In the Navy

"In the Navy"
Single by Village People
from the album Go West
B-side	"Manhattan Woman"
Released	January 17, 1979
Format	7" 12"
Recorded	1978
Genre	Disco
Length	5:39
Label	Casablanca
Writer(s)	Jacques Morali Henri Belolo Victor Willis
Producer(s)	Jacques Morali
Certification	Gold (RIAA)
Village People singles chronology
"Go West" (1979) "In the Navy" (1979) "Ready for the 80's" (1979)

For the 1941 Abbott & Costello film, see In the Navy (film).

"In the Navy" is a song by the American disco group Village People. It was the last top 10 hit for the group in the United States.

Background and writing

After the enormous commercial success of their 1978 hit "Y.M.C.A." which unexpectedly became the unofficial hymn and powerful advertising tool for the YMCA, the group took on another national institution, the United States Navy. The Navy contacted group manager Henri Belolo to use the song in a recruiting advertising campaign for television and radio. Belolo gave the rights for free on the condition that the Navy help them shoot the music video. Less than a month later, Village People arrived at Naval Base San Diego where the Navy provided them with the frigate USS Reasoner, several aircraft, and the crew of the ship (with the stipulation that they couldn't dance).^[1] The Navy later canceled the campaign after protests erupted over using taxpayer money for a music video of a controversial group.

In a landmark ruling in 2012, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California ruled that under the Copyright Act of 1976, Victor Willis (Village People's "Cop"/"Naval officer" and co-composer) can terminate his copyrights to songs written by him and granted to the publishers Can't Stop Productions and Scorpio Music."^[2] Willis now owns (recaptured) 33% of his songs.^[3]

Chart positions

In popular culture

• The Spanish group Parchís covered this song in 1979, and it became one of their most popular songs. The cover was titled En la armada, sung in Spanish, and covered again by other groups with the same lyrics of Parchís. It is possibly the first cover of the song, and definitely the first in Spanish.
• Captain Jack rerecorded a cover of the song and it was parodied by Billy Connolly as "In the Brownies".
• The song is performed during a sketch on The Muppet Show's fifth season, in which Viking Pigs raid an unnamed village whilst singing the song.
• Japanese female pop duo Pink Lady had a top 10 hit in Japan in 1979 with a cover of "In the Navy" titled "Pink Typhoon" (see the Japanese Wikipedia article), which substituted the words "Pink lady" ("Pin-ku re-di") for "In the navy" in the song's chorus and "I want you, you want Mie/I want you, you want Kei" (referring to group members Mie Nemoto and Kei Masuda) for "They want you as a new recruit."
• The song is played in The Simpsons episode "Simpson Tide," referred as an "ancient sea shanty." It is also briefly sung by The Sea Captain in the episode "Mr. Plow".
• In the game Grand Theft Auto III, there is a gay pedestrian who will occasionally say "In the navy!" and "You can sail the seven seas!" on separate occasions.
• The finale of the 2000 Leslie Nielsen comedy 2001: A Space Travesty features a performance of "In the Navy" sung by impersonators of the Three Tenors.
• During the credits of the 1996 comedy film Down Periscope, the Village People are joined by the film's cast, led by Tom Dodge (Kelsey Grammer), Emily Lake (Lauren Holly) and Marty Pascal (Rob Schneider) in an updated music video of the song aboard the protagonists' submarine, the USS Pampanito (named the Stingray in the film), a diesel Balao-class submarine from World War II.
• The Israeli pop-rock band "Tislam" has a very famous line in one of their greatest hits, "Tnu Li Rockn'Roll" (Give me Rock 'n' Roll), that says "Hoshavt oti Ba'cheder etmol ad meuchar, lishmo'a Indeonezi shel Anshei Hakfar" (You sat me down in the room yesterday evening, to hear "Indinezi" by The Village People). This line was written after the songwriter, Yair Nitzani, was a DJ at a club where people kept asking him to put on the song "Indonezi" (meaning "Indonesian") because they misheard the real name of the song. This is an example of a mondegreen, the mishearing of a phrase such that it acquires a new meaning.
• The Japanese singer Teppei Shibuya also covers the song on his CD "On-Demand", this version being a full translation of the original song, except for the chorus.
• Old Navy had a radio spot containing the lyric "We want you in a new swimsuit," sung to the tune of the song.
• Scottish metal band Alestorm released a cover of this song on a limited 7" single.
• Scottish Comedian Billy Connolly did a Parody on the British TV Show The Kenny Everett Video Show called "In The Brownies" (The English equivalent to the Girl Guides).

References