Tom Savarese (born April 26, 1944) – Bumpsie's Whipping Cream (1978)

The DJ who mixed this disco-funk masterpiece was voted #1 in the nation by Billboard in 1976, a veteran of New York clubs like 12 West, the Sandpiper and Flamingo.

Apr 27, 2024

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Tom Savarese is a pioneering disco DJ who rose to fame in New York City during the 1970s.

Born in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, Thomas Anthony Savarese’s biological mother was Puerto Rican, and his biological father was from England. He spent his first three years in foster homes before being adopted by the Italian-American Savarese family in 1947. He attended Catholic school and many Sons of Italy dances growing up, and went to Fordham University.

A few years after college, he began DJ’ing in 1969. At first he played house parties around New York City. By 1973-74, he was spinning at the NYC nightspots Cabaret, The Forrest, and Le Club. The following year, he moved on to Hollywood (in the site of the former Peppermint Lounge), and Turntable. Although Savarese is gay, it wasn’t until the summer of 1975 that he spun at an all-gay venue, when he went to Fire Island and played for a brief time at the Ice Palace in Cherry Grove.

Later in 1975, he began spinning at 12 West, one of the city’s biggest gay discos. In the summer of 1976, he returned to Fire Island and became the first live DJ at the Sandpiper, which had previously been relying on pre-recorded tapes mixed by Tom Moulton for its music.

Some sources claim Savarese was the first full-time professional DJ in the country, but that title seems awfully hard to verify. What is indisputable is that he tied for first place (along with Ice Palace resident Bobby “DJ” Guttadaro) as America’s #1 DJ when voting was held at Billboard magazine’s First International Disco Forum at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan during January, 1976. He was also voted top DJ in the New York region that year and again in 1977.

In early 1977, Savarese was tapped by Atlantic Records to mix the recently signed group Chic’s first single, “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah).” See our earlier post on co-founder Bernard Edwards for more background on how this track became a hit even before it was officially released that September.

Bernard Edwards (October 31, 1952 – April 18, 1996) – I Like Love (1978)

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It eventually climbed to #1 on the disco charts and peaked at #6 R&B and on the Billboard Hot 100, making Savarese the first disco DJ to have mixed a top-ten single. That year, he was spinning at 12 West’s rival gay disco Flamingo on the corner of Broadway and Houston in SoHo, and the new disco Hurrah on West 62nd Street, owned by Arthur Weinstein.

Also in 1977 he was hired as the first program director at Disconet, a newly launched DJ remix service owned by Sugarscoop Records. The label’s owner was Mike Wilkinson, the former chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies who saw the massive market for disco records in the late seventies and thought the most lucrative line of work he could get into at that moment would be running a dance music record label.

Around this time, Savarese turned down the invitation to become the resident DJ at a new disco being opened by Manhattan nightlife newcomers Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, located at 254 West 54th Street in Midtown. The job inside the elevated booth at Studio 54 instead went to Richie Kaczor and Nicky Siano.

Saverese’s mixing talent was called upon again when the underground disco group TC James and the Fist-O-Funk Orchestra recorded their debut album Get Up On Your Feet (Keep On Dancin'). It was produced by Kevin and Ulla Misevis, and came out in 1978, first on their own New York-based disco label Fist-O-Funk and then picked up by EMI for international release.

He mixed some tracks on the original album, and then remixed both sides of its lead single, the upbeat but forgettable anthem “Dance All Over The World” b/w the phenomenal instrumental disco-funk jam “Bumpsie's Whipping Cream,” written by James, which Savarese remixed into an erotic dancefloor peak by adding simulated orgasms a la Donna Summer’s “Love To Love You Baby.” He appears to have also remixed the album’s longer 7:52 version as released by EMI, but not its original 5:36 version on Fist-O-Funk.

He was next hired by Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione in an ill-fated attempt to create a Penthouse disco record label. Even though the label failed to take off, Savarese worked his magic and supercharged the Love Symphony Orchestra’s lead single “Let Me Be Your Fantasy” from their debut album Penthouse Presents the Love Symphony Orchestra (1978), which was sub-titled Pulsating Disco And Romantic Moods For Loving And Dancing in Canada and some other countries.

That summer, after breaking up with his boyfriend at the time, he accepted an offer to travel to Italy and DJ for six weeks at the La Pineta in Milano Marittima, a disco on the Italian Riviera. The club’s attendance exploded, and his residency deepened disco’s reach and popularity in Italy which helped allow the music to continue flourishing there for years to come, in the form of italo disco.

On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1978, Savarese returned to 12 West to spin an epic set that was much shared over the years and erroneously thought by many to be have been him playing that night at Studio 54. His set was reconstructed in 2020 by Chris Baron, a friend of veteran NYC disco DJ Juan Negron’s, in Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

The following year, Savarese mixed another stone cold classic dancefloor anthem, “People Come Dance” (1979) by Ednah Holt & Starluv on West End. It was co-written by Holt and producer Wiley Hicks. Before forming Starluv, Holt was a member of the Ritchie Family alongside Dodie Draher and Jacqui Smith-Lee.