Editing Disco (section)

====Motown turning disco====
[[Norman Whitfield]] was an influential producer and songwriter at [[Motown records]], renowned for creating innovative "[[psychedelic soul]]" songs with many hits for [[Marvin Gaye]], [[The Velvelettes]], [[The Temptations]], and [[Gladys Knight & the Pips]]. From around the production of the Temptations album ''[[Cloud Nine (The Temptations album)|Cloud Nine]]'' in 1968, he incorporated some psychedelic influences and started to produce longer, dance-friendly tracks, with more room for elaborate rhythmic instrumental parts. An example of such a long psychedelic soul track is "[[Papa Was a Rollin' Stone]]", which appeared as a single edit of almost seven minutes and an approximately 12-minute-long 12" version in 1972. By the early 1970s, many of Whitfield's productions evolved more and more towards [[funk]] and disco, as heard on albums by [[the Undisputed Truth]] and the 1973 album ''[[G.I.T.: Get It Together]]'' by [[The Jackson 5]]. [[The Undisputed Truth]], a Motown recording act assembled by Whitfield to experiment with his psychedelic soul production techniques, found success with their 1971 song "[[Smiling Faces Sometimes]]". Their disco single "You + Me = Love" (number 43) was produced by Whitfield and made number 2 on the [[Dance Club Songs|US dance chart]] in 1976.

In 1975, Whitfield left Motown and founded his own label [[Whitfield records]], on which also "You + Me = Love" was released. Whitfield produced some more disco hits, including "[[Car Wash (song)|Car Wash]]" (1976) by [[Rose Royce]] from the [[Car Wash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack|album soundtrack]] to the 1976 film [[Car Wash (film)|''Car Wash'']]. In 1977, singer, songwriter, and producer [[Willie Hutch]], who had been signed to Motown since 1970, now signed with Whitfield's new label, and scored a successful disco single with his song [[In and Out (Willie Hutch song)|"In and Out"]] in 1982.
 
[[File:Diana Ross 1976.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.85|[[Diana Ross]] in 1976]]
Other Motown artists turned to disco as well. [[Diana Ross]] embraced the disco sound with her successful 1976 outing "[[Love Hangover]]" from her self-titled album. Her 1980 dance classics "[[Upside Down (Diana Ross song)|Upside Down]]" and "[[I'm Coming Out]]" were written and produced by [[Nile Rodgers]] and [[Bernard Edwards]] of the group [[Chic (band)|Chic]]. [[The Supremes]], the group that made Ross famous, scored a handful of hits in the disco clubs without her, most notably 1976's "[[I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do the Walking]]" and, their last charted single before disbanding, 1977's "You're My Driving Wheel".

At the request of Motown that he produce songs in the disco genre, [[Marvin Gaye]] released "[[Got to Give It Up]]" in 1978, despite his dislike of disco. He vowed not to record any songs in the genre and actually wrote the song as a parody. However, several of Gaye's songs have disco elements, including "[[I Want You (Marvin Gaye song)|I Want You]]" (1975). [[Stevie Wonder]] released the disco single "[[Sir Duke]]" in 1977 as a tribute to [[Duke Ellington]], the influential [[jazz]] legend who had died in 1974. [[Smokey Robinson]] left the Motown group [[The Miracles]] for a solo career in 1972 and released his third solo album ''[[A Quiet Storm]]'' in 1975, which spawned and lent its name to the "[[Quiet Storm]]" musical programming format and subgenre of R&B. It contained the disco single "[[Baby That's Backatcha]]". Other Motown artists who scored disco hits were Robinson's former group, the Miracles, with [[Love Machine (The Miracles song)|"Love Machine"]] (1975), [[Eddie Kendricks]] with [[Keep On Truckin' (song)|"Keep On Truckin'"]] (1973), [[The Originals (band)|the Originals]] with "[[Down to Love Town]]" (1976), and [[Thelma Houston]] with her cover of the [[Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes]] song "[[Don't Leave Me This Way]]" (1976). The label continued to release successful songs into the 1980s with [[Rick James]]'s "[[Super Freak]]" (1981), and the [[Commodores]]' "[[Lady (You Bring Me Up)]]" (1981).

