Goodnight Tonight" began as an instrumental backing track McCartney had recorded in 1978. Needing a single for Wings to accompany the Back to the Egg album, McCartney took out the track and brought it into the studio, where the full Wings line-up completed it. Since the track was over seven minutes long, an edited version was used as the single, with the full version available as a 12-inch single. A music video was made for the song, showing Wings performing in 1930s costumes; stills from the video were used on the single's sleeve. In the US, the single was the first released under McCartney's new deal with Columbia Records. In the UK, it was McCartney's first post-Beatle release on Parlophone.

Abba - "Dancing Queen" (1976)

"Dancing Queen" is a pop song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released in August 1976, but was first performed two months earlier, on 18 June 1976, during a Royal Variety Show in Stockholm the evening before the Swedish royal wedding. It was the follow-up single to the hit "Fernando" and is commonly regarded as one of the most successful singles of the 1970s. "Dancing Queen" was written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Stig Anderson and is considered by many to be ABBA's signature song, as it reached the number 1 position on popular music charts in 13 countries. Recorded in 1975, it was released on the group's album Arrival the following year and as a single with "That's Me" as the B-side.


The song was re-released as a single in 1992 to promote the compilation "ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits".


In 2009, the British performing rights group Phonographic Performance Limited celebrated its 75th anniversary by listing the 75 songs that have played most in Great Britain on the radio, in clubs and on jukeboxes. "Dancing Queen" was number eight on the list.


"Dancing Queen" features the shared lead vocal performance of Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Dancing Queen" was a massive hit. It became ABBA's only #1 in the United States in April 1977. It also hit #1 in at least 13 other countries worldwide: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, West Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and Rhodesia. "Dancing Queen" also reached the Top 5 in Austria, Canada, Finland, France and Switzerland. The track peaked at #14 in Italy, where ABBA never achieved the same degree of popularity as elsewhere. The song sold over three million copies.


"Dancing Queen" was the last of three consecutive #1s the band had in the UK in 1976, following "Mamma Mia" and "Fernando" earlier in the year.


On December 5, 2010, Britain's ITV broadcast the results of a poll to determine The Nation's Favourite ABBA Song, in which "Dancing Queen" placed at #2.   The song is featured in the video clip above from the Australian classic film "Muriel's Wedding".

The Moog Machine - Aquarius (1969) & The Avalanches - Close to You (2000)

This song has been sampled in so many electronic songs, the original must be paid tribute! From 1969, this marks the beginning of electronic music.

The Moog is actually a synthesizer dating back to 1967, and as you can imagine, is the instrument of choice for The Moog Machine.

The Avalanches, a somewhat one-hit-album group, created an entire set from old samples. They sampled The Moog Machine better than any song by far in my opinion. You can hear Aquarius sampled in their 2000 composition Close to You: