"Disco Inferno" is a song by American disco band the Trammps from their 1976 fourth studio album of the same name. With two other cuts by the group, it reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Dance Club Songs chart in early 1977, but had limited mainstream success until 1978, after being included on the soundtrack to the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, when a re-release hit number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
It was also notably covered in 1993 by American-born singer Tina Turner on What's Love Got to Do with It, and in 1998 by American singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper on the A Night at the Roxbury soundtrack. Among others who covered this are Damien Lovelock, Hardsonic Bottoms 3, and Vicki Shepard.
Song information
The song was originally recorded by the Trammps in 1976 and released as a single. It was supposedly inspired by a scene in the 1974 blockbuster film The Towering Inferno. According to Tom Moulton, who mixed the record, the Dolby noise reduction had been set incorrectly during the mixdown of the tracks. When engineer Jay Mark discovered the error and corrected it, the mix had a much wider dynamic range than was common at the time. Due to this, the record seems to "jump out" at the listener. With "Starvin'" and "Body Contact Contract", it topped the U.S. Disco chart for six weeks in the late winter of 1977. On the other U.S. charts, "Disco Inferno" hit number nine on the Black Singles chart, but it was not initially a significant success at pop radio, peaking at number 53 on the Billboard Hot 100.
However, some radio stations, especially the AM, banned the song from the airwaves due to the repeated line "burn baby burn", which reminded people of the Watts riots in 1965.
"Disco Inferno" gained much greater recognition when the nearly 11 minute album version was included on the soundtrack to the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever. Re-released by Atlantic Records, the track peaked at number 11 in the U.S. during the spring of 1978, becoming the Trammps' biggest and most-recognized single. Later, it was included in the Saturday Night Fever musical, interpreted by 'DJ Monty' in the "Odissey 2001" discothèque. A cover version of the track was issued by the group Players Association in March 1978 on the Vanguard record label both in 7" and 12" format. It was produced by Danny Weiss and also issued as a track on their 1979 LP Born to Dance.
In 2004, a 12" version with the 10:54-minute version and "Can We Come Together" (from the album Where the Happy People Go) on the B side was released in the UK. This version was certified Silver in 2021 by the British Phonographic Industry.
On September 19, 2005, "Disco Inferno" was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame.
Personnel
The Trammps
Jimmy Ellis – lead vocal
Robert Upchurch – lead and baritone vocal
Earl Young – bass vocal
Harold Wade – first tenor
Stanley Wade – second tenor
Additional Personnel
Ronald Baker – bass guitar
Earl Young – drums
Norman Harris, Bobby Eli, T.J. Tindall – guitars
T.G. Conway – keyboards
Don Renaldo and His Strings and Horns
Charts
Weekly charts
{ | class="wikitable sortable" !Chart (1978) !Peakposition |- |Australia (KMR) | style="text-align:center;"|32 |- |Canada Top Singles (RPM) | style="text-align:center;"|6 |- |New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ) | style="text-align:center;"|13 |- |UK Singles (OCC) | style="text-align:center;"|16 |- |US Billboard Hot 100 | style="text-align:center;"|11 |- |US Cash Box Top 100 | style="text-align:center;"|8 |}
Year-end charts
Certifications
Tina Turner version
American singer and actress Tina Turner covered the song for the What's Love Got to Do with It soundtrack. Released as a single in August 1993, it charted at number 12 on the UK Singles Chart, and reached the top 20 also in Belgium, Iceland, Ireland, and the Netherlands. The single included remixes by the Beatmasters.