Van McCoy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Van Allen Clinton McCoy (born January 6, 1940 in Washington, DC , † July 6, 1979 in Englewood , New Jersey ) was an American record producer , songwriter and musician. He had his biggest hit in 1975 with the instrumental title The Hustle .

biography

McCoy's mother let him take piano lessons. He played in a duet with his older brother Norman and his violin . McCoy began writing songs at the age of 12, but temporarily gave up music as a teenager , mainly because his friends teased him about playing the piano. Only when he was already studying psychology at Howard University did he start playing the piano again.

McCoy gained his first experience as a singer at the age of 15. After a few unsuccessful years, he founded his own music label in 1960 and worked as a producer for The Drifters , The Shirelles and Gladys Knight , among others . McCoy worked for five albums from 1974 with the Stylistics, for which he was primarily responsible for the arrangements. One of these recordings, Can't Give You Anything (But My Love) , was number one on the UK charts for three weeks in the summer of 1975.

Despite numerous publications, his own record career did not take off for many years. McCoy was unable to assert himself as a crooner (the LP Night Time Is Lonely Time , 1966) or as a soul musician ( Soul Improvisations , 1972). With Love Is the Answer and Boogie Down he achieved his first notable successes in the R&B charts in 1974 and 1975 respectively. With African Symphony he had his first success in the disco charts at the end of 1974.

With the disco instrumental The Hustle , McCoy finally had a number one hit in the USA in 1975 , for which he received a Grammy the following year . As a composer he had another number one hit in the American R&B charts in the same year: To Each His Own by Faith, Hope & Charity , a band with which he had worked since 1970. In 1976 he produced and arranged David Ruffin's comeback album Who I Am with Walk Away from Love , also number one on the R&B charts at the beginning of the year and Ruffin's second top 10 success in the pop charts. Melba Moore ( This Is It , 1976), Gladys Knight & the Pips ( Baby Don't Change Your Mind , 1977) or Aretha Franklin ( Ladies Only , 1979) were other artists for whom McCoy wrote songs and / or their publications produced or arranged.

Despite the overwhelming success of The Hustle, his own records subsequently only sold moderately. Change with the Times made it into the top 10 of the R&B charts as a successor single in 1975, after which it went downhill. A handful of singles reached the Billboard Hot 100 , but only in the back third. Party was once again a top 20 hit on the R&B charts in 1976. A change of record company also brought no further major successes. McCoy even disappeared from the disco hit lists in 1976. In 1977 there was a short outlier: the instrumental The Shuffle , stylistically based on The Hustle , surprisingly climbed to number four in the British charts. Nevertheless, several more records were released up to his last LP Lonely Dancer (1979).

McCoy died of a heart attack in 1979 . His last productions included the LPs Young and in Love by the then up-and-coming star Stacy Lattisaw and La Diva by Aretha Franklin. Neither work was a great success.

Despite all of his pop hits , his love was actually classical music , as he especially liked Wagner , Beethoven and Rachmaninov .

Discography

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT UK UK US US R&B R&B
1975 Disco baby DE16 (32 weeks)
DE 		- UK24 (11 weeks)
UK 		US12 (23 weeks)
US 		R&B1 (20 weeks)
R&B
with The Soul City Symphony
From disco to love - - - US181 (4 weeks)
US 		R&B41 (7 weeks)
R&B
Republication, first appeared in 1972
The Disco Kid - - - US80 (7 weeks)
US 		R&B18 (6 weeks)
R&B
1976 The Real McCoy - - - US106 (17 weeks)
US 		R&B22 (10 weeks)
R&B
Rhythms of the World - - - - R&B44 (3 weeks)
R&B

More albums

  • 1966: Night Time Is Lonely Time
  • 1972: Soul Improvisations
  • 1974: Love Is the Answer (with The Soul City Symphony)
  • 1977: And His Magnificent Movie Machine
  • 1978: Sings Themes from a Woman Called Moses (with Tommie Young)
  • 1978: African Symphony
  • 1978: My Favorite Fantasy
  • 1979: Lonely Dancer

Compilations

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT UK UK US US R&B R&B
1977 The Hustle and Best of Van McCoy - - - US193 (2 weeks)
US 		-

