"Y.M.C.A." (An Oral History)

Photo-illlustration by Sean McCabe

Henri Belolo (music producer, from a 2000 interview with disco-disco.com): [In 1975] I was talking to the gay community about what they liked, what they wanted to listen to musically, and what was their dream, their fantasy. One day [producer Jacques Morali and I] were walking in the streets of New York. I remember clearly it was down in the Village, and we saw an Indian walking down the street and heard the bells on his feet. We followed him into a bar. He was a bartender -- he was serving and also dancing on the bar. And while we were watching him dancing and sipping our beer, we saw a cowboy watching him dance. And Jacques and I suddenly had the same idea. We said, "My God, look at those characters." So we started to fantasize about what were the characters of America. The mix, you know, of the American man....And we named it the Village People.

The pair placed an ad that called for MACHO TYPES WITH MUSTACHE, eventually filling the roles of cowboy, cop, construction worker, soldier, leather-clad biker, and Indian. David Hodo, a 28-year-old struggling singer and actor, responded immediately.

David Hodo: I had just finished a musical about the Grand Ole Opry, and I had a mustache. It was Christmastime, and I needed money. They wanted a cowboy, and I had just finished a western -- perfect. But when they said they wanted me to be the construction worker, that was my dad's dream come true. I'm handy, but I've never built anything of consequence.

Victor Willis, who had starred in one of the original productions of The Wiz, would be the lead singer, a cop. A toll collector named Glenn Hughes was the leatherman. Alex Briley originally dressed as a sailor (but switched to a Navy ensign's uniform when performing the group's 1979's hit "In the Navy"). Dancer Felipe Rose, born to a Lakota Sioux father, was, naturally, the Indian. Randy Jones, a singer raised on a North Carolina farm, became the cowboy.

Morali had sold hit-churning label Casablanca (home to Donna Summer and Kiss) on the concept of this boy band even before the roles were cast. The group's first album, 1977's Village People, featured the disco hit "San Francisco (You've Got Me)." The title track of the following year's Macho Man debuted (and peaked) at No. 25 on the charts but later became a gay touchstone.

Randy Jones: Something just clicked with us. We had that spark. Victor was a terrific singer: He had the style of Teddy Pendergrass. He was married to Phylicia Rashad. But we didn't start as a gay group, and not everyone in the group was gay -- that's an incorrect notion. So much of our music was played in black, Latin, and gay underground clubs; that's' where the first Village People album found its initial audience.

Hodo: It was 1977, and we were leaving a photography session on 23rd Street. Jacques Morali saw the big pink YMCA on 23rd and asked, "What is this YMCA, anyway?" And after laughing at his accent, we told him the Y was a place where you could go when you first came to New York when you didn't have any money -- you can stay there for very little. And of course, someone joked, "Yeah, but don't bend over in the showers." And Jacques, bless his heart, said, "I will write a song about this!"

Jones: David's a little off. Yeah, Jacques came up with the idea. But what happened is that when I moved to New York in 1975, I joined the McBurney YMCA on 23rd Street. I took Jacques there three or four times in 1977, and he loved it. He was fascinated by a place where a person could work out with weights, play basketball, swim, take classes, and get a room. Plus, with Jacques being gay, I had a lot of friends I worked out with who were in the adult-film industry, and he was impressed by meeting people he had seen in the videos and magazines. Those visits with me planted a seed in him, and that's how he got the idea for "Y.M.C.A." -- by literally going to the YMCA.

Hodo: We had finished our [third] album, Cruisin', and we needed one more song as a filler. Jacques wrote "Y.M.C.A." in about 20 minutes -- the melody, the chorus, the outline. Then he gave it to Victor Willis and said, "Fill in the rest." I was a bit skeptical about some of our hits, but the minute I heard "Y.M.C.A.," I knew we had something special. Because it sounded like a commercial. And everyone likes commercials.

Jones: It was not intended as a gay anthem. Do you have the lyrics in front of you? There's nothing gay about them. I think Victor wrote the words, but it's all a big fucking mystery. The guy who really deserves the credit is Horace Ott, who arranged the horns and strings. Jacques had the ideas, but Horace transformed them into songs.

Horace Ott: What I loved about "Y.M.C.A." was, to be honest, everything. Great beat, great voice with Victor, great timing in the midst of the disco boom. Now, was it a gay song? I don't know. It certainly appealed to a lot of people who embraced that lifestyle.

Hodo: "Y.M.C.A." certainly has a gay origin. That's what Jacques was thinking when he wrote it, because our first album [1977's Village People] was possibly the gayest album ever. I mean, look at us. We were a gay group. So was the song written to celebrate gay men at the YMCA? Yes. Absolutely. And gay people love it.

Leah Pouw (media relations manager, Young Men's Christian Association): We at the YMCA celebrate the song. It's a positive statement about the YMCA and what we offer to people all around the world.