Paul Jabara (January 31, 1948 – September 29, 1992) – Dance (1978)
Originally written by Jabara for the 1976 film Mother, Jugs & Speed, this stellar disco jam was later covered by Paradise Express.
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Paul Jabara was a singer/songwriter and actor most famous for writing Donna Summer’s Oscar and Grammy-winning song “Last Dance” for the soundtrack to the 1978 disco film Thank God It’s Friday.
Paul Frederick Jabara was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were of Lebanese descent. After graduating from high school in 1965, he began acting in off-Broadway plays, and in 1968 landed a role in the original Broadway cast of the musical Hair, which opened at the Biltmore Theatre that April.
Later that same year, he was cast in a brief role as a partygoer offering pills to Jon Voight’s character Joe Buck in John Schlesinger’s classic film Midnight Cowboy, filmed during 1968-69 and released in May, 1969. The scene took place at the film’s Andy Warhol-inspired party, with the haunting psychedelic song “Old Man Willow” by Elephant’s Memory playing in the background, arguably the soundtrack’s finest cut.
In 1972, at the age of 24, Jabara starred in and wrote the book, music, and lyrics to a Broadway musical that became an infamous flop and closed before it had even officially opened. Rachael Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget It) was the story of a Brooklyn girl who became a Hollywood gossip columnist, won an Oscar, and suffered a nervous breakdown. Jabara wrote it specifically for Bette Midler, who passed on the project. After it closed during previews (following an infamous, raucous, sold-out show on its last night), the show’s producers Robert Stigwood and Ahmet Ertegün lost their entire $500,000 investment.
Jabara then moved to Los Angeles and acted in various films and musicals, including taking over the role of Frank-N-Furter from Tim Curry in the Los Angeles production of The Rocky Horror Show when Curry left to film the movie version. He signed to A&M Records and released his first single “One Man Ain’t Enough” in 1975, credited only to “Jabara,” arranged by future Letterman bandleader Paul Shaffer. The B-side was a superb instrumental version of the track.
In 1976, Jabara wrote the disco jam “Dance,” released on Casablanca Records.
It was subsequently used as the opening music for the soundtrack to the film Mother, Jugs & Speed, starring Bill Cosby and Raquel Welch.
Two years later, Paradise Express released a stellar extended disco version on Fantasy Records, produced by Phil Jones and former Motown songwriter, producer and Funk Brother saxophonist Henry Cosby, who co-wrote “Tears Of A Clown” for the Miracles and produced Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight (Everything's Alright).”
Sadly, Jabara died of complications from AIDS in 1992, a cause of death that was not acknowledged by his family at the time. He was only 44 years old.
#disco #PaulJabara