The “Golden Hits Of The 70s”
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VAN MCCOY
“THE HUSTLE”
(VAN MCCOY)
Avco 4653
No. 1 July 26, 1975
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He died young–of a bad heart, they say. Like Bobby Darin, whose fate was similar, Van started early and
maintained a pace fueled with an unusual drive and motivation.
While a sophomore, pianist Van McCoy (b. Jan. 6, 1944, Washington, DC) got some of the singers in the
Dunbar High glee club to join him in forming a Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers-style group called the
Starlighters. Although they bombed at their high school talent contest, they eventually became good
enough to literally impersonate Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers at John Brown’s Farm, a club near
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Before breaking up, the band waxed three singles for the End label and
briefly replaced one member with Marvin Gaye.
McCoy went on to release some fine solo material that caught the attention of Florence Greenberg at
Scepter/Wand Records. Greenberg hired McCoy as an all-around studio hand, A & R man, songwriter,
and assistant to producer Luther Dixon. In this capacity, Van would soon contribute to the success of
Chuck Jackson, the Shirelles, and Dionne Warwick.
Van became a part-owner, with Larry Maxwell, of Maxx Records, and began producing disks for Gladys
Knight & The Pips. Subsequent production/writing credits included the Drifters, Aretha Franklin, Jay &
The Americans, the Marvelettes, IRMA THOMAS, Bobby Vinton, and Jackie Wilson. During this period,
Columbia attempted to make a solo singer out of Van. His own offerings were disappointing, considering
the brilliance of his work for other artists. Nothing with his name on it sold, not even singles he recorded
as the Sound City Symphony.
“It was all exhausting … I needed more time,” McCoy told Blues & Soul’s Tony Cummings. “The whole
thing was so hectic, like I was working seven days a week.” Under doctor’s orders, Van took a short rest.
Then he was back, writing, arranging, and producing.
“When I wrote ‘The Hustle’ I’d never even been to a disco to see the dance. What happened was that
David Todd, who’s one of the top DJs in the New York discos, came to me and told me about this new
dance. I got a couple of girls to do the Hustle for me in the office so I could get the rhythm right, and I
wrote the tune. Pretty hard to believe, huh?
“It’s tough to have to follow a record like ‘The Hustle.’ It sold 10 million copies and was a complete acci
dent–how do you top it? It changed my life.” It also won a Grammy as “Best Pop Instrumental” of 1975,
and was to become (according to The New York Times) “the biggest dance record of the ’70s.” Van had a
point: what may be the best-selling disco disk of all time was going to be a tough act to follow.
Van quickly dispatched LPs like Disco Baby (1975), From Disco to Love (1975), and The Disco Kid (1975),
plus a few more dance singles that made the Hot 100–“Change With the Times” (#46, 1975), “Night Walk”
(#96, 1976), and “Party” (#69, 1976). But by the decades end, he was ready for a change. “Disco has
played an important role in the development of my career.” he told Billboard. “But I am seeking greater
versatility. I do not want to be forever locked into the image of the ‘disco kid.”‘
Before his death in Englewood, New Jersey, on July 6, 1979, Van McCoy did manage to make musical
moves in other directions. He wrote the scores for Cicely Tyson’s made-for-TV movie “A Woman Called
Moses” (1978) and Mae West’s Sextet (1978).