My Top 10 Soul Songs from 1977 (by D. Lichfield) (2024)

**This article belongs to our section 40 Years of Music Hits: Your Ultimate Guide (1974 – 2014)

Disco had become a formidable force by 1977, and a number of soul veterans were at the top of their game too. Let’s take a look at 1977 soul hits. ~ David Lichfield

Unsurprisingly, there’s been a huge range of tracks to choose from when looking through the best disco music 1977, so whilst this list isn’t quite comprehensive, we hope the ten tracks that we have chosen offer a useful and diverse insight into the best disco and soul hits that the year had to offer.

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10. `Disco Inferno´ (UK Chart #16)The Trammps

It would be unthinkable to overlook this anthemic slice of timelessness, which has been setting dancefloors alight for almost four decades.

The iconic track was recorded in 1976 and reached the UK Top 20 a year later, yet it didn’t become a success in their group’s native America until 1978 after featuring on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The song was influenced by the movie The Towering Inferno and a scene featuring a burning discotheque.

There are two versions of the track, which was later covered by both Cyndi Lauper and Tina Turner, with the extended version lasting for a mammoth 11 minutes. Simply one of the greatest pop songs of the time, defining its era perfectly and one of the most instantly-recognisable basslines too.

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9. `Sir Duke´ (#2)Stevie Wonder

Slipping effortlessly into the funk, R&B, soul, pop and disco genres in 1977 was Stevie Wonder’s flawless Sir Duke, one of pop’s most joyous compositions.

Famous for its “you can feel it all over” refrain, the track was taken from the soul maestro’s seminal 1976 work Songs in the Key of Life, being released as a single the year after that masterpiece was unveiled. The track was named after Duke Ellington, the jazz genius that inspired it and also makes references to other musical legends including Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.

It was written after two of Wonder’s musical heroes had passed away before he had the chance to work with them. Sir Duke wasn’t Wonder’s only tribute to the figures that had inspired him – 1980’s Master Blaster was inspired by Bob Marley, whilst 1981’s Happy Birthday was dedicated to Martin Luther King.

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8. `Best of My Love´ (#4)The Emotions

One of the most smile-inducing songs of the seventies, the ageless Best of My Love was written by revered disco craftsmen Maurice White and Al McKay of Earth, Wind and Fire, who we’ll be hearing from shortly.

This Grammy Award-winning track is regularly – and quite rightly – voted as one of the best and most jubilant pop songs of all time. As with so many classic disco singles, it features prominent horns and a sublime vocal performance.

Inevitably, the track has been sampled and covered on numerous occasions by artists including Christina Milian, Sheena Easton, En Vogue and long-forgotten mid-nineties UK reggae artist, CJ Lewis, who I suspect introduced me to the song. More of the best soul songs of 1977?

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7. `Dance, Dance, Dance´ (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) (#6)CHIC

Originally, I was going to choose Everybody Dance, but that didn’t come out in the UK until 1978, so I have instead opted for this toweringly sophisticated epic. Dance, Dance, Dance was the disco pioneers’ debut UK and, like the vast majority of the group’s work, was issued in short, radio friendly form as well as an expansive extended version.

The track was one of the first big disco hits and features a session musician-era Luther Vandross on backing vocals. As with all of Chic’s greatest work, the track features majestic interplay between the choppy chords of Nile Rodgers and the refined virtuosity of late bassist Bernard Edwards.

Chic were actually conceived as a rock band before virtually inventing disco as we know it today. The term “yowsah” can be traced to the 1920s jazz musician and radio star Ben Bernie and was revived in the iconic 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

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6. `Saturday Nite´ (#17)Earth Wind and Fire

This laidback, brass-heavy masterwork was taken from the US group’s seventh record, Spirit.

The act had been around since 1971 recording acclaimed soul, R&B and funk but hadn’t achieved huge success until 1975 when sixth album That’s the Way of the World reached #1 in the US. In 1976, founding member Charles Stepney passed away whilst Spirit was being recorded, with Maurice White becoming the band’s main songwriter as a result.

Saturday Night was the disco-funk combo’s first UK Top 40 hit and they would go onto enter the chart on eight further occasions up to 1982, with tracks like Boogie Wonderland, Fantasy and September being amongst the most elegant and impeccable that the seventies had to offer.

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5. `Ma Baker´ (#2)Boney M

Whilst the Germany-based act may be somewhat unfairly regarded as something of a novelty act in the context of acts like Chic and Earth, Wind and Fire, many argue that theirs remains an enviable catalogue of effervescent disco-pop gold.

The intoxicating fun of Ma Baker was based on a Tunisian folk song called Sidi Mansour and told the story of 1930s criminal Ma Barker.

The track featured a pumping bassline, evocative strings and a scintillating selection of hooks as well as call-and-response vocals and a spoken word part.

Boney M were masterminded by Pete Waterman-esque songwriter and producer Frank Farian and eight of their singles reached the UK Top Ten before the infamous disco backlash of 1979.

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4. `Nights on Broadway´ (#6)Candi Station

Nights on Broadway was a reworked cover of the 1975 Bee Gees track. Nights on Broadway had originally featured on the Gibb brothers’ comeback album Main Course, which was home to the proto-disco smash Jive Talkin’. Staton’s string-drenched version was much more upbeat than the Bee Gees’ original and sidestepped the downtempo middle section.

The Bee Gees version offered what some consider to be the first significant example of Barry Gibb’s falsetto vocals after producer Arif Martin urged the group to add a “scream” to the recording.

Falsetto would go on to play a huge role in the reversal of the band’s fortunes, with the act becoming one of pop and disco’s leading players as the decade progressed. Candi Staton is one of soul’s most-cherished vocalists, being best known not only for her 1976 soul hit Young Hearts Run Free but her much-remixed, sampled and covered hit You Got the Love too.

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3. `Native New Yorker´ (#5)Odyssey

The ever-graceful, ecstatic Native New Yorker was penned by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell and taken to the UK Top Ten by the soul group Odyssey, who would go on to score a series of hits even after the popularity of disco waned, including the #1 hit Use It Up and Wear It Out in 1980, despite only being modestly successful on the US Hot 100 chart.

Like a great deal of soul-disco classics, the track has been recorded by several high-profile artists and is heavily associated with legendary New York nightclub Studio 54.

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2. `Float On´ (#1)The Floaters

Few tracks are as smooth as this renowned number from the esteemed Detroit four-piece, which came complete with memorable spoken verses in which the band’s members namechecked themselves.

Float On was The Floaters’ only hit in both the US and the UK, reaching #1 here and #2 across the Atlantic, becoming something of a crossover smash.

The sensual yet light-hearted ballad made reference to burgeoning 1970s trends like phone dating and astrology and was partially conceived by James Mitchell of Detroit Emeralds fame.

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1. `Got To Give It Up´ (#7)Marvin Gaye

Got to Give It Up was the result of Gaye’s record label asking for a disco song rather than more of the introspective, melancholic soul that he had become synonymous with.

Gaye had been reluctant to adhere to their requests, and having been embroiled in various legal troubles regarding his recent divorce and child maintenance, had been out of the recording studio for some time.

The song is renowned for its party atmosphere, with Gaye having added the sounds of his friends and associates socialising outside of the studio to the track to enhance its carefree feel.

The track’s lyrics describe the liberation felt by a reluctant man entering the dancefloor as the music takes control of him. Got to Give It Up is believed to have been a huge influence on Michael Jackson’s late 1970s work with The Jacksons and on his seminal 1979 record Off the Wall. Whilst the song is regarded as a funk classic, it is also seen as something of a disco milestone.

So, those were mytop disco songs 1977…

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