The Rolling Stones wrote many songs and dipped their toes in various sounds throughout their careers. They were no strangers to what was big at the time and were willing to embrace it rather than remain stubborn and stick to what initially saw the band achieve fame.
One genre that took over the world for a brief period was disco. The easily danceable beats and uplifting lyrics appealed to the masses, meaning that disco was played in multiple clubs and dominated the airwaves.
Mick Jagger understood the disco movement well, and he used to visit Studio 54 regularly to dance to whatever was topping the charts. One of the biggest disco bands around was the Village People; as such, their music had a massive influence on the Rolling Stones frontman.
Today, the Village People are regarded as a gimmick, which tarnishes their legacy. The band reached astronomical heights with their theatrical and catchy music as they skyrocketed to fame. They became the first disco band to play arenas before Earth, Wind and Fire, Chic and the Bee Gees; that’s no mean feat.
Unsurprisingly, such an infectious and booming sound would then rub off on artists who like to draw influence from different places. Jagger is reported to have come home from nights at Studio 54 and walked around the house humming the tune to the YMCA all day. It’s a contagious beat that not only got into Jagger’s mind but also laid the groundwork for one of the Stones’ biggest hits.
“It was ‘ah, Mick’s been to the disco and has come out humming some other song’,” recalls guitarist Keith Richards, “Mick spent [many nights] at Studio 54 and coming up with that beat, that four on the floor. And he said, add the melody to the beat. We just thought we’d put our oar in on Mick wanting to do some disco shit, keep the man happy. But as we got into it, it became quite an interesting beat. And we realised, maybe we’ve got a quintessential disco thing here.”
That song eventually became ‘Miss You’, a track that went straight to number one and is still loved by Rolling Stones fans today. That disco beat is enough to get anybody dancing, and stadiums filled with people relish the sound of that kick and melody coming through the speakers.
Despite the clear influence, Jagger states that ‘Miss You’ is not a disco song. “Miss You wasn’t disco disco,” he said, “Disco records at that time didn’t have guitars much, and they all had shimmer string lines and oo-eeoo-ee girls. It was influenced by it, but not it. I like that.”
Despite the height of disco only being short-lived compared to other genres, the influence of the sound created by the likes of The Village People can be heard in music made by bands at the time and bands to this day. One of the key examples is in the Rolling Stones, notoriously a rock band, who decided to give “disco shit” a try and ended up making a hit.
