30 years to the day since the release of 10-minute "Here Comes the Night"

[KokoMoses]

I blame Bruce for my lifelong fear of guys in tight white short shorts!

[the captain]

I blame Bruce for my lifelong fear of guys in tight white short shorts!

And I thank Freddie Mercury for curing me of mine.

[KokoMoses]

Yes, and Freddy did the same thing for moustaches! 

[Jon Stebbins]

I think the ultimate verdict is how fast the BB's dropped HCTN disco from their set list. After going through a major effort to prepare their live presentation of that song, obviously with the hope it would be a hit, it was gone after a few gigs.

I think the ultimate verdict is that the group chose to play it on national TV (The Midnight Special), it reached #44 on the charts which was higher than most of their singles in the 1970's, and, although I don't have the chart info in front of me, I'm pretty sure the 12" single also did well on those special disco singles charts. I think the negative affect of the "disco" experiment was overrated; don't give HCTN THAT much credit. It was quickly forgotten, like most of The Beach Boys' records of that era....

It peaked at number 48 on the Billboard Disco chart. I think its safe to assume that they performed it on Midnight Special because they were putting all their promotional chips on it at the time of filming. Unfortunately the single had fallen off the charts by the time the episode aired, and the band had already eliminated it from their set list. You say it was "quickly forgotten". You might have forgotten it, but I know a whole bunch of people who didn't.

[KokoMoses]

Well, hell, let's build a bonfire and round up the few remaining HCTN 12inch singles and LA copies and toss em in?

Maybe we can also find some faded old "DISCO SUCKS" shirts! 

[Jon Stebbins]

Well, hell, let's build a bonfire and round up the few remaining HCTN 12inch singles and LA copies and toss em in?

Maybe we can also find some faded old "DISCO SUCKS" shirts! 

Maybe we need to stop taking this so seriously.

[the captain]

Maybe we need to stop taking this so seriously.

I don't think this:

I blame Bruce for my lifelong fear of guys in tight white short shorts!

is someone taking things too seriously.

[KokoMoses]

well you haven't had MY nightmares!!!!

Speaking of Disco: Pink Floyd!!!! even went disco!!!

Another Brick In The Wall kinda/sorta counts, right?

And guess who's on that track?? BRUCE!

well, he IS singing on that album and might have been an influence

Hmmmm, maybe there is a point to all this 

[Shady]

Are we sure Bruce didn't ghost write the entire 'Saturday Night Fever' soundtrack 

[melissalynn]

Somehow, that wouldn't surprise me.

[KokoMoses]

I heard he's working on a 25 minute disco re-working of Disney Girls as we speak!

[art rush]

4 pages of replies!! I really wasn't expecting this.. I love you guys 

[Jay]

I think the ultimate verdict is how fast the BB's dropped HCTN disco from their set list. After going through a major effort to prepare their live presentation of that song, obviously with the hope it would be a hit, it was gone after a few gigs.

Funny you should mention that. I was lucky enough to hear one of the rare times it was done live, and I wondered at the time how they pulled it off. Did they use backing tapes? It sounded a lot like the album version.

[astroray]

My only wish is that the track could have been longer.

[PongHit]

Kiss's disco album, DYNASTY, was released in Oct. 1979, The Rolling Stones didn't issue "Emotional Rescue" until 1980, & The Grateful Dead's GO TO HEAVEN was also from '80.  B-Boys may not have been cutting edge on the disco scene, but they arrived late to the party with some high-profile company...

[petsite]

Let's boogie............

[petsite]

Also kind of interesting that this track has never been released on CD in the states (the 4:28 edit), even though it has been remeastered by both Andrew Sandoval and Mark Linett.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Also kind of interesting that this track has never been released on CD in the states (the 4:28 edit), even though it has been remeastered by both Andrew Sandoval and Mark Linett.

It shoulda been on SOME comp, probably the boxed-set...

[Pretty Funky]

So you clubbers of the late 70s....did you ever hear it played?

