Queens of Disco

30 years ago, a new music burst out of New York's Black and gay clubs,

a soundtrack for the '70s. This new, urban pop may have been created by male producers

but it was fronted by women -

and what women...with what front!

Let's meet the Queens of Disco.

# Go on, now - go!

# Walk out the door... #

-The queen of survival...

-I've had to survive a lot of personal anguish

in my life. And...I've done that.

# I need the hard stuff, baby, this evening... #

-..a reluctant queen...

-I think she regretted it a little,

because it was a little too sexy.

# Pull up to the bumper baby... #

..a warrior queen...

If it wasn't for disco, I wouldn't be sitting here.

# ..Ah, do you want it, huh...? #

..the gay queen...

'I thought you were a woman!'

'I'm everywoman... #

..the fiery queen...

I couldn't be in the background, I had to be in the front.

# ..I fall deeper and deeper The further I go... #

..and the queen of reinvention.

She knew she was gonna be a big star, but the rest of the world just didn't know it.

# ..Oh, lost in music!

# ..Caught in the trap...

-# ..Caught up in our music

-No turning' back

-# Oooooh-ooh ooh-ooh

-We're lost in music

# We're lost in music

# Don't take away our music

# ..Feel so alive...

-# Feel! I quit

-My nine-to-five

# Yeah!

# We're lost in music... #

It was the 1970s, the "please me" decade,

party time with a brand-new soundtrack.

People were just burnin' the candle at both ends.

People thought the party would never stop, the music would never stop...

the record never stops. It was a non-stop party.

Everyone wanted to be happy,

and the dancing was gonna make you happy.

It certainly was the time to shout out who you are, what you are

and what you wanted to be

Every disco, would all be up on the dance floor,

and we danced round our handbags.

# We are family...#

"Women's lib" was gaining ground among black women.

They could sing a sexier song than men could sing...

There was no sampling in those days, no computers. It was the real deal.

So you had to be a great singer.

A lot of divas were born out of disco.

After the struggles of the '60s,

gay men in New York felt free to "come out" and party for the first time.

I just remember

getting up on the dance floor and showing off

There is an affinity between "out" gay men and successful black women -

because we've had to swim upstream of the same stereotypes most of our life and had the same enemies,

and the same joys.

# We are family... #

It was a new world with new stars. Ste forward our first queen,

disco's great survivor.

INTRO: PIANO RIFF

# At first I was afraid I was petrified... #

New York, September 2005,

and our first queen of disco is about to be inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame.

THE sis Gloria Gaynor, the woman who gave disco its greatest anthem.

# I will survive... #

"I will survive" also sums up the life of the woman who sings it.

Gloria Fowles, as she then was,

was born in New Jersey in 1947.

Her Mom, Queenie Mae, had to bring up all seven children on their own,

after their father left before Gloria was even born. It was a poor but religious family.

Young Gloria started singing in the church choir.

I actually feel that it was a Divine appointment, that God looked down

and said, "Gloria, you have to sing."

# Thank you, Lord Thank you... #

Almost all black singers of that generation sang in church.

TWO-PART HARMONY # I want Your love... #

There's a certain kind of feeling that you get from gospel music.

When you praise God,

there's a feeling that you bring that energy in.

Gloria was very close to her mother, so she was devastated when Queenie died.

She turned to the church for comfort.

God has been there for her. he's been her strength as she coped with all of the difficulties in her life,

I'm pretty sure.

She's able to cope through her faith.

Now Gloria also had to earn a living, so she used what she saw as her God-given talent

working as a session singer and on the cabaret circuit

Her reputation grew and, in the early 70s, she was signed by majorlabel MGM. They teamed her up

with a producer who was looking for a great voice to go with a new idea.

Something that sounded as if it cost a million dollars to make.

Tom Moulton had worked as a club DJ.

Now that discotheques were springingup everywhere, Tom knew what clubbers wanted.

In 1974, "Never Can Say Goodbye" became the first extended-mix record.

The things that people going to these clubs wanted to hear

were tracks of eight or ten minutes.

With something like that, you could lose yourself in the music.

All the DJs seemed to jump on it.

That sort of created a...phenomenon.

# Baby, I never can say goodbye No, no, no...

# No, no, no No, no, no, ooh... #

But Gloria herself had reservations about this new way of doing things.

My ego was...tapped, because it seemed to me that he only used the music to elongate the record

instead of using more of my vocal.

She listened to the whole thing...

and she said, "I don't sing much."

-Gloria apparently turned round and said, "Well, what do

-I

-do...when we're performing this record?

-And Tom says...

-"Well, I guess you have to start dancing a little too."

The formula worked. "Never Could Say Goodbye" was the first disco record to cross over into the pop charts.

America's disco DJs crowned Gloria the first official queen of disco.

She was riding high.

Then, in 1978, disaster struck.

I fell backwards over a monitor.

I'd ruptured a disc in that fall.

Woke up the next morning paralysed from the waist down.

She needed emergency surgery on her spine.

Doctors told her she might never walk again. She spent the next four months in hospital.

People around, in the business, were thinking that I was finished, saying,

"the queen is dead," and things like that. It was probably the lowest ebb in my career...

because I never expected that, I expected that they would... support me.

