Village People

Jacques Morali (1947-1991) and Henri Belolo (1936-2018) are concrete proof of a globalized world many years before the term became popular. Two Moroccans who met in France, they carried out their most successful projects in the USA and gained worldwide fame. Together, they realized projects linked to disco music with great commercial and artistic impact, including Village People, The Ritchie Family, Patrick Juvet, Dennis Parker and David London.

Born on November 27, 1936, in Casablanca, Morocco, a city immortalized by the eponymous 1942 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, Henri Belolo began his involvement with music in his native country, importing and promoting record stores.

In 1956, he moved to France (Paris, to be more precise), and there he met the producer and businessman Eddie Barclay, creator of the Barclay record label, who gave him an important boost in his start in a new country. 

Four years after arriving in France, he was hired as a producer and director of A&R (artists and repertoire) for the Polydor record label in that country. He produced records for artists such as George Moustakis, Jeanne Moreau, and Serge Renée. In the late 1960s, he decided to become an entrepreneur, creating a production company and a music publishing house, and getting involved with concerts in France by artists such as the Bee Gees and James Brown. 

Among other things, he can license American recordings for the French market, and this earns him some important contacts, especially with Philadelphia International Records, and more specifically with Sigma Sound studios, located in the American city of Philadelphia. 

A shrewd businessman, Belolo noticed the success that some dance music releases from America were having, especially those from the Miami-based label TK Records, whose hits Rock Your Baby (George McRae) and That's The Way (I Like It) (by KC & The Sunshine Band) were licensed for sale in France through him.

Therefore, he became quite attentive and eager to invest in his own project in the area that would soon be labeled disco music. And that's where a certain Jacques Morali comes into the story, whom Belolo met during one of these business negotiations in the music industry. Certain strong layers quickly became apparent between them. 

Also originally from Casablanca, Morocco, Jacques Morali was born on July 4, 1947. Upon moving to Paris, he began a musical career, initially as a singer and songwriter. In 1967, he released a double single with four of his songs: Elle Aimé Elle N'Aimé Pas (listen here), Sans Famille, Le Silence Et Le Bruit and J'Suis Mignone Hein? A very charming pop rock. 

Besides composing music for shows by the Crazy Horse company in Paris, he also got involved with the bureaucratic side of the music industry, and it was on one occasion that he met Henri Belolo. Knowing that Belolo was looking for new ideas for his own musical project, he proposed some. And one in particular turned out to be very interesting to Belolo. 

In 1975, disco music was beginning to emerge strongly, and one of the ways some producers entered this area was by investing in reinterpretations of songs from other musical styles. 

E Morali envisioned recycling the sound of American musicals from the 1940s, especially those involving Carmen Miranda and choreographer Busby Berkeley. One song in particular fascinated him: "Brazil," Bob Russell's English version of the classic "Aquarela do Brasil" by Ary Barroso. 

Without hesitation, Henri Belolo, who had opened two offices for his production company, Can't Stop Productions, in New York and Philadelphia, went to the latter American city and contacted his friends at Philadelphia International Records (PIR) and Sigma Sounds Studios. 

Since they envisioned having vocals in the vein of the Andrew Sisters and other American female vocal groups of the genre, they recruited three studio singers: Barbara Ingram and cousins ​​Carla and Evette Benson, known for their participation in anthological recordings by artists such as Patty LaBelle, John Davis, Billy Paul, Lou Rawls, and many others. 

Among the musicians were some of Philadelphia's most famous, including legendary drummer Earl Young, known for inventing the disco beat with the recording "The Love I Lost" (1973) by the group Harold Melvin & Foi (some say only lip-syncing the songs, as the trio Barbara-Carla-Evette continued recording) and the Philadelphia musicians who recorded The Ritchie Family's second album, Arabian Nights, released in 1976 and reaching number 30 in the US, propelled by the track "The Best Disco In Town" (listen here), which came from a clever idea by the producers.

They created a great chorus that served as a springboard to incorporate snippets of various dance hits, some quite recent, such as Fly Robin Fly (by the trio Silver Convention), Love To Love You Baby (Donna Summer), Bad Luck (Harold Melvin), and As Notas Azuis. As a single, it was a huge success, reaching number 17 on the US pop charts, and peaking at number 11 on the American pop charts. 

Excited, Morali and Belolo wasted no time and released The Ritchie Family's first album in 1976. Titled Brazil, the LP sold well, reaching number 53 in the US and mixing other artists' songs with original compositions. Besides the title track, another hit from the album was Life Is Fascination (listen here), which in Brazil was featured on the soundtrack of the Globo telenovela Anjo Mau (1976). 

The previously unreleased songs from Brazil bear the signature of Morali, who was responsible for the melodies, Belolo, who came up with the ideas for the lyrics, and, in this specific case, the lyricist Beauris Whitehead (later, other lyricists, such as Peter Whitehead and Phil Hurtt, would also contribute). 

These additional partners came on board because Belolo and Morali didn't feel comfortable enough writing lyrics in English, and their partners took on the task of translating the verses originally written in French and formatting them correctly into sentences in the British language. 

With the success of their first project and receiving invitations for shows and TV appearances, The Ritchie Family needed to have its own identity, and singers Cheryl Mason Jacks, Cassandra Ann Wooten, and Gwendolyn Oliver were invited to record as official members of the trio. 

It was with them (some say only by lip-syncing the songs, as the trio Barbara-Carla-Evette continued recording) and the Philadelphia musicians that they recorded The Ritchie Family's second album. Arabian Nights was released in 1976 and reached number 30 in the US, boosted by the track The Best Disco In Town (listen here), which came from a clever idea by the producers. 

They created a great chorus that served as a springboard to incorporate snippets of various dance hits, some quite recent, such as Fly Robin Fly (by the trio Silver Convention), Love To Love You Baby (Donna Summer), Bad Luck (Harold Melvin), and As Notas Azuis. As a single, it was a huge success, reaching number 17 on the US pop charts.

In 1977, however, The Ritchie Family's momentum dropped considerably, with the release of two albums that didn't fare very well commercially: Life Is Music (listen to the title track here) and African Queens. 

From here, things got complicated. The three vocalists were surprisingly fired, replaced by Ednah Holt, Jacqui Smith Lee, and Dodie Draher. The first album of this new phase, American Generation (1978), also failed, even with a great title track (listen here) and musicians from New York, which I will discuss later. 

The group released two more albums produced by Henri Belolo and Jacques Morali, Bad Reputation (1979, featuring "Put Your Feet To The Beat," which was played on Brazilian radio, listen here) and Give Me a Break (1980), but both were even worse. And the creators abandoned their creations. 

In 1982, the remaining girls released I'll Do My Best, produced by Mauro Malavasi of the group Change, without much impact, and left the scene with All Night All Right (1983), returning in 2011 with two of the members from the golden era for nostalgic and thematic disco music shows. There was a reason why they were, in a way, discarded. 

Let's go back to 1977. Jacquer Morali, who was gay (while Belolo was heterosexual), frequented the nightclubs and bars of New York, particularly those in Greenwich Village. In one of them, they saw some patrons wearing outfits that equated to macho stereotypes. One day, taking his friend Belolo to see this, he had an idea that changed both of their lives forever. 

"What do you think about creating a group of six men characterized as iconic figures of masculinity, singing disco music and dancing to infectious choreography?" 

Belolo hesitated at first, but soon discovered the potential of his friend's idea and agreed to invest in this new project, which came in handy, considering that The Ritchie Family was showing signs of commercial fatigue. 

Born in Dallas, Texas, on July 1, 1951, the son of a Baptist pastor, Willis moved to New York City with the intention of entering the entertainment industry. After recording some solo singles without much success, he found success in theatrical performances, and The Wiz became his showcase for stardom.  

As inspiration for the creation of the new group Vinha de Nova York, Belolo and Morali felt it would make more sense to record their first album in the Big Apple, and with local musicians. They chose arranger, composer, pianist, and producer Horace Ott (1933) to handle the arrangements and also to assemble a band that could create a different and original sound.

