Song · Devo
“Disco Dancer” by Devo
From the album Total Devo (1988)
“Disco Dancer” by Devo appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations in 1988. It was first released in 1988 on the album Total Devo. Its best result is #52 on the Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1988. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #125 alternative song of 1988.
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Video from YouTube (Discoenex newway). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Disco Dancer" was the opening single from Total Devo, Devo's seventh studio album, in 1988, and it marked a change behind the kit: no Devo single had come out without Alan Myers before, and now David Kendrick, formerly of Sparks, had the drum stool. Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale wrote it.
Casale, the band's bassist, has described a character in the mold of John Travolta's in Saturday Night Fever who dozes off like Rip Van Winkle and wakes 15 years on to a world that shocks him. Mothersbaugh traces the spark elsewhere: in the commentary for the 1993 video anthology The Complete Truth About De-Evolution he credited Indian films and music videos, and in 2020 he told Pitchfork about passing the Little India section of Los Angeles on the way to rehearsals in Marina Del Rey, where a grocery store sold video compilations called Dance Dance Dance.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 89 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1988 | 107 |
| 1988 | 52 | Live 105 San Francisco, CA | Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1988 | 106 |
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