Meanwhile, songwriter Dino Fekares was working with producer Freddy Perrinon a new song.

I had no idea who was gonna sing it except that I remember telling Freddy,

"The next diva that comes our way,

"this is the tune we're gonna do on her."

Ill as she was, as soon as she read the lyrics, Gloria knew it was the song for her.

I've had to survive a lot of personal anguish in my life.

My mother passed away, my sister passed away, my brothers, two of my brothers passed away - from cancer -

my sister was murdered.

The next thing I did was "I Will Survive".

And I suppose that all of that helped me to sing "I Will Survive" with great conviction.

# At first I was afraid I was petrified

# Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side... #

Even in this famous video, Gloria's back is still in a brace.

# ..And I grew strong And I learned ho to get along... #

And after recording it, she went straight back into hospital

She was convinced the song should be a hit. But the record company had other ideas.

"I Will Survive" was put by the record company on the disc's B-side. It wasn't considered strong enough

-for the release...

-..It could've gotten lost. But somebody decided to listen to that B-side, in Mew York,

and flipped the record. And it took off. People liked it. People loved it.

The company didn't believe in it but Gloria did.

"Did you think I'd lay down and die? Oh, no, not I!

# I will survive... #

You put "I Will Survive" on and, I dunno - that uplifts you, really.

Gay men, particularly, took it as...

just an anthem for the community as a whole.

Women's liberation" was kinda surfacing,

and that was la proclamation to all women.

My three kids - "Oh, your song's on, Mum." Sorry, Gloria! I know it's yours as well, but...

"No matter what happens in my life and to me, I will overcome it, I will survive."

To be able to get out on a dance floor and say, "Here I am!

"This is me. No matter what has gone on in my life, I'm here. I will fight who I am - "

I think it's an anthem for EVERYONE.

# ..I will survive

# Oh, as long as I know how to love I know I'll stay alive... #

GLORIA: The song celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit - that's anybody anywhere!

I can't tell you what a blessing this song has been to me.

AUDIENCE SING

"I Will Survive" has taken on a life of its own. It's been re-released

countless times, and covered by over 200 different artists.

Gloria continues to perform around the world, but no later record's even topped "I Will Survive".

Will you survive?

-AUDIENCE:

-YES!

-I'm certainly glad to hear that.

Today, she's gone back to her gospel roots,

but she does pop out to collect the odd award.

You can't really separate the success of my career from "I Will Survive".

But the way that "I Will Survive" has been able to stand the test of time and carry my career...!

To accept the award for "I Will Survive"...

..I don't feel cheated, I don't feel at a loss.

It would've been nice.

Miss Gloria Gaynoo-o-o-o-o-or!

..but it's WONDERFUL to have this song.

Thank you so much, all of you, for your support.

New York was the birthplace of disco in the 1970s.

It was the city every would-be queen of disco wanted to conquer.

The underground club scene was thriving...

# ..You grew up ridin' the subways... #

..even though the city had fallen on hard times.

-# Up in Harlem Down in Broadway... #

-New York was always a tough place.

Every park was taken over by drug dealers.

# you're the heart and soul of New York City... #

-MAN:

-We had police strikes,

we had garbage strikes. On every level, the city was really being challenged.

That challenge led to a lot of need for freedom and for self-expression.

There was without a doubt a buzz on the streets of New York. It was ALIVE.

There was this very heady sense of possibility - that you really could just...

reinvent yourself and be anything

and do anything.

And do it all night long.

# Everybody dance Oo-oo-ooo... #

And disco brought everyone together.

You had this real interesting, very New York kind of mix of black and gay dance aesthetics...

all mixing together.

The whole thing was about... the endless partying.

# I... #

Our next queen also came from a gospel background to create a succession of sexy secular anthems.

It was racy, making love to a microphone. It's all going off.

But was she too sexy for her own good?

She kind of...regretted it

because it was a little too sexy.

Donna Summer was a "born again" Christian,

yet she made her fame singing a song

that was basically her simulating an orgasm.

Enter the reluctant queen.

# Lookin' for some hot stuff baby this evenin'... #

JESUS said-ah...!

"I did not come to call the righteous-ah!"

Like Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer was born into a deeply religious community, this time in Boston,

in 1948. She also sang in the church as a child and believed her voice was a gift from God.

But when Donna was 16, the close-knit community was rocked by murder.

She's the only eyewitness. The police show up and they...

FORCE her to testify.

And she begins to get these death threats. And she freaks out.

Donna fled to New York.

It was 1968, the "summer of love".

# This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius... #

After growing up in this restricted, Christian neighbourhood,

she's suddenly thrust - alone - into the world of hippy-dippy New York City

and she is ecstatic! I mean, she feels free for the first time in her life.

Donna auditioned for a new, European production of the risque musical Hair. She was successful,

and spent the next seven years in Germany. There, she teamed up with a producer

who was to revolutionise the sound of disco with his synthesiser.

A CAPELLA: # I...

"Love To Love You, Baby" started as a bit of a joke. She came up with the title "Love To Love You, Baby",

and said "Why don't we do a song?"

I threw everybody out , dimmed the lights so she couldn't see me and I could barely see her,

and that's when she did it.

AS A SIGH: # I...

