New York-born singer Brenda K. Starr had the opportunity to make her first demo at the age of 12. Two years later, Starr was signing up for her first record deal and climbing music charts with Grammy-nominated pop ballad "I Still Believe" and a club/dance song called "What You See Is What You Get." Brenda K. Starr decided to turn to tropical... [+] Read More

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There can be little argument that Chic was disco's greatest band; and, working in a heavily producer-dominated field, they were most definitely a band. By the time Chic appeared in the late '70s, disco was already slipping into the excess that eventually caused its downfall. Chic bucked the trend by stripping disco's sound down to its... [+] Read More

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Donna Summer's title as the "Queen of Disco" wasn't mere hype -- she was one of the very few disco performers to enjoy a measure of career longevity, and her consistent chart success was rivaled in the disco world only by the Bee Gees. Summer was certainly a talented vocalist, trained as a powerful gospel belter, but then again, so were many of... [+] Read More

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Perhaps second only to Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor has become one of the best-known female disco artists from the '70s due to the ongoing success of her monster 1979 hit (and subsequent "woman's anthem"), "I Will Survive." Born Gloria Fowles on September 7, 1949, in Newark, NJ, the singer (who began going by Gloria Gaynor by the early '70s),... [+] Read More

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Best remembered for her number one R&B hit "Rockin' Chair" from 1975, Gwen McCrae was a gutsy Southern soul diva with a particular affinity for dance tracks. Along with her husband George ("Rock Your Baby"), Gwen was part of the Miami-based T.K. Records stable, which laid a great deal of groundwork for the disco explosion. Born Gwen Mosley in... [+] Read More

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Singer Jimmy Somerville lent his soaring falsetto to two of the Eighties' premier dance-pop outfits, Bronski Beat and the Communards, before embarking on a solo career. Born in Glasgow, Scotland on June 22, 1961, he co-founded Bronski Beat in 1984; from the band's debut single "Smalltown Boy" onward, Somerville's songs dealt openly with his own... [+] Read More

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Singer Shannon hit gold with the trendsetting, pulsating dance classic "Let the Music Play" and other similar-sounding hits in the mid-'80s. Born Brenda Shannon Greene in Washington, D.C. in 1958, she grew up in Brooklyn and while at college, joined the New York Jazz Ensemble as a singer.

While a member, she met drummer Lenny White... [+] Read More

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Along with the Village People, '70s disco artist Sylvester was one of the few artists of the era not afraid to openly acknowledge his homosexuality. Born Sylvester James during September 1944 in Los Angeles, CA, Sylvester was introduced to music at an early age by his grandmother, Julia Morgan, who was a jazz singer. While still a youngster,... [+] Read More

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Just as Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6 wouldn't have existed without Prince, the Mary Jane Girls were created by Rick James and were very much a product of the funkster's imagination. The group's name was coined in the late '70s, when James hired them as background singers for his Stone City Band. The Mary Jane Girls (whose name underscored James'... [+] Read More

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The Weather Girls, Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes, started out in the gospel group NOW (News of the World) before becoming backup singers with Sylvester in the '70s. They formed the duo Two Tons of Fun, later changing their name to the Weather Girls and recording in the early '80s. Wash later went on to do session singing and was the uncredited... [+] Read More

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