Several of Motown's solo artists who left the label went on to have successful disco songs. [[Mary Wells]], Motown's first female superstar with her signature song "[[My Guy]]" (written by Smokey Robinson), abruptly left the label in 1964. She briefly reappeared on the charts with the disco song [[Gigolo (Mary Wells song)|"Gigolo"]] in 1980. [[Jimmy Ruffin]], the elder brother of [[the Temptations]] lead singer [[David Ruffin]], was also signed to Motown and released his most successful and well-known song "[[What Becomes of the Brokenhearted]]" as a single in 1966. Ruffin eventually left the record label in the mid-1970s, but saw success with the 1980 disco song "[[Hold On (To My Love)]]", which was written and produced by [[Robin Gibb]] of the Bee Gees, for his album ''[[Sunrise (Jimmy Ruffin album)|Sunrise]]''. [[Edwin Starr]], known for his Motown protest song "[[War (The Temptations song)|War]]" (1970), reentered the charts in 1979 with a pair of disco songs, "[[Contact (Edwin Starr song)|Contact]]" and "[[H.A.P.P.Y. Radio (song)|H.A.P.P.Y. Radio]]". [[Kiki Dee]] became the first white British singer to sign with Motown in the US, and released one album, ''Great Expectations'' (1970), and two singles "The Day Will Come Between Sunday and Monday" (1970) and "Love Makes the World Go Round" (1971), the latter giving her first-ever chart entry (number 87 on the US Chart). She soon left the company and signed with [[Elton John]]'s [[The Rocket Record Company]], and in 1976 had her biggest and best-known single, "[[Don't Go Breaking My Heart]]", a disco duet with John. The song was intended as an affectionate disco-style pastiche of the Motown sound, in particular the various duets recorded by Marvin Gaye with [[Tammi Terrell]] and [[Kim Weston]].

Many Motown groups who had left the record label charted with disco songs. [[The Jackson 5]], one of Motown's premier acts in the early 1970s, left the record company in 1975 ([[Jermaine Jackson]], however, remained with the label) after successful songs like "[[I Want You Back]]" (1969) and "[[ABC (The Jackson 5 song)|ABC]]" (1970), and even the disco song "[[Dancing Machine]]" (1974). Renamed as 'the Jacksons' (as Motown owned the name 'the Jackson 5'), they went on to find success with disco songs like "Blame It on the Boogie" (1978), "[[Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)]]" (1979), and "Can You Feel It?" (1981) on the Epic label.

[[The Isley Brothers]], whose short tenure at the company had produced the song "[[This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)]]" in 1966, went on release successful disco songs like "[[It's a Disco Night (Rock Don't Stop)]]" (1979). [[Gladys Knight & the Pips]], who recorded the most successful version of "[[I Heard It Through the Grapevine]]" (1967) before Marvin Gaye, scored commercially successful singles such as "Baby, Don't Change Your Mind" (1977) and "Bourgie, Bourgie" (1980) in the disco era. [[The Detroit Spinners]] were also signed to the Motown label and saw success with the Stevie Wonder-produced song "[[It's a Shame (The Spinners song)|It's a Shame]]" in 1970. They left soon after, on the advice of fellow [[Detroit]] native [[Aretha Franklin]], to [[Atlantic Records]], and there had disco songs like "[[The Rubberband Man]]" (1976). In 1979, they released a successful cover of Elton John's "[[Are You Ready for Love]]", as well as a medley of [[The Four Seasons (band)|the Four Seasons]]' song "[[Working My Way Back to You]]" and [[Michael Zager|Michael Zager's]] "Forgive Me, Girl". The Four Seasons themselves were briefly signed to Motown's MoWest label, a short-lived subsidiary for R&B and soul artists based on the West Coast, and there the group produced one album, ''[[Chameleon (The Four Seasons album)|Chameleon]]'' (1972) – to little commercial success in the US. However, one single, [[The Night (Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons song)|"The Night"]], was released in Britain in 1975, and thanks to popularity from the [[Northern Soul]] circuit, reached number seven on the [[UK Singles Chart]]. The Four Seasons left Motown in 1974 and went on to have a disco hit with their song "[[December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)]]" (1975) for [[Warner Curb Records]].