# love to love you, baby

AS A MOAN: # I...

# love to love you, baby... #

To be honest, I don't think she really thought about it. She just did it, and we did it in, probably

15, 20 minutes.

She never intended for that recording to be released to the public!

Once it's recorded, it's there forever.

AS A GROAN: # I...

# love to love you, baby... #

It was 1975. Giorgio sent the recording to Casablanca, a young record company with a reputation

for signing wild, sexy acts.

The phone rings. "Congratulations. You've got the number one hit record in America."

"What record is that?" she said. "Love To Love You, Baby",

and she just dissolves into a... a combination of joy and fear.

# I love to love you, baby... #

At the very beginning, when the record came out, she was all happy, of course, because it was a big hit.

But later on, I think she kind of regretted it because it was a little too sexy.

# Oh-h...! #

She hated touring.

Basically, her act was 20 minutes of "Love To Love You, Baby",

# Oh...love to love you, baby... #

It became a breakthrough hit.

The DJs love it because, in a sense, this kind of orgasmic symphony

is exactly what's happening on the dance floor.

I says, "Uh-oh, here it comes!"

Sex and disco!

In those days, it was racy! My granddad would say,

"Stop playin' that devil-music!"

# I...love to love you, baby... #

It's quite porno, her voice. In some ways, it makes you understand why she found God. Cos she was like a...

you know, like a porno actress, really.

-GROANING SIGH:

-# Oh-h...

-I love to love you, babe... #

Donna was a star.

But offstage, she was becoming more and more depressed by her fame,

and the lifestyle that went with it.

One night in 1976, she reached rock bottom.

She becomes a huge star

and then tries to kill herself.

She's in this hotel room and she feels that... She's depressed.

She goes to the window and decides to jump to her death. And she's about to go over when the maid comes in,

and says, "Oh, Miss Summer, what are you doing?! What's the matter?"

And the maid kind of snaps her back to reality. And that becomes the basis of Donna's own resurrection.

Donna later said the she felt that God had intervened to save her, and wanted her to carry on singing.

Casablanca sent her back into the studio with Moroder.

On "I Feel Love", it started with a baseline,

dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum,

then the chords came in.

The only thing left HUMAN, kind of, is the voice.

# Ooh...

# it's so good, it's so good, it's so good, it's... #

My coming-out song was "I Feel Love".

I remember kind of going onto the dance floor, and I just thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

You know, it was like when Judy Garland woke up after the hurricane,

it was that kind of feeling - it was all in Technicolor all of a sudden.

Casablanca began to promote her as the sexy queen of disco...

# ..A little hot stuff, baby this evenin'... #

..and it worked.

In 2½ years, she had 12 consecutive smash hits. The label had created a one-woman hit factory.

# ..The bad girl Talkin' 'bout the sad girl, yeah... #

80% of the disco-era Donna is manufactured on records.

# Let's dance...

# the last dance

# Let's dance...

# The last dance... #

It was all of the handlers -

her stylists telling her what to wear, how to act - how to arrive in a limousine.

She was a little uncomfortable with it. But...

she made the most out of it.

# .Yeah...ooh... #

I was tired of the whole sex image,

because it wasn't me, it was something I was playing - a role.

It wasn't who I WAS, as a person.

And I always resented it, but it was the publicity and all that that the record company did,

just pressed me into this mould.

# So let's dance the last dance... #

By now, Donna was also writing some of her songs, earning millions for herself - and the record company.

But by the end of the '70s, she wanted out.

It was an acrimonious split with Casablanca.

She later wrote a song attacking labels who treat their artists like slaves.

# She works hard for the money So hard for you honey

# She works hard for the money So you better treat her right... #

Once she split with Casablanca, that was pretty much it for Donna Summer.

Away from that sound,

there really IS no Donna Summer. She's just another voice... you know, in the wind.

"When a man and a woman fall in love..."

In the '80s, Donna Summer continued to write and release records

but she'd toned down her raunchy image and was more inspired by gospel music than disco.

Then, in 1983, she hit the headlines again, this time for all the wrong reasons.

Donna volunteered or was baited into saying things in the Press

that we interpreted

as flagrantly homophobic.

She was quoting her Christian, fundamentalist roots,

And I'm sure that's where her heart and head purely were at the time - but they were hateful.

It was...like a...bad word, "Donna Summer".

They didn't want to play any of her stuff, and...yeah, that was a bad time.

We had loved her, worshipped her and MADE her, created her and made her very rich,

and we resented the hell out of it.

I think...all those people have probably forgiven her by now. So...

You know. And we still listen to her anyway.

# Time... Time again, it is said We will hear, we will see... #q

Donna is still performing a gospel-inspired act around the world.

There's a lot of gospel singing these days. It's very much into Christianity.

# This state of independence shall be

# This state of independence shall be... #

That's a way of saying, "Well, I may have been bad but I'm good now."

Donna says that in her house there isn't a single gold record displayed.

Which means...she doesn't consider any of that important. But the house is there BECAUSE of the gold records!

Our next diva was also brought up in the church.

But disco allowed spirituality to mix outrageous sexuality.

"Sylvester?! I thought you were a woman!"

"WHAT is he wearing?"

"And what is he singing?"