Co-author of the classic "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (a hit with The Animals in the 1960s and successfully reinterpreted by Santa Esmeralda in a disco version), Horace Ott's resume included work with artists of the caliber of Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Doris Troy, The Stylistics, and Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. (the arrangement of the beautiful "You Don't Have To Be a Star" – listen here).

The band was assembled with experienced and talented musicians such as Alfonso Carey (bass), Russell Dabney (drums), Jimmy Lee (lead guitar), Rodger Lee (rhythm guitar), Nathaniel "Croker" Wilke (keyboards), Richard Trifan (keyboards), and several percussionists and brass sections. 

The group's name paid homage to an inspiring source: Village People. The four songs (all long) were written in that Belolo and Morali style with the support of lyricists Pete Whitehead and Phil Hurtt. Victor Willis recorded all the vocals, as Can't Stop Productions was in a hurry and couldn't wait to recruit all the members. 

The album "Village People" was released on July 18, 1977, and was a great success thanks to the track "San Francisco (You Got Me)" (listen here), which became a kind of template for the group's other hits, based on brass openings, Willis leading the song in the best R&B singer style, and killer choruses. The album reached number 54 on the pop chart. 

With the success of the songs on the radio and dance floors, invitations for live performances soon followed. It was necessary to have a schedule planned. Willis played a policeman. Felipe Rose, whom Belolo and Morali met in nightclubs, became an Indian. After a selection process, Alex Briley (soldier), Glenn Hughes (biker), David Hodo (construction worker), and Randy Jones (cowboy) were chosen to complete the cast. 

Without wasting any time, Can't Stop Productions put the group in the studio, and on February 2, 1978, the album Macho Man hit stores, reaching number 24 on the pop charts, propelled by the fun title track (listen here), which in single format reached number 25 in the US. 

One interesting thing is that Victor Willis became a partner in the songs on this new album, being the main lyricist, either alone or with the other names mentioned earlier. Another interesting fact is the opening of Macho Man, which would be recycled in several other VP songs. 

With a music video that made good use of the visual appeal and choreography of its six members, "Macho Man" quickly became a worldwide hit, captivating everyone from children to adults, even with its double entendre and gay connotation lyrics, something that marked all of Village People's work. 

The disco era was marked by the eagerness of its producers to offer new products to fans, and this explains the fact that, on September 25, 1978, that is, only seven months after the release of Macho Man, the Village People's 3rd album arrived in stores. 

What an album! Cruisin' marks the moment when the formula created by Morali, Belolo, Horace Ott and the participating musicians (who became known as the band Gipsy Lane) reached perfection. 

Their most explosive track, YMCA (listen here), with unbelievable lyrics praising the Young Men's Christian Association, reached number 2 in the US, prevented from reaching the top by Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, Rod Stewart's disco-inspired track.

And the LP had two more killer gems, the medley The Women/I'm a Cruiser (listen here), one of the most perfect tracks of the disco era, complete with a beautiful tribute to women. In this way, Cruisin' was the Village People's most successful album, reaching number 3 in the US.

The party couldn't stop, and so, on March 26, 1979, Go West was released, while the previous album was still receiving good reviews. And it worked, as it reached the 8th position among albums, with hits like I Wanna Shake Your Hand (listen here) and the title track (listen here), which in the 1990s would be successfully covered by the Pet Shop Boys. 

The most memorable track, however, was In The Navy (listen here), with a music video featuring US Navy ships, which was even considered for use in an enlistment campaign, a decision that was ultimately vetoed at the last minute. A delightful hit with its handclap beat that reached number 3 on the US singles chart. 

From this point on, things started to get complicated for the "Village People." On one side, there emerged the abominable Disco Sucks movement, spearheaded by DJs and rockers resentful of the success of disco music, whose stars were often women, gays, and Latinos. Pure prejudice. 

On the other hand, there was the wear and tear caused by the excessive media exposure of disco music, as well as the derivative nature of many recordings of the genre during this period, full of opportunistic producers and artists wanting to profit from the "sound of the moment". 

