I have a confession. I’m a sucker for 1970s dance music, specifically disco and funk and all their branches. If I had the opportunity to go back in time for a day, I think I would quite possibly choose to visit a dance club like Club 54 in the 1970s for a night of boogieing. My husband Perry cannot get his head around this and thinks I’m crazy. I can’t help it…I LOVE DISCO AND I’M NOT AFRAID TO ADMIT IT! The beats, the rhythms, the bass lines,  the falsetto, the dance routines and dance moves, the awesome hair and clothes that go along with it and most importantly the urge the music gives me to get up and shake what my momma gave me. Basically, just the pure cheesiness of it is enough to make my day.  I just can’t get enough of it. Here are some of my must-haves for the ultimate 1970s dance music playlist…perfect for an afro wig, bell-bottom, platform shoe wearing, groovy night out.

(Click on the song link to be directed to a YouTube video of the song....worth watching just to see the amazing dancing and outfits! Wow things sure have changed since then!)

1. Earth, Wind and Fire - "Boogie Wonderland"
This isn’t because it was featured in Happy Feet (I have an obsession with penguins). I’ve loved this song (and most songs by Earth, Wind and Fire) for as long as I can remember. The penguins just enhanced the lovability factor of it. In fact, I love Earth, Wind and Fire so much that they get two songs on this playlist!

2. Earth, Wind and Fire - "Let's Groove"
CLASSIC! And I love the falsetto....and the video! So cheesy, so awesome, so LOVE LOVE LOVE!

3. Curtis Mayfield - "Move on Up"
I love the popular instrumental riff from this song… you know the one I’m talking about…the one that seems to be heavily sampled nowadays

4. The Commodores - "Brick House"
Great bass line! And perhaps even greater afros!

5. The Gap Band - “I Don’t Believe You Want to Get Up and Dance (Oops Upside Your Head)”
So this song was quite huge and there is even some sort of dance that goes along with it. I had no idea until I attended my mum-in-law’s 50th birthday party and her and her sisters started dancing it. As much as I like this song, I can only handle a little bit of it as it just repeats…and repeats…and repeats…and….

 6. Michael Jackson – "Off The Wall"
Love love love love the bass line

7. Michael Jackson – "Get on the Floor"
Another fantastic bass line

8. Rick James - "Give it to Me"
Just LOOK at that hair!

9. Chic – "Everybody Dance"
Love the bass line, the melody, the voices, and the way it makes me want to get up and DANCE!

10. Tavares - "Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel"
These guys have got.the.moves! The cheesiness is just hypnotizing.

11. Boney M - "Daddy Cool"
Perry: What the HECK is that?
Me: It's amazing is what it is!
Just check it out for yourselves. A-MA-ZING. I wish dance floors had these kinds of moves and energy still...and not just when I'm on them.

12. James Brown – "Get Up Offa That Thing"
Ever since I heard this song for the first time on the movie Harriet the Spy when I was younger, it has made me want to get up offa that thing and dance dance dance. I love the horns in this and the energy!

13. The Miracles - "Love Machine"
…..na na na na na na na na na na woo hoo hoo…

14. The Spinners – "Working My Way Back To You"

15. Chic - "Good Times"

16 . A Taste of Honey- "Boogie Oogie Oogie"
The bass line just does it for me and I love that it is played by women. Girl Power!

17. Kool And The Gang – “Get Down On It”
Love the rhythm!

18. The O’Jay’s- Love Train

19. Diana Ross – "I’m Coming Out"
The beats and rhythms of this one just make me LOCAAAAA.

20. Bee Gees - "More Than A Woman"
Oh boy that falsetto just does it for me

21. Bee Gees – "Night Fever"
Absolute classic. It screams DISCO!

22. Bee Gees - "Stayin' Alive"
Because no disco playlist is complete without at least 3 Bee Gees hits on it!

23. Stacy Lattisaw – "Jump to the Beat"
….cause it…well…makes me want to jump to the beat :-)

24. Anita Ward – "Ring My Bell"
So so so funky.

25. Heatwave- “Boogie Nights”
Another great bass line...and some great outfits in the video!

26. The Four Season – "December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)"
LOVE LOVE LOVE this one! Perry and I used to borrow one of his mom’s disco compilations when we would go on road trips and this was always the first track to come on. Great tune and one of my favorites on this list.

