Village People – Village People (Promo)

Description

Village People was the creation of Jacques Morali, a French composer. He had written a few dance tunes when he was given a demo tape recorded by singer/actor Victor Willis. Morali approached Willis and told him, “I had a dream that you sang lead on my album and it went very, very big”. Willis agreed.

The album was a success, and demand for live appearances soon followed.  They hastily built a group of dancers to perform with Willis in clubs and on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. As popularity grew, they saw the need for a permanent ‘group.’ They took out an ad in a music trade magazine which read: “Macho Types Wanted: Must Dance And Have A Moustache.”

The band’s name references New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, at the time known for having a substantial gay population. Morali  got the inspiration for creating an assembly of American man archetypes based on the gay men of The Village who frequently dressed in various fantasy attire.

Its hit song “San Francisco (You’ve Got Me)” reached the top 50 in the UK, peaking at #45.