By Randal C. Hill
Guest Columnist
In 1978, after producing two poorly selling Village People albums that featured only a lead singer (Victor Willis) and some session musicians, French record producer Jacques Morali experienced an epiphany for his third effort: a Casablanca Records album called “Cruisin.’ ” And included in that breakthrough disc would be a megahit single that would knock down pop-culture barriers as it rocketed onto hit charts worldwide.
Jacques had recently strolled through Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood when he noticed the YMCA building on 23rd Street. As the YMCA was unknown to Europeans, he inquired inside and learned that the place offered inexpensive rooms and a safe haven for young men visitors.
When he learned later that it was also a place for gay men to connect, Morali sought to create a song to fit his little-known group. Jacques created most of “YMCA” in about 20 minutes, then handed everything to Willis and told him to add some lyrics. Victor did just that —with a later quite-surprising admission.
Morali had wanted to exploit the burgeoning New York disco scene, which was primarily confined to gay dance clubs in Greenwich Village (hence the act name Village People). Following a clever plan of action he had devised, Morali assembled a five-man group after advertising in a local music publication. “Macho types wanted,” it stated. “Must dance and have a mustache.”
To sell “YMCA” as a campy song-and-dance number, Morali created a video portraying the Village People as a bunch of fun-loving guys who poked fun at macho-gay-fantasy personas.
The new version of the Village People included African American Willis (seen in videos as either a cop or a naval officer), Felipe Rose as the Indian chief, David Hodo as the construction worker, Randy Jones as the cowboy, Glenn Hughes as the leather-clad biker, and Alex Briley as the Black soldier.
Straight? Gay? Who cared? Fun was the focus here:
“Young man, there’s a place you can go
“I said, young man, when you’re short on your dough
“You can stay there and I’m sure you can find
“Many ways to have a good time
“It’s fun to stay at the YMCA.”
“YMCA” became one of fewer than 40 singles to sell more than 10 million copies. It’s still a mainstay in ads, movies and television, and at weddings, parties and sporting events, fun-lovers sometimes do the YMCA dance by waving their arms to spell out the letters.
In a 2017 interview, Victor Willis, a preacher’s son who co-wrote the hits and delivered the goods in a gospel-like shout, explained, “ ‘YMCA’ wasn’t written to be a gay song because of the simple fact that I’m not gay. I wrote it about hanging out in urban neighborhoods in my youth. ‘You can hang out with all the boys’ was a term about me and my friends playing basketball at the ‘Y.’ But I wanted to write a song that could fit anyone’s lifestyle. I’m happy the gay community adopted it as their anthem. I have no qualms with that.”