This list could go on for ages and does not include some of the obvious such as “YMCA” and “Disco Inferno” and so on but those aren’t on my personal list of top 1970s disco/funk/dance songs…of which there are A LOT. Even as I attempt to conclude this list, I keep thinking of ones I haven’t added and need to be on the list BUT I must stop. So this is my list for now but I am sure I will continue to add to it as more songs come to me. I know some of the songs were released after the 1970s but they are still heavily influenced by funk or disco so I have included them.

Perry's thoughts on this list: "I think you just love disco because of the bass lines". I am a bass player after all so maybe this is the reason. But whatever the reason, it is still one of my favorite eras and I am not ashamed to admit it. I would love to play in a high energy 1970s music group one day. Hope this brings some of you back to the good ‘ol days! Wish I knew what those good 'ol days were like! Come on time machine!!!

What are some of your favorite 1970s disco/funk/dance songs?!

The 90s are very nostalgic for me, as they are for many people. For me, it was the decade that I moved to Canada from Greece, learned English, started going to school, started to get into music and started to understand things (or think that I was anyways). Some memories from this decade have faded, as they do, but there are always certain songs that come on that bring me back to the 90s and the aforementioned memories in addition to others.

Of course the following songs/artists/albums did not reach every corner of the globe and may not be nostalgic to some, but hopefully the following lists will help add to your playlist if you are having a 90s party…or if you just want to be brought back to the 1990s  and to fanny packs, flannel checkered shirts, tearaway pants (or trousers for those in the UK), Screech and the rest of the Saved by the Bell cast, Macaulay Culkin, McDonald’s pizza (yeah whatever happened to that?!), WWF wrestling, the Macarena, nanos and tamagotchis, pogs, Dr. Martens, slap bracelets and other pop culture of this era.

These albums are ones that I remember EVERYBODY having! Do you agree?:
Green Day- Dookie
Alanis Morrisette – Jagged Little Pill
No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom
Nirvana- Nevermind

In addition, these are ones that I also recall being heavily played on my DISCMAN (remember those?!):
Offspring – Smash
Silverchair – Frogstomp
Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Siamese Dream

And then there are the following songs that just SCREAM the 90s…many of them (but not all) were one hit wonders…these are the ones that make me go “OH YEAH! I REMEMBER THAT SONG! I TOTALLY FORGOT IT EVEN EXISTED”…Click on some links, I bet you will have that same reaction to some!:
Blur – “Girls and Boys”
Enigma – “Return to Innocence” (I was obsessed with this one…in fact, I remember doing interpretive dance to it in the house….how embarrassing!)
Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “The Impression That I Get” (wow this one brings me way back!)
Ace of Base – “The Sign” , “All That She Wants”, and tons of others
No Mercy – “Where Do You Go”
Baz Luhrmann – “Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen)”
Fool’s Garden – “Lemon Tree”
Blackstreet – “No Diggity”
C+C Music Factory – “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”
Chumbawamba – “Tubthumping” (wow ! believe it or not, I spelled both the artist and song title correctly, without googling!)
Shaggy – “Oh Carolina”
Soundgarden – “Black Hole Sun” (I remember despising this music video)
Eagle Eye Cherry – “Save Tonight”
Lit – “My Own Worst Enemy”
L.F.O – “Summer Girls”
Blind Melon – “No Rain”
Bone Thugs N Harmony – “Crossroads”
3T – “Anything”

Then you had your typical boybands and girlbands: Nsync, Backstreet Boys, Hanson, The Moffatts (which were my favourite, along with Hanson- hey at least they played their own instruments and wrote their own songs), Spice Girls, Take That, East 17, Five…

Then you’ve got a variety of others that had multiple songs on the airwaves like Oasis, Ma$e, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, R.E.M, T.L.C, L.F.O, (any other initials I am missing?), The Cranberries, Brandy (Moesha!), Radiohead, The Fugees, Beastie Boys, Daft Punk, The Prodigy, Blink 182, Foo Fighters, Britney Spears, Weezer, Eminem, Fatboy Slim, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth, Barenaked Ladies, Natalie Imbruglia, Savage Garden, Weird Al, Sublime, Sugar Ray  etc…the list really does go on…

It is quite scary how the time flies! Some great music and artists to come out of this decade, and great to see that some are still going…..at the same time, not so great to see others haven’t quit yet…

These lists are by no means complete. It’s impossible to sum up a whole decade of music. Even as I write this now, I can think of songs, albums, and artists that are definitive of 90s music that I have not included. This is just to get your nostalgia flowing…

Are there any songs, albums or artists that SCREAM 1990s for you and that you would add to your playlist(s)?