Terug naar 20 november 1976! Op deze dag ging de Troetelschijf van Hilversum 3 naar ‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing’ van Leo Sayer. Het nummer werd geschreven door Ray Parker Jr. & Vini Poncia en was te vinden op zijn LP ‘Endless flight’. Vini Poncia zou later ook meeschrijven aan de grote Kiss classics ‘I was made for loving you’ en ‘Sure know something’. Ook met ‘You make me feel like dancing’ was het raak: in Amerika bereikte de single de eerste plaats. Het nummer leverde Leo en Vini ook een Grammy Award op in de categorie Best R&B Song. Het nummer ontstond tijdens een jam sessie.
Leo Sayer: “I had a bunch of musicians around me who were very inspiring, principally Jeff Porcaro, who became a great friend, and Ray Parker Jr., a great classic Motown guitarist from Stevie Wonder’s band. We start talking about favorite songs. Jeff and I phoned each other in the morning. I said, ‘Have you heard this f–king song on the radio: Shirley & Company, ‘Shame, Shame, Shame.’ So he stopped by Tower Records on the way to the studio and we put it on the player and we said, ‘F–k, man, what a groove!’
Sayer vervolgt: “And then a break comes and Jeff starts playing the groove of that record and I start singing. And Ray is playing the guitar groove although he’s reinvented it and he’s playing this pluck thing on his Les Paul. And I’m just jamming along. And [producer] Richard Perry is in the studio. So he rushed to the tape machine, threw the tape on and started recording us. And a few days later, he said, ‘That is the hit. That is the most exciting thing I’ve ever heard. That is a crossover.'” De single ‘You make me feel like dancing’ bereikte de 11e plaats in de Nationale Hitparade.