Sylvester was a gay MAN, but that wasn't about to stop him becoming a disco queen.

After all, he already sang higher than all the girls.

# DO you wanna funk? Won't you tell me now...? #

I really don't think there's been anybody else that's made an entrance like him... Maybe Diana Ross.

There is nobody like him -

white or black. And the fact of him (a) being a black man,

(b) being a GAY black man - you know, that's two taboos right there.

And he was able to surpass all that and still be himself and put on one helluva show.

Sylvester James jr grew up in Los Angeles.

His father left his mother, Letha, when Sylvester was just a baby.

But, like Gloria and Donna, he had a devout upbringing.

The Church, for Sylvester, was where he first got his musical training. He brought that with him

from church to disco.

But he was a troubled youth.

When he was 15, he ran away from home and lived rough on the streets of LA.

He began to dress as a woman. Eventually, he drifted north to San Francisco.

I think he was drawn to freedom

and to the sense that in San Francisco, people were living out their imaginations.

And that's how he always want to do things. He fantasised himself

and then he wanted to live that fantasy.

# Fish gotta swim birds gotta fly... #

He teamed up with a group of outrageous, hippy drag artists called The Cockettes.

# ..Lovin' dat man of mine... #

He joined the show impersonating female blues singers.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

# Baby, baby... #

This was...

Billie Holliday and Diana Ross on LSD.

Sylvester stood out from the group.

Sylvester was probably the most talented one in the Cockettes at the time. He could get out there...

and sing, and everyone stopped. And it became...almost serious

to watch his performance.

WORDLESS VAMPING: FALSETTO SOUNDS LIKE TRUE SOPRANO

He was soon performing his own shows. Now he needed some backing singers.

There were two white, tall females,

blonde, leggy, who had just auditioned to him. And...

I came in and auditioned for him

and he said, "OK..."

And he dismissed the other girls.

And he asked me, he said,

"Do you know of anybody else that's as large as you are and can sing?" And I said yes.

Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes would eventually become The Weather Girls but, back then,

they were known as Two Tons Of Fun. It was a perfect combination.

When he found them, musically, things clicked.

The audience just ate it up.

FALSETTO: # Oh...!

# Truck stop, yeah...! #

Having started out impersonating women singers, Sylvester was still hitting the high notes.

I was the one singing at the bottom! And Izora would sing in the middle and Sylvester would sing the top.

FALSETTO: # Oh-aaaaaaaaah! #

My voice doesn't come anywhere near his.

AUDIENCE WHOOP

He could tear that falsetto-soprano voice up

and sing higher than quite a few FEMALES I knew.

He's such a gospel singer, you know? He'd just kind of like...go off

and just let his spirit soar while he's singing.

# You make me feel

# Mighty real... #

The breakthrough hit came in 1978 "with You Make Me Feel".

# ..mighty real... #

But mainstream success also brought controversy. Sylvester was openly gay.

# I know you love me like you...

SOARING FALSETTO: # ..should! #

The record company, per se, did not have any problems

with Sylvester being outrageous.

But we were dealing with the reactions of people

in the outside world who were in a position to make or break him.

And he'd say, "No. I'm gonna do it THIS way."

# ..Oh, you make me feel

# Mighty real... #

People wanted to tell him, "You need to dress like this, you need to tone down that," and...

Sylvester could be very, very stubborn.

If he felt like wearing a dress today, he'd do that. If he felt like wearing his hair orange, he'd do it.

You couldn't contain him!

At a time when there was no such thing as a gay celebrity, Sylvester took his outrageousness

right onto Joan Rivers' prime-time TV show.

He performed, and she sat down to talk to him, and she asked him about his jewellery.

-That's your wedding set.

-That's your wedding set? OK! Who are you married to.

-Duh(!) - Rick!

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

'And he said Rick Cranmer.'

And then he went, ("Oh!")

-Oh, God! I'm sorry, no...

-What?

-Rick's PARENTS are watching. GASPS IN AUDIENCE

-Well...

Surprise!

-He realised that Rick's parents didn't know that Rick was gay.

-..Telling me they didn't know(?)

Rick Cranmer's parents, now - you should've looked in your closet ten years ago - you wouldn't be shocked.

'He was who he was.'

And by being on a lot of talk shows in the US,

he forced Americans to deal with it.

Sylvester continued to be outrageous, especially in the wardrobe department.

We loved to shop. He would call it "shopping in the name of Jesus"!

We're talking about capes, you know, flying on stage. Heels - you know - he had heels on, he was not playing.

The first meeting, he gave me a blue, sequinned dress. SHE CHUCKLES

"So what's your name?" "Sylvester." I said, "Sylvester?! I thought you were a woman." And he was flattered.

He LOVED it. "Aw, girl!" SHE LAUGHS

And then we'd go uptown to the wig place and get that hair.

"Sho' nuff! What d'you think about this? Look at this hat!" "Child, this is too long - can you cut it?"

"Can you dye it this colour?"

And I'd be like...

Despite his refusal to conform, in 1979, Sylvester achieved his greatest ambition -

to play the staunchly conventional San Francisco Opera House.

That was the ultimate deal for him,

to show up and do a huge show because he had made it in the world, and for him to come back to San Francisco

and let them celebrate with him.

