"The Hustle" is a
disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
song by
songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...
/
arranger
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...
Van McCoy
Van Allen Clinton McCoy (January 6, 1940 – July 6, 1979) was an American musician, record producer, arranger, songwriter, singer and orchestra conductor. He is known for his 1975 internationally successful song " The Hustle". He has approximat ...
and the Soul City Symphony. It went to No. 1 on the U.S.
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and
Hot Soul Singles
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...
charts during the summer of 1975.
It also peaked at No. 1 on the Canadian ''
RPM
Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines.
Standards
ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
'' charts, No. 9 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report) and No. 3 in the UK.
It would eventually sell over one million copies.
The song won the
Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance
The Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by m ...
early in 1976 for songs recorded in 1975.
History
While in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to make an album, McCoy composed the song after his music partner, Charles Kipps, watched patrons do a dance known as "
the Hustle" in the nightclub Adam's Apple. The sessions were done at New York's Mediasound studio with pianist McCoy, bassist Gordon Edwards, drummer
Steve Gadd
Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction into the ''Modern D ...
, keyboardist
Richard Tee
Richard Edward Tee (born Richard Edward Ten Ryk; November 24, 1943 – July 21, 1993) was an American pianist, studio musician, singer and arranger, who had several hundred studio credits and played on such notable hits as "In Your Eyes", " Sl ...
, guitarists
Eric Gale
Eric Gale (September 20, 1938 – May 25, 1994) was an American jazz and R&B guitarist.
''Early life and career''
Born in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, Gale grew up in a diverse household. His paternal grandfather was from Yorksh ...
and
John Tropea
John Tropea (pronounced 'tro-pay'; born January 7, 1946) is an American guitarist.
Career
Tropea began guitar studies at the age of 12. His musical education continued at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied jazz guitar, harmony, ...
, and orchestra leader
Gene Orloff
Gene Orloff (June 14, 1921 – March 23, 2009) was an American violinist, concertmaster, arranger, contractor and session musician.
Background
The son of a Russian immigrant violin maker, Orloff would try and get his father's violin down from th ...
. Producer
Hugo Peretti
Hugo E. Peretti (December 6, 1916 – May 1, 1986) was an American songwriter, trumpeter, and record producer.
Born in New York City to an Italian American family, Peretti began his music career as a teenager, playing the trumpet in the Bors ...
contracted multi-woodwind player
Phil Bodner
Philip L. Bodner (June 13, 1917 – February 24, 2008) was an American jazz clarinetist and studio musician who also played flute, oboe, saxophone, and English horn.
Career
A native of Waterbury, Connecticut, Bodner worked as a studio musician ...
to play the
piccolo
The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...
lead melody.
During the summer of 1975, "The Hustle" became a No. 1 hit on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and
Hot Soul Singles
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...
charts.
''Billboard'' ranked it as the
No. 21 song for 1975. It also peaked at No. 9 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report) and No. 3 in the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
.
According to producers
Hugo & Luigi
Hugo & Luigi were an American record producing team, made up of songwriters and producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, who shared an office in New York's Brill Building. Besides their working relationship, they were cousins.
Background
Firs ...
who owned the Avco
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
that originally released "The Hustle", McCoy met with them shortly before his death in 1979 to discuss ideas for a new, longer version of the song, in order to appease Avco's UK and German affiliates who were clamoring for a 12" disco single release.
The new version, clocking in at just under six and a half minutes, was assembled posthumously as a remix, using parts of the original recording plus new parts, including drum,
Syndrum
The Pollard Syndrum is the first commercially available electronic drum, invented by Joe Pollard and Mark Barton in 1976. There were 3 major types: The Syndrum 1, the Syndrum TwinDrum, and the Syndrum Quad, the last being the most famous.
At the t ...
, and a "little"
Moog synthesizer
The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...
.
[ It was credited to Van McCoy alone or with an unnamed orchestra, mixed by "The Mix Masters", identity unknown.
]
Appearances in other media
The song has been featured in numerous movies and television shows including ''Vampires Suck
''Vampires Suck'' is a 2010 American parody vampire film written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. It stars Jenn Proske, Matt Lanter, Christopher N. Riggi, Ken Jeong, Anneliese van der Pol, and Arielle Kebbel. The film is a ...
'', the ''Shark Tale
''Shark Tale'' is a 2004 American computer-animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. The film was directed by Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron, and Rob Letterman (in his feature directorial de ...
'' short film '' Club Oscar'', ''The Lorax
''The Lorax'' is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss and published in 1971. It chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax, the titular character, who "speaks for the trees" and confronts the Once-ler, a business magnate who cause ...
'', ''That '70s Show
''That '70s Show'' is an American television Period piece, period teen sitcom that aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox from August 23, 1998, to May 18, 2006. The series focuses on the lives of a group of six teenage friends living in the ficti ...
'', ''American Dad!
''American Dad!'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Since 2014, the series has been airing new episodes on TBS. ''American Dad!'' is the first television ...
'', and ''Futurama
''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years a ...
''.
Chart performance
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications and sales
Other versions
*Italian rapper Talko made a rap cover of "The Hustle". It was released in 1983 on Babalu Records.
*Filipino comedienne Rufa Mae Quinto covered this song as ''Booba (Do The Hustle)'' which served as the theme song of the 2001 film ''Booba
Élie Yaffa (; born 9 December 1976), better known under his stage name Booba, is a French rapper. After a brief stint as a break dancer in the early 1990s, Booba partnered with his friend Ali to form Lunatic. The duo released a critically ac ...
''. Her version was included in her album ''Rated R'' under Viva Records
Viva may refer to:
Companies and organisations
* Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator
* Viva Air, a Spanish airline taken over by flag carrier Iberia
* Viva Air Dominicana
* VIVA Bahrain, a telecommunication company
* ...
.[https://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2001/01/21/92401/rufa-mae-quinto-sex-bomb-loose-conversations-ricky-f-lo]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hustle
1975 singles
Disco songs
Pop instrumentals
1970s instrumentals
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Cashbox number-one singles
RPM Top Singles number-one singles
Songs written by Van McCoy
1975 songs
Avco Records singles
Song recordings produced by Hugo & Luigi
Songs about dancing