These are TheKnightOfNee's Top Ten Italo Disco Songs ranked for Ed Bellis's What Would You Do.
Top 10 Italo Disco Songs[]
"What the hell kind of a list is this"
Italo Disco! A lovely genre of music that not many people know about, or care about, perhaps. Italo Disco was what came about when disco "died" in the US, but it was still popular in Europe. They took the style of disco, and combined it with the electronic sounds of the 80's. The end result? Possibly the greatest (or worst) style of music ever created. This is the perfect music for my tastes. The songs are incredibly catchy and upbeat. They use all sorts of cheesy electronic sounds that are outlawed these days. The lyrics are in English usually, but never written by people who actually speak English, so the words are all nonsense and/or incomprehensible. What is understandable in the lyrics often deals with love, or space robots. And by posting this list, I've probably brought several facets of my life into question, from my sexuality to my sanity. But it's okay, I know where I stand.
10. Sabrina - Boys
http://media.putfile.com/Sabrina---Boys
Well, like I said above, this list will bring my sexuality into question. Let's get the biggest cause of this out of the way first, then, shall we?
I first heard this song in DDR, actually, as a remixed version of the song is in the game. I love this song because it is filled with catchy bits. The main chorus and hook are simple and get stuck in my head easily. And though the lyrics make this song kind of iffy, you have to remember, these people don't really know too much of what they're saying.
PLEASE DON'T GET SCARED AND LEAVE YET, IT GETS BETTER
9. Ken Laszlo - Hey Hey Guy
http://media.putfile.com/Ken-Laszlo---Hey-Hey-Guy
This song starts off with a telephone conversation. What they say, I have no idea. It might be two males who love each other, but then the other voice could be a space robot, based on italo disco standards. This song has one of those simple beats that backs the whole song, but keeps the whole thing upbeat and poppy. Those are also important in italo disco. There's not too much else to note in this song, other than the title being kind of goofy.
8. Denise and Baby's Gang - Disco Maniac
http://media.putfile.com/Babys-Gang---Disco-Maniac
This is an italo disco song about... disco, I guess. There's some really nifty things in this song. I don't know how to describe it, but those monkey-ish sound effects that make up passages are pretty fun. Added to that is the heavy accent of the singer that you can't understand very much, except for the chorus, which I'm sure they actually practiced to make sure it sounded really English. This also really captures the fun, upbeat nature of the genre.
7. King Kong and the D. Jungle Girls - Bingo
http://media.putfile.com/King-King-and-D-Jungle-Girls---Bingo
I'll say this first, this song is the king of all ridiculous lyrics.
It begins with a counting sequence. You know, like, one, two, three, four. But it's not just that. They start over and do it again. They go on to eight. They do some numbers twice. And they basically get stuck on the opening count for nearly two minutes of the song. And that is the most amazing thing ever.
The rest of the song is pretty cool too. Lots of random nonsense words and sounds and a cool piano.
6. King Kong and the D. Jungle Girls - Boom Boom Dollar
http://media.putfile.com/King-Kong-and-D-Jungle-Girls-Boom-Boom-Dollar
This band is the only band to appear on this list twice. And that's what happens when you actually buy a CD by King Kong and the D. Jungle Girls. "lol"
This song is probably the most familiar so far. It's a fairly popular song in DDR. A lot of people love it due it being a catchy song, and other people make fun of it because it's so off the wall. Both are good qualities in my opinion. These lyrics especially make little sense. "Tell me whyiyiyiyi, you keep a pocket full of green green dollars, I love you though it's the time, you're very hard you sound like a young fella, take me on the night." They don't even use real words sometimes, like in, "boom boom boom boom, shift it like a bambar."
Also, this song has like ten fake endings and mix-ups later on, both of which make for hilarious and fun music.
5. Aki - Magic Love
http://media.putfile.com/Aki-Magic-Love
I made myself a CD of Italo Disco music, and stuck this track on first. Whenever I put that CD in, this is the track I hear first, so I've heard it many times, and I haven't grown tired of it. It's a pretty good textbook example of what italo disco should be. While having a slow bpm, the song still is of an upbeat nature. The chorus to this is one of the catchiest of all.
4. Baltimora - Tarzan Boy
http://media.putfile.com/Baltimora---Tarzan-Boy-52
Okay, most of you should know this song. Like a couple other rare italo disco songs, this one caught on in the mainstream. And there's a good reason this song caught on. That tarzan chorus is damn catchy. I love some of the sound effects in this too. There's not much more to say, as you should be familiar with this song.
3. Hypnosis - Argonauts
http://media.putfile.com/Hypnosis---Argonauts
This is the only song on this list without vocals. As a result, this song is missing the humor and fun those would normally provide. But this song takes several very catchy musical passages and puts them all together throughout the song. There isn't any one part where they all play, but it goes back and forth between a few of them. If also has a couple bass rhythm to break things up, and a really well done fake ending. This captures the perfect musical essence of the genre, but it just excludes the lyrics.
2. Miko Mission - How Old Are You?
http://media.putfile.com/Miko-Mission---How-Old-Are-You
The chorus:
"Now how old are you? Where is your harbor?
Have many things to do, open the door.
Yes, I love so true, without my lover.
But tell me if the sky is blue, how old are you?"
I don't need to say much more than that. Oh, and this song is pretty darn catchy and well done in all other aspects too.
1. Digital Emotion - Go Go Yellow Screen
http://media.putfile.com/Digital-Emotion---Go-Go-Yellow-Screen
This song deals a lot with robots and computers or something. Actually, there aren't many lyrics in this song. 8+ minutes, and the lyrics are probably only in a couple different minutes. But really, the lyrics aren't the main focus of this song.
This song has all the great cheesy sound effects. Space laser gun effects, explosion sounds, the lyrics thrown through all kinds of vocoder styles, odd spurts of drum machine sounds. The song is upbeat thanks a simple backing sound that stays through nearly the whole song. And like Argonauts above, this song, combines several melodies and rhythms that are catchy on their own together. Not to mention this song has what I find the catchiest hook ever. At one point, the song builds up and builds up, then seems to end... then erupts into that catchy segment and it is amazing.
If you stayed with the list and read this far, then thank you for giving this more unknown genre of music a chance. It may be full of cheesiness and (possibly unintentional) humor, but it is very fun and exciting to listen to this music. People usually like to listen to music for the emotion it conveys, and I find this music is lighthearted and fun. So if you ever want to hear music like that, this is a good place to turn.