Posted on 05/02/2021 4:40:14 PM PDT by SamAdams76
This historical disco recording is referred by some to be "the apotheosis of the dance" and is considered a landmark musical achievement of the disco era.
"Let's All Chant" is basically an uptempo disco song with Baroque overtones, driven by a repetitive bass line, handclaps and numerous vocal hooks (such as "Ah-ah, eh-eh, let's all chant" and some more complex lyrics such as "Your body, my body, everybody work your body").
Without wanting to get into too much detail for laypeople, these lyrics are essentially about dancing and working one's body. The song's instrumentation also includes Afro-Cuban drums, a rollicking piano line and an ensemble of wind instruments, marked by a piccolo trumpet solo which sounds like it's straight out of a JS Bach ricecar fugue.
Yet this quirky and infectious song almost never happened. Composer Michael Zager was at first embarrassed at the concept when offered a commission to create a catchy "danceable" song that incorporated the "Ooh-ah, Ooh-ah" chants that were popular on dance floors at the time. Zager consoled himself by adding in a piccolo trumpet and other wind instruments to lend the composition some classical chops and the rest is musical history.
I knew that, but their music on the show was still pretty much bubblegum to me.
Yep. But remember that target audience for that show was 11-17 year old girls.
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