It is amidst this climate of weariness and hostility that Morali and Belolo attempt to shake things up and innovate with the release, in September 1979, of the double album Live And Sleazy. One LP features a recording of a warm live Village People show, with upbeat versions of their hits and marking the unexpected departure of vocalist Victor Willis. 

Riding the wave of success with the group, Willis wanted to break away from the disco world and shine on his own. That same year, 1979, he recorded the album Solo Man, featuring his own compositions exploring funk and soul music. This work, however, was only released in 2015. 

The other LP, recorded in a studio, features Ray Simpson, Willis's replacement and brother of the acclaimed singer-songwriter Valerie Simpson (of the duo Ashford & Simpson). The repertoire attempted to innovate the style, especially in the disco rock of Sleasy (listen here), with working-class David Hodo on lead vocals.

The album underperformed their previous ones, reaching number 32 on the pop chart. Its only hit single was the curious and somewhat prophetic "Ready For The 80's" (listen here), which, with Simpson on lead vocals, reached number 52 on the pop chart. It would be their last hit in the US. 

In that same turbulent year of 1979, Morali and Belolo teamed up with Alan Carr, producer of the film Grease (1978), to create a film starring the Village People and featuring actors Steve Guttenberg (later famous for the Police Academy films) and Valerie Perrine (of Lenny and Superman 1 and 2). 

Appropriately titled Can't Stop The Music (an allusion to Morali and Belolo's production company and the prejudice against disco), the film was released in May 1980, when disco music was in decline, and failed miserably at the box office. 

We have two interesting things about this album. One is an attempt to bring new energy to The Ritchie Family, which appears with three tracks, including Give Me a Break (listen here), which is very cool, but unfortunately didn't do very well on the charts. 

The other artist is a singer named David London, who performed the songs The Sound Of The City (which was a hit in Brazil, listen here) and Samantha. And he has a curious story that's worth telling briefly here. 

Well, what to do with the Village People after the failure of Can't Stop The Music and the decline of disco music? Their producers opted for a radical solution. To begin with, the members traded their usual outfits and began dressing inspired by the then-effervescent new wave and new romantic movements, wearing colorful clothes and fashionable hairstyles of the time.

Em termos musicais, então, a troca foi ainda mais brusca, deixando uma batida disco de lado e mergulhando de cabeça na new wave e no soft rock. Na nova banda de apoio e também ajudando a compor algumas músicas, o baixista Howie Epstein (1955-2003), que em 1982 substituiu Ron Blair na banda seminal Tom Petty and The Hearbreakers. 

The resulting album from this true metamorphosis, Renaissance, released in June 1981, is disconcerting and paradoxical. The songs are good and the arrangements excellent, but they are totally different from the Village People. It lost its soul, the core of the group. If it had been released by a new group, who knows, it might have been a hit, but with them, it didn't get past number 138 in the US. 

Do You Wanna Spend The Night (listen here), for example, wouldn't have sounded out of place on an Eagles or Little River Band album, with its upbeat soft rock feel. Great! Meanwhile, Food Fight (listen here) could have been included on an album by the American new wave band Devo. And so on. 

After another failure, the next attempt was a return by Victor Willis, who recorded the album Fox On The Box with the band, released in July 1982, which curiously was not released at the time in the US, France, and the UK. The failure of the LP, a somewhat misguided bet on the R&B sound of the time, à la Prince and the like, led Willis to leave once again. 

In 1985, with Ray Stephens on lead vocals, the group offered us the peculiar Sex Over The Phone, whose title track (see the video here) was premonitoryly inspired by remote sex, when AIDS was becoming a sad reality. The video is hilarious and bizarre. 

With yet another failure behind them, and for other reasons that I will address later, Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo left the Village People in 1985. The band returned about three years later, led by some of its former members (including Ray Simpson), once again wearing the outfits from their golden era and focusing on shows that revered the disco music era.

