This song right here folks was your #1 song of the Girl Band Debut Breakthrough Rate for about 3 of the 4 weeks of voting! Starting off with receiving the first 11 of the rate through
@Zar-Unity,
Baccara maintained their average of close to 10+ for the first batch of voters, until slowly the scores became less perfect and the actual low blows from
@londonrain and
@iheartpoptarts derailed a top 5 finish completely. This was the song
@2014 forgot to give a score to with their ballot when I was first closing votes if anyone was keeping track (at the time, that potential zero made them #13).
The most iconic thing about
Yes Sir, I Can Boogie taking the rate by storm like this is that it was not even in the track list of songs we worked with in the first place! Thanks to
@Russron, they got their time to shine as a replacement for
Heart, and boy did they run with it! The earworm of
Yes Sir, I Can Boogie grabs you literally by the balls and doesn’t let you go. I was not even aware this song I knew from my childhood in the background was from a girl band, nor its significant success at the time but listening to it attentively over the voting period and now – what a crowning jewel of the girl band or disco era!
Borrowing a little from the instrumental of ‘
Don’t Leave Me This Way’ – the girls manage to create something sexy, sensual and mesmerising with their soft coos and seductive tones while enticing the gentlemen of the audience in a knowing and masterful manner. I have to say, if I were a straight man and I was approached by one of these sexy ladies with their incredibly sexy accent and the knowing tease – I would have had trouble containing myself. The bored, above it all quality with which they sing and are fully aware of their sex appeal just adds so much charm, character and depth to the song too! The 70s were rampant with a heightened sexual quality in disco/pop music and
Yes Sir, I Can Boogie is a masterclass of that done right!
Yes Sir, I Can Boogie is by far the most successful song on our list commercially as well. It is the best selling Girl Band song of all time, up to 18 million copies at last count and topping the chart across almost all of Europe. It has been covered by two PopJustice favourites among other artists,
Sophie Ellis Bextor did a version as a b-side and
Goldfrapp on their
Black Cherry album. Amazing to think the song achieved so much success and didn’t make very much of an impact in America and only just went top 10 in Australia. Maybe
@ohnoitisnathan has some gossip for us about its Australian performance.
Baccara was formed in 1977 by
Mayte Mateos and
Maria Mendiola and achieved rapid success with
Yes Sir, I Can Boogie; the follow-up (and potential part 2 entry)
Sorry I’m A Lady being quite successful too. Their sound started falling out of favour by the early 80s since the world was moving away from Disco Pop and the girls started working on solo projects by 1983. Their beginning first came through the girls meeting at the Spanish Television Ballet Company and were initially a singing & dancing act in the vein of a variety show act. They relocated to the Canary Islands in search of work and were spotted by
Leon Deane, the manager of German’s subsidiary of
RCA Records. He developed their stage performance style and gave them the name
Baccara after the name black rose referring to the ladies’ dark beautiful Spanish features. The rest as they say, is history!
Over to PopJustice to share their thoughts on our impressive ladies, who despite the accent that left many ambivalent blitzed the competition!
DJHazey (10)
adores, as he should! - It's like a 70s version of Serebro and I'm living.
Unnameable (10)
recognises a classic when he hears one! – still a disco classic.
Iheartpoptarts (1)
shocked me to the core when I saw this score! - I legitimately can’t tell whether this is serious or not.
DominoDancing (6)
has Macarena style memories for this one -Yes, the chorus is catchy. But for someone born in the 80s like me, I can't help but remember that this is what the most uncool among our uncool parents were listening to.
Baby Clyde (10)
has Baccara making him doubt all he ever knew! - (I don't believe in guilty pleasures this is just all round AMAZING!!!)
Londonrain (1)
has all the fun sucked out of him in time for this vote - I’m so confused by all of this. The accents. The bored singing style. Why was this such a smash?!
Sprockrooster (10)
is also a fan of Don’t Leave Me This Way - That intro is seriously one of the best ever?
Empty Shoebox (8)
’s love of Don’t Leave Me This Way keeps Baccara from getting a full score - Unquestionably disco, unquestionably fantastic. So, why did I only give it an eight? Simple. It's far too similar to "Don't Leave me This Way", which came first, and was better.
Trouble In Paradise (10)
is busy discovering new favourites - Another new discovery from this rate that I am adding to my forever collection of throwback tunes that always get me moving. The intro is pure Donna Summer (which is possibly the highest compliment ever given). I love the lead singer’s accent and delivery, she is the perfect disco ice queen. The “Yes sir, already told you in the first verse and chorus” part is easily one of my favorite parts in the whole rate and will make me smile on every listen.
Filippa (10)
goes to the same family gatherings as DominoDancing - This song is a favourite of my mother. It’s one of these songs I grew up with. I love it. I really can’t say if I would have liked it myself, but I think yes. It’s just so catchy.
Spillett (9)
loves the song, no matter who sings it - (I love every version of this - Bacarra, Sophie EB, Goldfrapp. Must be the sign of a good song.)
Saviodxl (7.8)
has more compliments - Once again, I can hear ABBA singing this.
ComeOnGloria (7.7)
loves his pop stars a bit cooky! - Points for being a bit crackers!
Riiiiiiiii (9.9)
loses a top 3 entry! Hug coming your way- Talking about iconic disco songs. I know it’s borderline wrong to play this at a party but fuck it. Plus they get bonus points because they made Parlez-vous francais? for Eurosong.
Kermit_The_Frog (10)
loves everything about this -An absolute banger - I urge everyone to seek out Alison Goldfrapp’s cover, where she makes it clear that she views the song as a sex-worker propositioning a client in a bar. I now share her view and it makes the song even better (as if that was possible). Joyous and sinister at the same time. Amazing.
Zar-Unity (11)
has an 11 that gets to the top 10, yippee!! - Hmm, sultry sexy voice, pretty chill pop. Tech: 5 Taste: 5 +1 = 11 points!