Can't Stop the Music couldn't lure an audience. It might also have something to do with how the movie was a universally acknowledged disaster. Producers hired Nancy Walker to direct, who was best known for playing Ida Morgenstern on the sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda and who had never helmed a theatrical film before. Another prominent newbie — newly minted Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner now Caitlyn Jenner gave acting a try with his role as an uptight businessman.
How bad was Can't Stop the Music? It inspired John Wilson to create the Razzie Awards , handed out annually to the worst in film. At the inaugural ceremony, the movie won in two of the seven categories for which it was nominated — Worst Screenplay and Worst Picture of the Year.
With disco dead by the early s, and the Village People's status as pop stars greatly endangered by the abysmal failure of Can't Stop the Music , the group whose last charting song was the minor hit "Ready for the '80s" had to prove that it could adapt to changing times and tastes. In , the Village People released their seventh album, Renaissance. By that point, New Wave — rock n' roll stripped down to its core, punchier elements, and sometimes with the addition of keyboards — had replaced disco as the hottest thing in music, and the Village People gave it a try on songs like "Do You Wanna Spend the Night" and "Food Fight.
The band also reinvented itself visually , dropping their signature stage costumes for sleeker, very '80s look of tight pants, vests, and heavy makeup. The noble attempt to evolve was thoroughly rejected by the public — Renaissance yielded no hit singles and stalled at on the Billboard album chart, rendering the Village People relics of the '70s. The Village People are part of New York City history, formed by denizens of the Big Apple's thriving, underground gay club scene of the s. Among its many archetypal masculine characters was a G.
The attacks of Sept. The identity of the subject was difficult to ascertain, and in , Esquire writer Tom Junod solved the mystery — Jonathan Briley, an employee of Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the WTC. His brother was Alex Briley of the Village People. Not as many people know the name "Glenn Hughes" as they do the label of the persona he delivered for years as a member of the Village People — "leatherman" or "the biker.
Hughes' look was one of the group's many nods to New York's gay community, which flew right over the heads of millions of fans in the 70s, when homosexuality was not widely acknowledged, discussed, or accepted. After it became a modest hit, they scrambled to form a group around him. It had nothing to do with their sexual orientation. It lasted 18 months.
Willis was replaced by Ray Simpson, who had provided backing vocals for the group. His departure coincided with the downturn in disco, but even as the Village People initially struggled, Willis would watch them and think: That should be me up there. The Village People, once post-disco has beens, became beloved mascots of retro camp. They received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in , as Willis watched from the crowd.
U2 paid homage to them in a music video. They opened for Cher. In , Willis prevailed in his long-running federal lawsuit. The Bronx native is unfortunately no longer with us, having contracted lung cancer and passing away in at the age of He was buried in his leatherman clothes.
However, once the group achieved international fame, he came around to the power of the band. While the sunglasses became an integral part of the costume, for David they were a shield against audiences since he often felt shy while performing songs like "Macho Man". Randy was the cowboy character of The Village People from to and again from until In , before gay marriage was legally recognized, he held a marriage ceremony with his boyfriend of 20 years, Will Grega, at a nightclub in New York City.
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