It Happened on October 18th

The first dancing hall that was turned into a discothèque was the Scotch-Club in Aachen, Germany in 1959 when the usual band was unable to play and a record player had to be used. Klaus Quirini took over the record player and his new format became quickly popular.

By the late 1960s, soldiers stationed in West Germany had taken the discothèque format home. American versions of the discothèque started to catch on, and with these clubs, the demand for new dance steps such as the Frug, the Merengue, and the Mule skyrocketed.

Record labels feverishly rushed out whole albums of music to monkey or limbo by, or else mimicked the discothèque effect by assembling compilations of everything from the foxtrot to the boogaloo. Dance instructors got in on the act, releasing LPs such "Killer Joe's International Discotheque."

By the late 1970's many major US cities had triving disco club scenes. Some cities had disco dance instructors or dance schools which taught people how to do popular disco dances such as "touch dancing", the "hustle" and the "cha cha." There were also disco fashions that discothèque-goers wore for nights out at their local disco, such as sheer, flowing Halston dresses for women and shiny polyester Qiana shirts for men with pointy collars, preferably open at the chest, often worn with double-knit suit jackets.

Let us not forget hairspray, mousse, platform shoes, over-curly hair, the introduction of 'designer' cologne, millionaire drag queens, cocaine, giant suspended mirrored balls, public sex, rampant promiscuity, remix of Beethoven's Fifth, Denny Terrio, Disco Duck and record profits for BenGay and Dr. Scholls shoe inserts.

For a listen:
http://www.dance-hits.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlzlNpttvVM