Jesse Saunders – On And On (1984) (Disco Demolition Night, July 12, 1979)

Not only did Chicago's infamous Disco Demolition Night fail to kill disco, a Black musician working as an usher that night later co-wrote the first house record.

View most updated version of this post on Substack.

On July 12, 1979, the infamous Disco Demolition Night at a Chicago White Sox game ended in a racist riot as the mostly white male crowd destroyed records by Black artists.

That summer, disco was still riding high on radio and the charts. Donna Summer's “Bad Girls” was the #1 R&B song in America in mid-July, with “Good Times” by Chic at #2.

Disco Demolition Night didn't end disco's heyday by itself. But it was the most high-profile public event associated with the racist, homophobic anti-disco backlash that resulted when bigots finally realized disco threatened white supremacy.

Except that it failed to kill disco. In fact, a Black musician named Vince Lawrence who was working as an usher at Comisky Park that night went on to co-write the first-ever house record, “On And On,” released in 1984 on Jes Say Records by producer and co-writer Jesse Saunders. The rise of house helped give birth to modern electronic dance music and ensured that disco would live on forever.

Further info:

“Disco Demolition Night,” podcast by UNDONE, November 14, 2016.

“The Night Disco Died | The Racist & Homophobic “End” to Disco,” by Zoe Jackson, BlkGirlCulture, July 12, 2020.

#disco #DiscoDemolitionNight #house #VinceLawrence