# And grew up here... #

And in the audience that night

was the mother he'd left behind 17 years previously.

To see my son,

and see him perform on stage

was very important.

It made me feel very happy.

People accepted him

as Sylvester.

Sylvester was a star, an undoubted queen of disco.

But just as things were going so well...

"Hey, baby, what's happening?" "Baby, I don't feel too good. I may have a cold.

I says, "Let me feel your forehead." "I don't want you to get too close, cos I don't know what it is.

I says, "Come here!" He said to me, "I've got to go onstage in about 20 minutes. Come and pray with me."

Well, I went to visit him. That's when he told me he had AIDS.

And I gave him...

all of my support.

JEANIE: He says, "I'm going to be in the gay parade. And I'm going to be in a wheelchair." I said, "Really?

"Are you ready for that?" He says, "Oh, yeah."

So he WANTED them to know.

He called me the day that he demised.

Letting me know he loved me.

Letting me know that he was gonna be watchin' me! "No matter what."

He told me, he says, "Mom, I'm not gonna make it.

"So if you could stay with me,

"I would appreciate it."

JEANIE: The funeral was a big celebration.

He wanted me to sing and he wanted Martha to sing.

I says, "What do you want me to sing?" "What's that song that you and Martha sing everywhere you go?"

I said, Oh, "Touch Somebody's Life"?

He goes, "Please!

"Don't sing THAT one!"

I thought he wasn't gonna say, "Please sing that one"! He says "DON'T sing that one."

And I said, "OK, what do you want me to sing?" So - "Never Grow Old" was the first song that HE ever sang

in church as a child.

WITH EMBELLISHMENT: # Neve-e-er... #

In the end, he told me that he had no regrets, that he had lived his life the way he wanted to live.

# ..Never grow o-o-old... #

Of all the clubs in all the world, the best disco ever was the legendary Studio 54.

# It's the best disco in town Number one in disco sound

# It's the place where hip people meet

# Hey, hey...! #

It was simply the best discotheque in the world.

..Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger...

EVERYBODY was there.

You might be standing next to a banker, you could be standing next to some gay kid up from the Village,

you could be dancing with... God knows who,

but we all felt there was the common ground that we all stood on and bumped to.

Actually - the most horrible thing, to be standing outside

and not being picked up to get in.

# ..It's the best disco in town Funky music by the pound

# Join the crowd Come on, dance and sing

# Hey, hey!

# It's the best disco in town... #

Nobody had any FEARS of sex or flirting, trying everything that would come to our mouth or nose,

and we just went along and had a good time ALL the way.

It was a world where boys could be girls and girls could be boys.

And Studio 54 incubated our next queen,

who could look like a woman and sing like a man...

or was it the other way round?

I used to go

before I started singing, when I was modelling

and just, you know,

dance, dance, dance my ass off.

People REALLY went...to dance...

I'm gonna do a champagne burp...

BURP! ..excuse me. Thank you.

I can't imagine somebody that partied as hard - and in such a good physical shape!

She defined the glamour and androgynous style

and in-your-face sexuality

and unapologetic expression of who you are regardless of where you came from

I-I-I-It's Grace!

Grace has become famous not just for her music

-but for her wild style...

-DUBBED LION'S ROAR

..and unpredictability.

Now, hold... Hold on...

Grace Jones I the warrior queen whose life became performance art.

Grace Mendoza was born in Jamaica

to a well-to-do family of politicians and preachers.

Her father was a bishop,

and her upbringing was the strictest of all our queens.

When Grace left home, she headed to New York and looked for work as a model.

But she had problems being accepted for who she was.

My face just was not understood. They were like...

"Oh, but your so dark... but your nose is, is not FLAT

"and...large, and... but your LIPS are...

"are really full." They just didn't... They'd say, "Well, what ARE you?"

But there was one place she was appreciated -

at the heart of New York's party scene, Studio 54.

That's how I got discovered - jumpingup on tables and...

singing and dancing to disco music.

The party queen had been spotted by Island Records,

who decided to put her in the studio. She jumped at the chance.

She told me,

"I'll do whatever it takes to make it."

The producer was Tom Moulton, the man who made Gloria Gaynor a gainer. But when he heard Grace,

he thought she sounded like she was straight out of the movies - horror movies.

She couldn't sing. She sang like Bela Lugosi.

I...am..Drrracula.

I mean, that's what she SOUNDS like! I said "What is WRONG with you?"

Like other singers, Grace was expected to do as she was told.

I had NO control - at all. I was just kind of, you know, dragged around on a leash.

I had to be next to her...with every WORD. I mean, it's unbelievable. I just could not believe it.

They start to clash because Tom's an ultra-professional

and Grace Jones, doing her best, but she just hasn't the best voice.

She's got a whole lot of attitude.

"The star"(!)

-She comes down and...

-LITTLE COUGHS

-GAGGING COUGHS

-And I say, "Grace,

"we don't practice in this studio, we record." And then finally...

Ah, maybe I shouldn't... Ah, I'll say it anyway, it doesn't matter. ..finally,

I got so mad, and I said, "Grace, with so little, you can please so many."

And they said, "Until you apologise, she's not gonna sing."

So I picked up my jacket

and walked out.

