365 DAYS PROJECT

2007   AUGUST 27   #239

D.C. And Company - Let's Dance The Night Away

MP3:
01 Let's Dance the Night Away (2:45)
02 I Just Can't Say Goodbye (4:22)
03 Bump To The Funk (2:23)
04 Dreams Of You (3:12)
05 Lovely Lady (2:33)
06 I Don't Want To Hurt You (4:02)
07 This Is My Song (2:40)
08 Tell Me (2:20)
09 One More Day (1:34)
10 It Makes You Want To Cry (3:36)
11 Party (3:02)
12 Who's To Blame (3:43)

Released in 1977, "Let's Dance The Night Away" has to be the most unfortunate disco miscalculation in my collection (and I've got a lot of 'em). The cover depicts four seriously caucasian dudes dressed up in what they've mistaken for disco threads (actually, they're Las Vegas Elvis suits), but they look like they'd be much more at home in a west-Phoenix steakhouse than in a dance club. From all indications, D.C. And Company were an average bar band struggling to find work at the height of the disco craze. So they nailed together a couple of lame grooves with titles like "Party" and "Bump To The Funk," and shoehorned them into their otherwise dance-floor-unfriendly repertoire.

Like most self-released "vanity" recordings of this type, the sound is cheap and thin. The terrible production makes the band sound anything but muscular, and in no way inviting of dancing for even a minute, let alone the whole night. Most of the songs here are interminably slow "confessional" ballads, with titles like "I Don't Want To Hurt You," "Who's To Blame" and "It Makes You Want To Cry." the songs seem to be attempting some sort of personal unburdening, but all they really do is make you want to grab the singer by the collar and yell, "dude, she's NOT going home with you!" And when they trot out their "disco" material…well, you just gotta hear it for yourself.

- Contributed by: Derrick Bostrom

Images: Front Cover, Back Cover

Media: 12" LP
Album: Let's Dance the Night Away
Label: Shining Sunset
Catalog: (none discernible)
Credits: (see back cover scan)
Date: 1977

 

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