Village People

Surge Tracks

• YMCA

Played By

Artist Biography

Village People were a novelty disco band of the late 1970s. The group were as well known for their outrageous on-stage costumes (the members dressing up as a police officer, an American Indian chief, a construction worker, a soldier, a leatherman (biker) and a cowboy) as for their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics.

The band was assembled in 1977 and managed by two French musicians, Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, specifically to showcase and perform their disco music creations. Much like Frank Farian's Boney M or Spice Girls, the group was manufactured. Despite the French song writers, the songs were all in English.

The band's name references a well-known gay area of New York City, Greenwich Village. Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo got the inspiration for creating an assembly of American man archetypes based on the gay men of the Village who frequently dressed in various fantasy ways. The police officer character is said to have been inspired by an actual Sacramento County (California) Sheriff's Deputy - David Orth.

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Artist Discography

Albums

Cruisin' (1978)
Fire Island (1995)
Go West
Macho Man (1978)
Platinium
Platinium 80 (2002)
Renaissance (1981)
San Francisco / Macho Man (9 December 1997)
Sex Over the Phone (1985)
Village People (1977)

Singles

In the Navy (1979)
Y.M.C.A. (1990)

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