It was...a way to force them to...

let me have some freedom in what I was doing.

# I need a man... #

Despite the bust-up, a record did finally come out in 1977,

aimed at the disco crowd.

To promote it, Grace went to the places she knew best, New York's gay discos.

# Say that you will find him Creeping up behind him... #

By now, Grace had met Jean-Paul Goude, the style editor of a men's fashion magazine.

He began to transform her stage shows. Goude turned Grace's shows into performance art.

# ..I need a man...! #

They were lovers, they had a child together, but he was... image producer...

director, so he produced a lot of the videos,

a lot of the style.

I always loved the mixture of threat and beauty.

I thought it was time for Grace to stretch out.

# Quand il me prend dans ses bras... #

She came into the club on a motorcycle and she had a black hood on.

"..La vie en rose... #

She walked over to the bar,

she knocked all the glasses off the bar.

And then she proceeded to lay back on the bar, put her high-heeled shoe

on top of the cash register

and sang "La Vie En Rose".

# ..Il est entre dans mon coeur... #

One helluva show.

# Everything is...

FALSETTO: # ..lovely!

# It's him for me and me for him All our live... #

You put her on a stage, you give her a couple of cones

and she will deliver

the most sensational live show you're ever see.

SNARE AND BASS DRUMS ECHO

She was literally coming down this HUGE staircase...

..and she was dressed like a... an animal.

CROWD ROAR

She really is something else - a force of nature.

# Night...clubbing

# Nightclubbing... #

I love to give carte blanche to artists that I respect.

I think those collaborations were... magical.

Grace was an underground star, but she still hadn't given her label a major hit.

Island boss Chris Blackwell decided to refresh her sound,

and teamed her up with two of his biggest reggae artists, Sly & Robbie.

WORDLESS, A CAPELLA

Chris Blackwell sent a message saying he wanted to see us.

So I went by his apartment. So...he told us about this girl...

"She's a Jamaican. And she's a disco singer."

It was quite a different approach from what her disco records where.

But I thought...felt it could work.

The breakthrough came in 1980 with the album Nightclubbing,

which included the single...

# Pull up to the bumper, baby

# In your long, black, limousine... #

GRACE: 'They brought out my roots! My Jamaicanism.

And I believe that's when my voice...

felt the most at home.

I'm very superficial

I hate everything official...

She just CHANT the rhythm. It's the way she does it.

-Grace will, think, just...

-Grace-style.

-Grace-style,

like Robbie say.

# Private life - come on, baby Leave me out... #

Goude continued to experiment.

One minute Grace was white,

the next she was a man.

Jean-Paul's influence was...enormous.

The IMAGERY of Grace is really what "broke" Grace.

# Feeling like a woman

# Looking like a man... #

She EMBODIES "feeling like a woman, looking like a man." The androgynous feeling about her is very attractive

I have seen some of the most attractive men in the world

in relationships with her - Lundgren, for example. He was absolutely STUNNING -

And he had a very, very torrid relationship with her.

By now, Grace was in films playing powerful villains who could take on

any man - even James Bond.

But big-screen stardom wasn't what she expected.

Grace had itchy feet.

After doing the first big film, I realised there was so much time

and so much empty space -

always, you know, waiting to be called, and hurry-up-and-wait.

The long rounds of promotion made her even more restless.

She even took it out on Russell Harty on national TV.

Have you calmed yourself down?

Hmm...try me.

LAUGHTER

-No...

-Did you have a late night last night?

-No,

-I haven't slept in three days.

-That explains it.

It's the beast in me. I don't know! It's just something in me that is impulsive.

I can't look at you... Uh-ah!

Now, hold... Hold on...

Don't, don't!

GRACE GIGGLES 'I just wanted some respect!'

INTRO PLAYS

Grace wanted to go back to music, where she felt she had more control.

Thank GOD...I've got the the music. Because in all that space,

I was writing music.

I think I would have gone crazy and I would've hated acting altogether

if I didn't have the music.

CROWD ROAR

Ladies and gentlemen...

Miss Grace Jones.

The music she was writing became her 1985 comeback album Slave To The Rhythm.

Grace is still a gay icon and a muse for top fashion designers.

And today she's also back in the studio with a new dance album. Another disco diva

who's gone back to her roots.

She marches to her own beat. That's for sure.

I think she's in a whole category by herself. I think...

She's the queen of her own universe.

And we're ALL her subjects!

# I'm everywoman... #

Our next queen was all woman. She could sing the hell out of anything

including disco.

Chaka Khan is our fiery queen of disco.

Chak-Chak-Chaka Khan...

Chaka Khan.

She was quite happy

for her records to become part of the disco sweep of the world.

But she wasn't defined by that.

You know, I just want to enjoy singing.

-SINATRA:

-# Chicago, Chicago... #

Yvette Marie Stevens, as she was then, grew up in Chicago,

a city celebrated for all kinds of music.

# I love it! #

We could go down to State Street any given night and hear some of the most amazing,

best, and well-known "old blues" bands.

My first influences were jazz singers, and then I branched off,

never just into one kind of music.

Unlike our other queens, it was popular music, not church music that inspired her to sing.

I had no training. The closest I ever had was when I was in school.

And I was in a choir.

I was always in a band or a group from the time I was 13 years old.

