BIO: The Trammps - Disco Champs

If you ask a knowledgeable American who were THE TRAMMPS, and what song did they play? The answer was always the same, half right and half wrong."THE TRAMMPS were one of the first DISCO bands and they played BURN BABY BURN ,DISCO INFERNO!"

Rightfully so,but by the time THE TRAMMPS had released their most commercially successful song, their brilliant, and by far, their best stuff was behind them.

Included in that, is what could be called THE FIRST DISCO RECORD. "Zing, Went The Strings Of My Heart". This Philadelphia based band's CLASSIC song, was so danceable, so soulful, so sexy, so great a performance by a fantastic group of musicians, that things changed in NEW YORK CITY night clubs. Now they were being referred to as DISCOS. And the song being played in these DISCO was ZING WENT THE STRINGS OF MY HEART!!! THE FIRST DISCO RECORDING!!! There it is, finally found the first song of DISCO!

Let me tell you, I communicated with hundreds of other deejays and asked for help! I researched many sites, asked many questioned to a lot of people. I DO BELIEVE THAT "Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart" in fact, is THE FIRST DISCO song!! Before it, we called this music R&B or Rock N' Roll. THE TRAMMPS changed that, they created the STANDARD DISCO song, and the standard to which all others would be judged by.

They are then, in fact, THE FIRST DISCO BAND!!! -----They had huge hits in the early to mid seventies. SIXTY MINUTE MAN, LOVE EPIDEMIC, HOLD BACK THE NIGHT, oh, this next one is another DISCO CLASSIC, "DISCO,THAT'S WHERE THE HAPPY PEOPLE GO" (this was a huge HIT record)!

Another DISCO CLASSIC was "THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT" to commemorate the electrical blackout in NEW YORK CITY in 1977. But their biggest seller, another DISCO CLASSIC( is that three or four DISCO CLASSICS) DISCO INFERNO was part of the soundtrack to the blockbuster SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER Academy Award nominated movie. DISCO INFERNO was the Y.M.C.A. or ELECTRIC SLIDE song of its time. A very big house party following. In weddings, juke boxes, mobile deejays, it was played everywhere all the time.

Many a DISCO that went down in flames, made the mistake, of somehow playing DISCO INFERNO on their 1200's as flames devoured and engulfed the DISCO! It was always a give-a-way that 'Jewish Lightning" had struck.----- I had the pleasure of working with THE TRAMMPS at various locations throughout the years. They were excellent musicians and outstanding professionals. They were mostly a great bunch of friends playing DISCO together. THE TRAMMPS belong in the HALL OF FAME!! They were responsible for a lot, including being the first.

Reprinted with permission from Bernard F. Lopez
http://www.discomusic.com

-- #72 Posted on Sunday, March 22, 2009 --