Released February 1976 Genre Soul, Disco | Format 7" 45 RPM Label Columbia | |
B-side "You're the Best Girl in the World" Length 4:27 (album version)
4:20 (single version) | ||
"Disco Lady" is a 1976 single for Johnnie Taylor that went on to become his biggest hit. It spent four weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and six weeks on the Billboard R&B chart in the U.S. It was also the first single to be certified platinum by the RIAA; ultimately it sold over 2.5 million copies. Billboard ranked it as the No. 3 song for 1976.
The single was Taylor's first for Columbia Records, where Taylor signed after his long-time label, Stax Records, went bankrupt. The song was produced by Taylor's long-time producer, Don Davis. Among the guests on the song were four members of Parliament-Funkadelic: bassist Bootsy Collins, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, guitarist Glenn Goins, drummer Jerome Brailey, and Dawn's Telma Hopkins.
"Disco Lady" was the first Hot 100 number-one hit with the word "disco" in its title, though there had been several disco songs that had already reached number one. The single also reached #25 on the UK Singles Chart.
During the 1980s, the song "Disco Lady" was spoofed in a popular PSA for the American Cancer Society in a promotion called "Dragon Lady." (The "Dragon Lady" in the commercial was played by a teen-aged Robin Givens, who turned off all of her peers by her excessive smoking.)
The song is featured in a first season episode of That 70s Show and later Eric repeatedly sings the chorus of the song to appease a drunken Donna.