They used to call me "Little Aretha". I couldn't be in the background, I had to be in front!

I think, maybe, cos I did have the best voice, too.

She briefly linked up with the radical political group the Black Panthers.

We want black power.

And she took an African name, Chaka, which means "woman of fire".

But by '72, she was back into singing with the established multi-racial funk band Rufus.

# Once you get started... #

There was nobody that had a sound like Rufus. The band was tight,

but to add to that was this woman. It seemed she came out of nowhere.

Chaka Khan, with all this energy, all this character.

# Everybody party hearty And get back in the groove... #

She was the flashpoint, she was the centre, she was just IT on that stage.

With Chaka on board, Rufus was soon in the charts. But they were billed as "Rufus featuring Chaka Khan".

It was inevitable she'd be offered a solo contract.

She knew the importance and the value to her career of an anthem, of a defining song.

# I'm every woman

# It's all in me... #

With a little help from 14-year-old Whitney Houston on backing vocals,

her first solo hit in '78 became a disco anthem.

Actually, the song kind of wrote itself, and then we realised

it should be her singing it!

That dance beat is pretty powerful. And you always need a big voice.

# I can make a rhyme of confusion in your mind... #

When we heard her voice on it, we said, "yes!" It's like, some things you just know.

And it was just very clearly, I think, ahit record.

# I'm every woman

# It's all in me... #

When you hear her sing about a powerful woman, you look at her

and go, "No, she's talking about what she's LIVING.

It's a little like Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive".

It's very liberating for women. EVERY woman at some point in their life has said,

"I'm every woman!"

You look at Chaka Khan, you know she's a woman who calls her own shots, who doesn't do anything

she doesn't think is right. When she sings these songs, you believe it.

# I'm every woman

# It's all in me... #

# Anything you want done, baby... # She's like a vocal acrobat. She can do so many things.

"I'm Every Woman established Chaka as a disco diva. But there was one slight problem.

The band, Rufus, still had a contractual commitment to the record company. They had to fulfil that.

But at the same time, she was gonna go off and do her solo thing.

So there was a certain amount of music-industry politics involved.

Despite a huge bust-up, Chaka had to agree to do one more album with Rufus -

not in the studio, but live on stage.

# Oh, oh, oh OOOH...

-# Nobody!

-Nobody... #

It was still a dynamic record.

And produced, yes, that most enduring of her hits from that period, "Ain't Nobody".

# ..Nobody, baby... #

But within months, her solo career was back on track with another number one hit.

# Hey! I feel for you

# I think I lo-ove you... #

But behind the scenes, Chaka was struggling.

Chaka had a bad drug problem

that dogged her over a couple of decades.

It distracted her from her artistry.

And she could have done so much more with her life and career.

# Chaka Khan, let me rock you Let me rock you, Chaka Khan

# Let me rock you That's all I wanna do

# Chaka Khan, let me rock you cos I feel for you... #

If she'd managed to keep her personal life together, she should've been

the...sort of inheritor, the successor of Aretha Franklin.

# ..feel for you... #

# I'm every woman... #

"I'm Every Woman" remains one of the biggest disco anthems, but Chaka made it so much her own

that only another diva like Whitney Houston would ever dare to cover it.

And even the most powerful woman in TV wanted it as "her song".

Oprah called on the telephone and says, "You know, Val, I really could hear that song as my theme song."

For the Oprah show. I says, "You know, Oprah, I could really hear that too!"

And she went on and made it her theme song for two years, so we were really happy about that.

Chaka herself though, moved on.

She's done soul, blues and jazz, keeping her at the top of her game.

It kind of moved through disco and kept on going.

Even after disco had sort of disappeared, she was still a force in black music.

SHE SCAT-SINGS

She constantly changed her sound, evolved and changed.

I consider myself a fusion artist. I love mixing stuff all together.

# Oh, oh, oh, o-oh!

-# Ain't nobody

-Ain't nobody

-Does it better

-Does it better... #

I mean, I just want to enjoy singing!

Chaka did disco when disco was hot, and when disco was finished,

they went on and did whatever was happening. Chaka's doing her thing

NOW. Disco's been done for a while, but Chaka's not.

July 1978. The disco boom is at its peak.

But it's now more Saturday Night Fever than "I Will Survive".

And just when disco was about to die on its arse,

an ambitious young Italian-American arrived in New York.

Her career would encompass and transcend

all the queens who went before her.

She would become an enduring global superstar

who's come back again and again to disco. Who's that girl?

Madonna, of course, the queen of reinvention.

I came to new York to be a dancer.

And I came to dance in a company, professionally.

She was determined to make an impression. She came in one Saturday

with a sweater which was cut WAY down to the back

and held together with a safety pin

about a foot wide.

And off of one shoulder. Now, she was about 16½ or 17.

And I looked at her back and I thought, "That girl will do something some day."

In new York,

everybody was doing disco. So Madonna had to be different.

She was not doing dance music at that time,

but working on other kinds of sounds. More rock'n'roll influenced.

She said, "I have two friends here from Michigan. And they're writing some rock songs."

"And I'd like to be a rock singer," she said one day, and I thought...

"Fine." You know. I didn't believe one word of this!

