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Big hair and lipgloss: Unsung girl groups of the 70s and 80s
12.02.2016
02:27 pm
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Many are called. Most end up in the bargain bin of the local thrift store. For all the great bands like Fanny, The Slits, L-7, The Go-Gos, The Bangles, and so on, there are several dozen—nay, several hundred—who score one hit (or fewer) and then disappear before the ink’s dried on their record contracts.

And then there are bands like these glamorous groups—who managed a record deal, had the hit single and even produced a handful of albums—sometimes well-received albums.

These are the sometimes forgotten girl bands of the 1970s-1980s who may have looked like they borrowed their style from a spandex catalog but actually had greater success and in some instances a greater influence on other bands than is ever recognized….or should I say, admitted.

For example, the Love Machine (above) were originally dancers on the Benny Hill Show and not to be confused with the Italian Love Machine. The Love Machine were one-hit wonders like that other notorious dance group Hot Gossip—who had a major hit with “Starship Trooper.”
 
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Phantom Blue—Heavy Metal band who released four albums between 1986-1997.
 
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The Orchids were a rock/pop/New Wave formed and managed by Kim Fowley—they never quite managed the heights of The Runaways.
 
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Cice-Mace—a Serbian disco-pop band produced by synth pioneer Miha Kralj.
 
More forgotten girl groups, after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.02.2016
02:27 pm
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‘El Bimbo’: Bimbo Jet and the birth of Eurodisco (plus FUNKY dancers!)
09.21.2015
04:49 pm
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This is one of those things I never thought I’d see. At the very least it can be filed under “Things that I never really thought about thinking I’d never see” if that makes any sense. That this unlikely thing exists is a cause for wonderment and joy, nevertheless.

What am I talking about? In the clip below, you can practically see the birth of the Eurodisco genre, when the French duo Bimbo Jet (Claude Morgan and Laurent Rossi) play along with some exuberant dancers on a mid-70s TV variety show. It’s one of only two TV performances I can find of it online by the original artists. The number they are performing is their massive, massive, massive worldwide #1 hit “El Bimbo.” The song was released in France in 1974 and sold well over a million copies. It took about a year for it to take off elsewhere, but when it did take off, the peppy song topped the charts all over the place, even in America, where Bimbo Jet scored themselves a #1 on the Billboard Disco chart and a #2 in the Hot Dance Club Play charts. On the overall Hot 100 chart, “El Bimbo” climbed to #43, not bad for something that would have sounded spectacularly out of place on AM or FM radio at the time.

Many people know this song today as something that they hear street musicians play. This is the original. It slays on the dancefloor. Every DJ worth their salt has played “El Bimbo” and seen people go nuts for it. It’s a guaranteed crowd pleaser. I mean, look how freakin’ HAPPY these people are!
 

 
More “El Bimbo” after the jump…

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Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.21.2015
04:49 pm
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