[Steve Mayo]

i can remember hearing both the 45 version and lp version being played. plus i have a lot of old billboard magazines stashed away in the house. i can remember seeing the song being added to the disco playlists around the country in those early '79 billboards.. so it was getting played before they withdrew the single.

[Jon Stebbins]

Kiss's disco album, DYNASTY, was released in Oct. 1979, The Rolling Stones didn't issue "Emotional Rescue" until 1980, & The Grateful Dead's GO TO HEAVEN was also from '80.  B-Boys may not have been cutting edge on the disco scene, but they arrived late to the party with some high-profile company...

If you are alluding that the Stones and Kiss arrived at the disco party later or (as late) than the BB's you are forgetting the Stones had cut disco in way back '76 with Hot Stuff, and had a huge disco hit in '78 with Miss You, Ace Frehley/Kiss had a hit in '78 with Back in the NY Groove, so they'd been at that party long before the BB's arrived in '79.

[Steve Mayo]

a quick search thru a box of stuff located me 2 billboards from march 1979. 1st one dated march 10th 1979 has the single at 73 with a star (up 10 places). also has the single listed the radio action playlists as being a breakout in the north central region and the mid-atlantic region.
the 2nd issue is dated march 24th 1979. inside of back cover has full page ad for the group and lp (for the first time in years, the genius of the beach boys comes to light).  single at # 55 with a star (up from 63). on album radio action playlist top add on in midwest region and as breakout in southeast region and northeast region. also has a review for the la light lp. funny..they say outside of HCTN "not much else on the album is very stimulating"
yep...difference in opinions is what makes the world go round... 

[the captain]

also has a review for the la light lp. funny..they say outside of HCTN "not much else on the album is very stimulating"

Any other comments in the review that are interesting? I love reading reviews written upon release of older albums: they always show just how fluid sensibilities are over time.

[Howie Edelson]

Plus don't forget that the Stones' "Fingerprint File" from 'It's Only Rock 'n' Roll' was started in late '73 at Musicland. So they're WAY ahead of the curve. Also those 'Black And Blue' tracks stem from '75 -- that's still on the early side of "disco."

But in truth, the Stones never "went" disco. They just went four on the floor. HUGE difference.

[petsite]

Review:
LA (Light Album)
The Beach Boys
Dave Marsh - May 31, 1979

The Beach Boys are easily the most overrated group in rock & roll history---which presents the reviewer with a problem: simply stating the facts invites an overreaction from the band's maundering cult who exaggerate the surf bums' importance. But the truth is that Brian Wilson was never a musical genius, though he executed some of the most crafty reworkings of Phil Spector's production style ever done and, for a few years, tapped into the heart line of teenage lifestyle; that the Beach Boys have not made great rock music since Wild Honey; that the Beach Boys have not made competent pop music since Holland.

Like the LPs that preceded it. L.A. (Light Album), the Beach Boys' CBS-distribution debut, offers hope to the faithful with a mix of the barely listenable and distant echoes of the good old days. Even the vaunted disco track, "Here Comes the Night," is not so much a sellout as it is simple padding.

The saving grace of L.A. (Light Album) is the coproduction team of Bruce Johnston and Jim Guercio. Johnston and Guercio operate from an atavistic memory of what the group sounded like when it was still half alive, and come up with a few songs worth hearing: "Good Timin'" has sufficient massed voices to evoke the days of hot-rod trivia, while "Sumahama" is kind of cute, though Mike Love has sung more flat notes by now than anyone else in rock history (a triumph in the face of considerable competition). Of the rest, only "Baby Blue" is as exotic and portentous as it would like to be. And "Baby Blue," like the Beach Boys themselves, is going nowhere.

Don't get me wrong. It would be easy to attack L.A. (Light Album) as an awful record, if only out of spite for being bored to death by the jabbering of the Beach Boys' champions. But this LP is worse than awful. It is irrelevant.