Disco Evita

[Littleshopofcarrie]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 11:03am

Recently stumbled upon "Disco Evita" an album with disco mix versions of songs from Evita. Found the tracks to be absolutely dreadful, but it could just be that I'm not a big fan of disco. Anyone know what these were for?

[morosco]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 11:13am

Are you referring the the Festival recording? If so the linked blog sheds some light on it.
DISCO RECHARGE: FESTIVAL-EVITA

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 11:24am

What was it for? If was just a studio album with disco versions of songs from EVITA. This was released after the global phenomenon of EVITA started in the late 1970s. Countless songs from Broadway musicals also found disco versions being played at clubs: "Memory" from CATS and "I Am What I Am" from LA CAGE AUX FOLLES most notably. Heck, even "Never" from ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY!

[followspot]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 11:32am

^ Yep — All discotheque staples. As were Grace Jones' disco covers of "Send in the Clowns," "What I Did For Love," and "Tomorrow."

Updated On: 12/26/13 at 11:32 AM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 11:33am

In the late 1970s, Evita was everywhere.

Lawrence Welk performed "Selections From Evita" on his show
Don't Cry For Me Argentina was recorded by everyone. Karen Carpenter, Donna Summer, Sinead O'Connor and several others I can't think of.

[followspot]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 11:46am

^ And, of course, let's not forget Ethel M's very own disco "Everything's Coming Up Roses!" (Would that we could.)

Pop songs, classical music, movie themes — everything got the disco treatment at that time.

Updated On: 12/26/13 at 11:46 AM

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 12:07pm

The Sweeney Todd Disco Single, Disco Evita, the Hair Disco Spectacular... there should be a big compilation album of the Disco Years of Musical Theatre.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/26/13 at 4:22pm

No disco-showtune hybrid can touch Ethel Merman's disco "Everything's Coming Up Roses."

Isaac Hayes did a disco rendition of "Stranger In Paradise" to coincide with KISMET's 70's revamp TIMBUKTU.

I would totally buy a compilation of these disco renditions. They're so absurd and a wonderful testament to the time period

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 12/27/13 at 7:53pm

I'm a HUGE eurodisco fan, so I say this without a hint of irony (OK, maybe a hint) but I think the Evita album is wonderful. Seriously. Boris Midney, the producer who was hired by Stigwood to make it was a Russian/American disco producer who managed to sorta hover over the line between very commercial disco and more underground stuff (Evita is by far one of his more commercial releases.) Of course he added his own track to the end, the inanely named Lady Woman so he would get more royalties. Like a lot of his productions, I think it's let down a bit by the bland studio singers he always used but otherwise it's a favorite of mine. Seriously.

That said, I can't say there's a lot of other good Broadway disco (if we include only the true disco era of roughly 74-80 and not later dance covers of Broadway songs.) I loveGrace Jones but her What I Did for Love/Send in the Clowns/Tomorrow medley is a real drag--the songs actually sound slowed down (it doesn't help that Send in the Clowns, for example, really loses something when its transfered to the typical four on the floor 4/4 time signature of disco.)

Thomas Z Shepherd himself was the one who decided to do the Sweeney Todd disco release, thinking it would be a great cross-promotion opportunity at gay discos, but it's pretty undanceable (if a fascinating curio.)

And the Merman disco album is dreadful. She had such difficulty recording it that they finally got her to do it without the beats, which she found confusing, and then they added those in later.

I need to track down this Hair disco thingie...

I had no idea there was a disco version of Never... Of course Gloria Gaynor had her last hit with I Am What I Am, but a European band (I believe--blanking on the name) also had a club hit with the title song.

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/27/13 at 10:41pm

The Hair Disco Spectacular is, well, spectacular. Complete with added on disco chants- "Can you rock? Yes, Rock! Let's rock to the disco beat!"

[goldenboy]

Posted: 12/27/13 at 10:45pm

Let us not forget disco "Sarava!"
the Tovah Feldshuh musical

[Owen22]

Posted: 12/28/13 at 9:05pm

Lady Woman!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/28/13 at 10:03pm

Gloria Gaynor recorded this glorious disco version of "Tonight" from West Side Story:


http://youtu.be/78Gg5Ys3A1Q

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/28/13 at 10:03pm

Gloria Gaynor recorded this glorious disco version of "Tonight" from West Side Story:


http://youtu.be/78Gg5Ys3A1Q

[gavyj]

Posted: 12/28/13 at 10:11pm

LuPone makes a hilarious comment on the Les Mouches recording about Disco Evita. I believe it is something along the lines of..."And if you were wondering, we won't be doing 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina' disco. We're saving it for Carnegie Hall!"

Updated On: 12/29/13 at 10:11 PM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/29/13 at 11:51am

Here is the disco version of "Never" from ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by The Body Shop. This was released in 1979 and is quite fantastically delicious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq0n_8mfcRE

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 6/20/14 at 9:01pm

Playbill recently had a retrospective of Disco-Broadway mashups to commemorate the anniversary of GOT TU GO DISCO, which made me think of this thread. There were a few I hadn't heard before in a addition to the old chestnuts (EVITA, SWEET CHARITY and such).











And the grand-daddy of them all:


Sadly Ethel Merman's disco "Alexander's Ragtime Band" has embedding blocked, so you'll have to click through to see that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gao8l3xQbQ

Updated On: 6/20/14 at 09:01 PM

[tazber]

Posted: 6/20/14 at 10:02pm

That disco version of Never is something else. Thank you so much for sharing.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 6/20/14 at 10:26pm

"Don't Cry For Me Argentina" (disco version: 1979).
Don't Cry For Me Argentina

[chewy5000]

Posted: 6/20/14 at 11:36pm

I'm not ashamed to say that this is one of my favourite songs.
Got Tu Go Disco

[StageManager2]

Posted: 6/21/14 at 9:34am

Patti Lupone FANatic, that disco version of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" sounded like Madonna's Miami Mix which played ad nauseam on the radio when the movie came out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgwMpJs-dCA


Lawrence Welk performed "Selections From Evita" on his show
Don't Cry For Me Argentina was recorded by everyone. Karen Carpenter, Donna Summer, Sinead O'Connor and several others I can't think of.

Gothampc, also Olivia Newton-John...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLvNDHBlfvw

... and Joan Baez, who did it as a protest against the Argentine government and as a tribute to the so-called desaparecidos (or "the disappeared"), Argentine civilians who went missing during the dictatorships of the 1970s and '80s. Many of them were later discovered to have been systematically kidnapped and murdered by the government as a way to silence the opposition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrrTKQGxpqE

[sbflyfan]

Posted: 6/21/14 at 11:33am

There's also "The (Disco) Sound Of Music" which was one of the few singles released on Sarah Brightman's short-lived record label in 1981. It features Sarah doing a rather convincing Julie Andrews impersonation. (She's not so convincing as Charmain Carr at 2:40, and that's when you can clearly tell it's Brightman).

Updated On: 6/21/14 at 11:33 AM

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 6/21/14 at 9:44pm

^^^^^^
Love the Sax solo on "Maria" and "I Have Confidence." So absurd! Sounds like something from an episode of "The Julie Andrews Hour."