| Village People | |
|---|---|
from left: Randy Jones, Glenn Hughes, Felipe Rose, Victor Willis, David "Scar" Hodo, Alex Briley in 1978 |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | New York City, United States |
| Genres | Disco |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Labels | Casablanca Records Black Scorpio RCA Polygram |
| Website | www.OfficialVillagePeople.com |
| Members | |
| Felipe Rose Alex Briley David "Scar" Hodo G. Jeff Olson Eric Anzalone Ray Simpson |
|
| Past members | |
| Victor Willis Randy Jones Glenn Hughes Ray Stephens Mark Lee Miles Jaye Davis Py Douglas Bill Whitefield Alex Timmerman Angel Morales |
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Village People is a concept disco group that formed in the United States in 1977, well known for their on-stage costumes depicting American cultural stereotypes, as well as their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics.
Originally created to target disco's gay audience by featuring popular gay fantasy personas,[1] the band's popularity quickly brought them into mainstream. Village People scored a number of disco and dance hits, including their trademark "Macho Man", "Go West", the classic club medley of "San Francisco (You've Got Me) / In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star)", "In the Navy", "Can't Stop the Music", and their biggest hit, "Y.M.C.A.".
They have sold upwards of 100 million records world-wide.[2]
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The group was the creation of Jacques Morali, a French musical composer. He had written a few dance tunes when he was given a demo tape recorded by singer/actor Victor Willis. Morali approached Willis and told him, "I had a dream that you sang lead on my album and it went very, very big". Willis agreed to sing on the first album, Village People.[3]
It was a success, and demand for live appearances soon followed. Morali and his business partner, Henri Belolo (under the collaboration Can't Stop Productions) hastily built a group of dancers around Willis to perform in clubs and on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. As Village People's popularity grew, Morali, Belolo and Willis saw the need for a permanent "group." They took out an ad in a music trade magazine which read: "Macho Types Wanted: Must Dance And Have A Moustache."[3]
Morali met the first recruit, Felipe Rose (Native American), on the streets of Greenwich Village. Rose was a bartender who wore jingle bells on his boots. He was invited to take part in the sessions for the first album. Alex Briley (who started as an athlete, but eventually took on the soldier persona) was Willis' friend. The others, Mark Mussler (construction worker), Dave Forrest (cowboy), Lee Mouton (leatherman) and Peter Whitehead (one of the group's early songwriters) appeared on American Bandstand and in the video for the group's first hit, "San Francisco (You Got Me)". They were later replaced by David Hodo, Randy Jones and Glenn Hughes, who all had more experience as actors/singers/dancers. Hughes had first been spotted as a toll collector at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.
Because Morali could not speak English, songwriters Phil Hurtt and Peter Whitehead were brought in to write the lyrics for the first album. However, Willis wrote the lyrics to the group's biggest hits, including "Y.M.C.A.", "Macho Man," "Go West" and "In the Navy," and for other Can't Stop Productions acts such as Ritchie Family and Patrick Juvet).[4] Likewise, Gypsy Lane (the Village People band) and their conductor, Horace Ott, provided much of the musical arrangements for Morali, who did not play any instruments.[5]
The band's name refers to New York City's Greenwich Village, at the time known for its large gay population.[6] Morali and Belolo decided to create a group of stereotypes based on the gay men of Greenwich Village, who often dressed in fantasy attire.
"Macho Man" brought them mainstream attention, and their 1978 recording "Y.M.C.A." became one of the most popular hits of the 1970s.
In 1979, the United States Navy decided to use "In the Navy" in a television and radio recruiting campaign. Belolo offered them the rights for free if the Navy would help them film the music video. The Navy provided them access to the San Diego Navy base, where the (USS Reasoner (FF-1063)), several aircraft, and the crew of the ship would be used. The Navy canceled the campaign after a short time.[7]
The group's fame peaked in 1979, when Village People made several appearances on The Merv Griffin Show and traveled with Bob Hope to entertain U.S. troops. They were also featured on the cover of Rolling Stone, Vol. 289, April 19, 1979. Willis left the group at the end of an international tour in 1979, and a decline in popularity followed.
Ray Simpson, brother of Valerie Simpson (of Ashford & Simpson), replaced Willis for the group's highly anticipated 1980 feature film Can't Stop the Music, directed by Nancy Walker, written by Allan Carr and Bronte Woodard, music and lyrics by Jacques Morali (although Willis penned the lyrics to Milkshake and Magic Night) and starring Steve Guttenberg, Valerie Perrine, Jean-Claude Billmaer, Bruce Jenner, and Village People. By the time it was released, however, disco had waned and the movie won the Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay prizes at the 1980 Golden Raspberry Awards in March 1981 and was nominated in almost all the other categories. Despite that, the song Can't Stop the Music became a Club Play chart hit and moderate radio hit. However, it too (Can't Stop the Music, the song) was nominated for Worst Original Song by the 1981 Razzies, and flopped by Village People standard in that it never obtained gold status as a single or album.[8] The soundtrack also featured the talents of "David London", who under his real name Dennis "Fergie" Frederiksen went on to become the future lead singer of Toto and one of the main contributors to the Village People's next album. The movie itself has since become a cult favorite, developing a worldwide fan base.