More compilations

  • 1979: The Best of Van McCoy
  • 1979: Sweet Rhythm
  • 1979: The Disco Kid
  • 1980: Van McCoy
  • 1981: The Hustle (3 medleys)
  • 1987: The Best of Van McCoy
  • 1995: The Hustle and the Best of Van McCoy

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks [↑]: treated together with the previous entry;
[←]: placed in both charts
DE DE AT AT UK UK US US R&B R&B Dance Dance
1974 Love Is the Answer
Love Is the Answer 		- - - - R&B77 (5 weeks)
R&B 		-
African Symphony
Love Is the Answer 		- - - - - Dance13 (4 weeks)
Dance
1975 Boogy Down
Love Is the Answer 		- - - - R&B67 (5 weeks)
R&B 		-
The Hustle
Disco Baby 		DE3 (25 weeks)
DE 		AT13 (8 weeks)
AT 		UK3
silver
silver

(12 weeks)UK 		US1
gold
gold

(19 weeks)US 		R&B1 (19 weeks)
R&B 		Dance3 (19 weeks)
Dance
Grammy (Best Pop Instrumental Performance)
Change with the Times
The Disco Kid 		DE31 (10 weeks)
DE 		- UK36 (4 weeks)
UK 		US46 (8 weeks)
US 		R&B6 (14 weeks)
R&B 		Dance15 (3 weeks)
Dance
1976 Night Walk
The Real McCoy 		- - - US96 (2 weeks)
US 		R&B51 (7 weeks)
R&B 		-
Party
The Real McCoy 		- - - US69 (5 weeks)
US 		R&B20 (13 weeks)
R&B 		Dance14 (3 weeks)
Dance
1977 Rhythms of the World
Rhythms of the World 		- - - - - Dance14 (13 weeks)
Dance
Soul Cha Cha
Rhythms of the World 		DE13 (25 weeks)
DE 		- UK34 (6 weeks)
UK 		- -[Dance: ↑]
That's the Joint
Rhythms of the World 		- - - - -[Dance: ↑]
The Shuffle
Rhythms of the World 		- - UK4th
silver
silver

(14 weeks)UK 		- R&B79 (8 weeks)
R&B 		-
1978 My Favorite Fantasy
My Favorite Fantasy 		- - - - R&B76 (8 weeks)
R&B 		-

More singles

  • 1961: Never Trust a Friend
  • 1961: Girls Are Sentimental
  • 1964: Two of a Kind (with Kendra Spotswood, as Jack and Jill)
  • 1965: Butterfly
  • 1966: Starlight, Starbright
  • 1966: The House That Love Built
  • 1966: I'm Out of My Mind (In Love with You)
  • 1969: Sweet and Easy (The Van McCoy Strings)
  • 1969: The Generation Gap (The Van McCoy Strings)
  • 1970: Where There's a Heartache (There Must Be a Heart)
  • 1972: Let Me Down Easy
  • 1972: I'm in Love with You Baby
  • 1973: I'm in Your Corner (with Sharon Ridley)
  • 1975: Disco Baby (with The Soul City Symphony)
  • 1975: Soul Improvisations
  • 1976: Jet Setting
  • 1977: Spanish Boogie
  • 1978: Two Points
  • 1979: Lonely Dancer
  • 1979: The Hustle (Disco Mix)

swell

  1. ^ The Stylistics. Retrieved December 9, 2019 .
  2. ^ Joel Whitburn: Top R&B Singles 1942-1995, 1996 ISBN 0-89820-115-2
  3. ^ A b Joel Whitburn: Hot Dance / Disco 1974-2003 , 2004, ISBN 0-89820-156-X
  4. ↑ a b c Chart sources: Singles Albums UK US
  5. ↑ a b The Billboard album by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
  6. ↑ a b c gold / platinum databases: UK US
  7. ^ Joel Whitburn : Top R&B Albums 1965–1998, ISBN 0-89820-134-9 .
  8. ^ Joel Whitburn : Hot R&B Songs 1942–2010: 6th Edition, ISBN 978-0-89820-186-4 .
  9. ^ Joel Whitburn : Hot Dance / Disco 1974-2003, ISBN 978-0-89820-156-7 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME McCoy, Van
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McCoy, Van Allen Clinton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American record producer, songwriter, and musician
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC , United States
DATE OF DEATH July 6, 1979
Place of death Englewood , New Jersey , United States