What was the first song to hit #1 with “disco” in the title? It was “Disco Lady” by Johnnie Taylor. It was the first single to be certified platinum (1 million sales) by the RIAA (those folks that sued everyone for illegally downloading music). It was on the top of the Billboard chart for 4 weeks (March 28 – April 24). It was only at #1 on the Cash Box chart for two weeks (April 4 – 17) but they named it their most popular song of 1976.

Johnnie Taylor had been around the music industry for quite a while before this song became popular. His biggest hit before “Disco Lady” was with “Who’s Making Love”  in 1968. But by the 1980s he ended up as a DJ on a radio station in Dallas. He still recorded albums up until about the year 1999 with moderate success. He died in 2000 at aged 66.

“Disco Lady” isn’t really a disco song. It is more of a R&B ballad.