The group was one of the featured guests on a November 22, 1980 episode of Love Boat, (7th episode of season 4), entitled "Secretary to the Stars/Julie's Decision/The Horse Lover/Gopher and Isaac Buy a Horse". At the end of 1980, cowboy Randy Jones left the group and was replaced by Jeff Olson.
In 1981, with the popularity of disco having faded and New Wave music on the rise, Village People replaced its on-stage costumes with a new look inspired by the New Romantic movement, and released the New Wave album Renaissance. It only attracted minor, mostly negative attention and produced no hits.
Victor Willis returned to the group briefly in late 1981 for the album Fox on the Box, which was released in 1982 only in Europe but did have limited release in the United States in 1983 under the title In the Street. Miles Jaye had briefly taken over for Ray Simpson as lead singer by 1983 and contributed an extra track to In the Street. Mark Lee replaced David Hodo in 1982.
Their last album containing new material, the 1985 dance/Hi-NRG release Sex Over the Phone, was not a huge commercial success, but it fared better in sales and club play than their Renaissance album. In recent years, "Sex Over the Phone" has become a cult classic. Recently, an Associated Press declared "Sex Over the Phone" to be the "'Citizen Kane' of music videos." The Sex album featured yet another new lead singer, Ray Stephens. Py Douglas came in to sub for Stephens for some of the group's live appearances in 1985.
In 1985, the group took a hiatus but reunited in 1987 with the line-up of Randy Jones, David Hodo, Felipe Rose, Glenn Hughes, Alex Briley and Ray Simpson.
Since 1988 the group has managed itself under the name Sixuvus Ltd.. [9]
Due to their easily recognizable characters, the group have frequently been imitated or parodied in films, television series, video games and music. Numerous covers and homages of their songs have been recorded. The stereotypical masculine characters, particularly the leather-clad biker character with a horseshoe moustache, have also become a widespread pop culture icons associated with male gay culture and YMCA has become something of an anthem of the LGBT community.
The song "In the Navy" was featured in an episode of The Muppet Show.
In the film Wayne's World 2, Wayne and his friends disguise themselves as members of the Village People in order to spy on Wayne's girlfriend; Wayne dresses as a construction worker, Garth as a cop, Neil as a leather-clad biker and Terry as a sailor. They are then chased into a men's club where they are mistaken for the real Village People.
A 1993 episode of Married with Children had Peg disguising herself as the Indian, along with Kelly as the sailor, Bud as the construction worker and Jefferson as the biker in order to appease angry Halloween party guests of Marcy's, and a joke being they could only lip synch to one song, YMCA, as that was the sole Village People album Marcy owned. When the real Village People appear at the party, they start their concert with YMCA, causing the enraged women who were sick of the song to pelt them with toilet paper.
In 1995, a parody of the Village People was seen on the CGI show ReBoot with the group the Small Town Binomes singing "BSnP", a parody of "Y.M.C.A." They were seen in the ReBoot episode "Talent Night" and each individual was modeled after a singer from the Village People using the show's common Binome characters. Their song "BSnP" was a jab at ABC network's Broadcast Standards and Practices organization, which frequently edited content from the show which they deemed not suitable for its younger viewers (lyrics included "Oh, it's fun to play in a non-violent way").
| Year | Album Title | Chart Positions | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US R&B |
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| 1977 | Village People | 54 | 36 | Casablanca |
| 1978 | Macho Man | 24 | 31 | |
| Cruisin' | 3 | 5 | ||
| 1979 | Go West | 8 | 14 | |
| Live and Sleazy | 32 | 57 | ||
| 1980 | Can't Stop the Music | 47 | — | |
| 1981 | Renaissance | 138 | — | RCA |
| 1982 | Fox on the Box | — | — | |
| 1983 | In the Street | — | — | Casablanca |
| 1985 | Sex Over the Phone | — | — | Powerworks |
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [13] |
US Disco [14] |
AUS [15] |
CAN [16] |
UK [17] |
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| 1977 | "San Francisco (You've Got Me)" | 102 | — | 15 | — | 45 | Village People |
| "Village People" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1978 | "I Am What I Am" | — | — | — | — | — | Macho Man |
| "Macho Man" | 25 | 4 | 3 | 16 | — | ||
| "Y.M.C.A." | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Cruisin' | |
| 1979 | "In the Navy" | 3 | 14 | 7 | 1 | 2 | Go West |
| "Go West" | 45 | — | — | 41 | 15 | ||
| "Ready for the 80's" | 52 | — | — | — | — | Live and Sleazy | |
| "Sleazy" | — | 26 | — | 87 | — | ||
| 1980 | "Can't Stop the Music" | 10 | 30 | 1 | — | 11 | Can't Stop the Music |
| "Magic Night" | — | — | 88 | — | — | ||
| 1981 | "Do You Wanna Spend the Night" | — | — | 48 | — | — | Renaissance |
| "5 O'Clock in the Morning" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1985 | "Sex Over the Phone" | — | — | — | — | 59 | Sex Over the Phone |
| "New York City" | — | — | — | — | 97 | ||
| 1989 | "Livin' in the Wildlife" | — | — | — | — | — | Singles only |
| 1994 | "Far Away in America" | — | — | — | — | — | |
The Village People have had a number of lineup changes over the years.
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