A rock'n'roll rebel wasn't what record companies were looking for.

And there were more pressing matters like paying the bills.

I went to an audition for...

a world tour for Patrick Hernandez.

Oh-h! Patrick Hernandez!

# Time was on my side when I was runnin' down the street... #

He was one of the biggest stars of euro-disco...

# A suitcase, a guitar... #

..and Madonna applied to be his backing dancer.

He was doing a world tour, looking for girls to do back-up singing and dancing...and go around the world,

and I thought that'd be great.

She said, "We made the audition, and I'm going to Paris next week."

And I never saw her after that.

# ..Good to be alive... #

They told Madonna at that time that what they planned to do was have her be a part of a troupe, or a review,

and then pull her out of it

and mould her into a Donna Summer type of entertainer.

"Hmm...

"I mean, I have to think about this."

..Any time anybody's ever wanted to mould Madonna into anything, it's always been unsuccessful.

They didn't really know what to do with me, and they were busy with Patrick. I just got really impatient.

I came back to New York after six months.

But while she'd been away, something had changed.

# Disco, disco rock... #

# If you want my body And you think I'm sexy... #

# Oo-ooh OO-ooh oo-oo-oo Oo-ooh OO-ooh oo-oo-oo... #

The charts had been flooded with a load of old disco tosh.

# Enough is enough is enough...! #

The great American public could take no more. In 1979,

chanting "Disco sucks!"

fans of old fashioned rock'n'roll gathered at Comiskey Baseball Stadium in Chicago

and blew up a massive pile of disco records.

Disco was officially over... in the mainstream, at least.

And anything which was out of favour with the mainstream was OK with our rebel princess.

# ..Enough is enough is enough! #

When she came back from France, then she really started dealing seriously in dance music,

and she started making demos and shopping demos of songs that WERE dance songs.

In New York, the underground club scene was still going strong, though nobody dared call it disco any more.

People were moving quickly away from that term "disco" to "club music",

a phrase being used as a substitute and a camouflage.

And the music was evolving out of what was traditionally disco

into other forms. And that's when you had all those different things going on. Madonna was part of that.

Madonna went around giving everybody her tapes.

She was trying to get a break.

She was the kind of woman, at that time, who would do anything that she needed to do to make it.

But Madonna would make her own decisions about who she wanted to work with.

I first Met Madonna when I was the DJ of The Fun House in New York.

And she came in

with a record company representative

full of energy,

happy to be in the place. Walked right into my DJ booth, stood there,

and introduced herself.

Madonna's first record deal was with the dance label Sire, and her music was aimed directly at the clubbers.

She was all ready to go. There was only one place to launch herself.

Studio 54, a private party for the 15th anniversary of Fiorucci.

In this Fiorucci event at Studio, she performed one of the first times ever

I actually booked Madonna to be THE star of the evening.

And my boss Fiorucci didn't want nothing to do with it.

Because she was completely unknown to the public.

And they wanted Jennifer Beals from Flashdance because Flashdance had just came out.

# What a feelin'...! #

I said, "No, Madonna, Madon..." And they were like, "Blah, well, hmm."

# Everybody Come on dance and sing... #

I had a huge cake made out in rubber, and Madonna popped out of the cake and...jumped!

I remember her singing at Studio - very fabulous.

# ..Do your thing... #

But that night, I almost could see a switch, because everybody was gagging over her.

Grace was there looking at her, and everybody was there.

Madonna's early hits, like "Everybody" in 1982,

surfaced in the dance charts, not the pop charts.

She was very clear in wanting to keep a very credible club base

but at the same time, have a record that would have pop appeal.

So the next step was to cross over into pop.

To do it, she turned back to disco and recruited the man behind classic disco group Chic.

Music was on the cusp of changing

from old-school to new-school. And I was still part of the OLD school.

# Le Freak, c'est chic...! #

Madonna was much more "new school"

in going to the techno based dance music.

# Holida-ay!

# celebra-ate...! #

By the time "Holiday" came along in 1984, disco had been out of favour for four years.

The music had been a bit... well, boring.

When Madonna arrived, people could dance and party again.

CROWD ROAR Good to see you, Australia!

Are you ready? LOUD CHEER

Madonna is the ultimate embodiment of disco

and, as she reinvented herself and her music,

she's always remained true,

keeping a finger firmly on the pulse

of clubs, fashions and sex.

And that's why

she's STILL a global superstar.

# Every little thing that you say do # I'm hung up, hung up on you... #

Her instincts for dance music, which are crucial for a pop artist,

all comes from direct observation, of being a club dancer,

of knowing DJs, of watching crowds...

And the way that you learn from disco.

# ..Time goes by...so slowly

# Time goes by

# So slowly... #

She's one of those artists who never forgot

about the audience that got her to where she is - never forgot.

But it's not just Queen Madge who's at it.

Disco is still all around us,

and all thanks to those original queens of disco.

' Every little thing that you say do I'm hung up, hung up on you

# Waiting for your call Baby night and day

# I'm fed up I'm tired of waiting on you

# Ring, ring, ring Goes the telephone

# The light's on but there's no-one home

# Tick, tick, tock It's a quarter to two

# I'm done I'm hanging up on you... #

"Disco..."

the word changes, but the dance still goes on.