If Disco was dead by 1981, no one bothered to tell Canada.
When even the Village People had denied Disco and gone New Romantic by that time, Voggue, a studio creation fronted by Chantal Condor and Angela Songui, kept the mirrored ball spinning and had a number one dance hit with the not wholly original title of “Dancin’ The Night Away”. While the track was huge in the clubs and enjoyed a mild charting in the UK, it was far too unabashedly disco for crossover success in the States, even with a serverly chopped radio edit.
In one of the more blatant examples of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, “Dancin’s” follow-up, “Love Buzz” is a nearly note-for-note carbon copy of Voggue’s first hit, excepting minor melody and lyric changes. When you sing along, make sure you sing it “Love. Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.” like the girls.
“Love Buzz” did okay on the dance charts, but again, no dice on crossing over. Chantal went on to some minor solo success as a dance act in Canada for the remainder of the ’80s. Voggue live on, however, as their debut CD is still in print, and their singles still get airplay on stations such as Sirius’ Strobe dance classics channel.
Of course, after I wrote all this and uploaded the tracks, I did a Google search for lyrics and discovered Joe.My.God. wrote about these songs over two years ago, echoing many of the same thoughts. Great minds?
“Dancin’ the Night Away” peaked at #1 on the Billboard Club Play Singles Chart in 1981.
“Love Buzz” peaked at #16 on the same chart in 1982.
Get Voggue music at Amazon
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