In addition to Village People and The Ritchie Family, Can't Stop Production invested in two more artists worth highlighting. One of them is the Swiss singer-songwriter based in France, Patrick Juvet (1950-2021), about whom Mondo Pop wrote an extensive article upon his death (read it here).

The other is a more curious case. It concerns Dennis Parker (1946-1985), a name used in the music industry by the American actor Dennis Posa, also known by the moniker Wade Nichols in the pornographic films in which he participated. As an actor, he played the role of police chief Derek Mallory in the television series The Edge Of Night between 1979 and 1984. 

Posa/Nichols/Parker dated Jacques Morali, who decided to pursue a musical career for him. Using essentially the same team that worked on Village People albums and the final phase of The Ritchie Family, he put his boyfriend in the studio. On March 1, 1979, the result of this project was released: the surprisingly good album Like An Eagle. 

Okay, Parker's voice is quite limited and has a small range, but the producers managed to incorporate it in a way that doesn't interfere with the music. In the spectacular title track, for example (listen here), his whispering and sensual interpretation fits well with the midtempo disco vibe, making it an engaging cult classic for dance floors. 

The best-known tracks are the excellent "Why Don't You Boogie" and "I'm a Dancer," which appear in sequence without interruption on the album (listen here) and could easily have featured on Village People's best albums, as they have that contagious style.

The album had relatively limited success among the most loyal disco audience, but it had a good reception in Brazil, even bringing the singer here to participate in some TV and radio programs. I'm a Dancer was included in the soundtrack of the Globo soap opera Marrom Glacê (1979). 

Dennis Parker's singing career was revived with this album, likely due to its limited commercial success and also the end of his relationship with Morali. Sadly, one of the first famous victims of the HIV virus, they passed away on January 28, 1985, at only 34 years old.

And that's exactly where the reason why the partnership that generated so many hits ended comes in. In 1985, Jacques Morali was also revealed to have the HIV virus, and from then on he disappeared from the scene, with Belolo returning to the old scheme of licensing music for the French market, especially dance hits. Morali passed away on November 15, 1991. 

Although less so than contemporary producers, Morali and Belolo also collaborated with other artists. The diva Cher, for example, recorded one of their songs, Rudy (listen here), on the album I Paralize (1982), a song previously recorded in French by the Franco-Egyptian star Dalida.

Belolo and Morali only worked on one project outside the disco music world. It was with the rap/hip hop trio Break Machine, led by composer Keith Rogers. The album they produced for the group went unnoticed in the US, but the single "Street Dance" (listen here) reached number 3 in the UK in 1984 and is very good. 

Morali also produced and composed music for the album I Love Men (1984) by the celebrated American singer and actress Eartha Kitt (1927-2008), best known in Brazil for playing Catwoman in the Batman TV series in the 1960s. The title track is great, as is the music video (see here).

After the end of the Village People's partnership with Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, six of its members, including Ray Simpson, formed the production company Sixuvus in 1987. From then on, they began performing shows all over the world, with the look of their classic phase. 

In this way, they managed to keep the group's name active, participating in TV programs and releasing occasional singles, including a bizarre one with the German national team that competed in the 1994 World Cup in the USA, Far Away In America (see the video here). 

Meanwhile, their former lead singer, Victor Willis, became involved with drugs and was even arrested and later admitted to a rehabilitation clinic to overcome his addiction. Things started to improve for him, curiously, from 2012 onwards, when he won the first lawsuit in American court for the rights to the songs he wrote with the Village People. 

This legal dispute ended in 2017, when Willis not only managed to retain the share of royalties previously belonging to Henri Belolo, but also became the owner of the rights to use the Village People brand for shows, outmaneuvering Sixuvus. 

Since then, the Village People have once again featured Victor Willis as their lead vocalist, along with five supporting members chosen to assist him in live performances. In 2018, the group recorded a new album, A Village People Christmas, with Christmas songs written by Willis.

VILLAGE PEOPLE - FUTPEDIAMUSIC SELECTION

Village People

Futpediamusic Selection

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, the creators of the Village People - Mondo Pop" (in English). December 28, 2022. Accessed March 25, 2024.