Oh for the days when I used to be referred to as “Get on Down Disco Dynamite.”

§ February 14th, 2020 § Filed under legion of super-heroes, superman, what § 5 Comments

So pal Brook (the very one who clued me in to the Hulk single) dropped by on Wednesday after perusing the vinyl record selection at the weekly flea market a town or two over. One of this acquired goodies was the following item, courtesy the year 1978:


And behold the back cover, if you dare:


A closer look at the back cover blurb:


…and if the song title “Lois Gets on Down” didn’t get you to buy this record, surely the idea of “Superman grooving out of sight” would do the trick.

Brook was good enough to let me borrow the record for the week, and…yes, it’s pretty amazing. A number of the songs are disco versions of movie theme music (and I didn’t realize there was another disco version of the Star Wars theme aside from Meco’s, though thinking about it I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised…and the two versions are awfully close). And if you’re wondering, “Mountain Funk” is a disco-ized version of “In the Hall of the Mountain King.”

I’ve linked to a couple of the songs on this record already, but here’s the main attraction…the disco-enhanced recording of the John Williams theme from Superman: The Movie. You’re welcome. And be sure to stick around for the weird vocalizations (surely done by those kind women on the album cover).


Also, if I may add, speaking of that cover…Twitter pal Rob pointed out that the nice young lady on the right of the image bears some semblance to Saturn Girl and her ’70s swimsuit costume, and darned if Rob’s not onto something. And I’d bet one can of Billy Beer that there was someone at that same disco dressed like Grimbor the Chainsman.

5 Responses to “Oh for the days when I used to be referred to as “Get on Down Disco Dynamite.””

  • Thelonious_Nick says:
    February 14, 2020 at 6:37 AM

    Over 30 driving players in the Doctor Exx Band (which, alas, does not have an entry on Wikipedia)? I’m sure the profits from this record were immense, but splitting it up 30 ways must have left everyone with a cool double sawbuck for their effort.

  • Thelonious_Nick says:
    February 14, 2020 at 6:44 AM

    In my research into the Doctor Exx band, I looked up the songwriters on those songs (okay, not John Williams or Richard Strauss). Tough to turn up anything on the guys with no first names, but Wilford Holcombe, writer of “Panic on Planet K”, turns up as a reeds player on a Chet Baker album from the mid-1960s. Nice to know a probable session player was able to find work in such varied genres over a decade and a half…

  • William Gatevackes says:
    February 14, 2020 at 6:54 AM

    I’m old enough to remember the epidemic of burnt fingers from playing “laser hot synthesisers” in the 70s. E.R.’s were fill with dozens of cases every weekend.

  • Thelonious_Nick says:
    February 14, 2020 at 8:01 AM

    Okay, I’ll stop after this. An entry on another blog (http://dougpayne.blogspot.com/2010/04/doctor-exx-band-superman-and-other.html) points out that Lois Gets On Down uses the music from Anitra’s Dance, another song from the Peer Gynt Suite (in addition to the Hall of the Mountain King).

  • Rob Staeger says:
    February 19, 2020 at 8:00 AM

    Thanks for the shout-out, Mike!

    And man, if there’s anything that would ever motivate me to get in shape, it would be going disco-dancing with the Legionnaires in their 70s costumes. Especially if there were floating anti-grav platforms involved!

    Klordny!