1977 No. 1 Disco Hit Written on the 'Spur of the Moment' Has Racked up Over 100 Million Streams
When life is getting you down, there's nothing like dancing your troubles away. That's why, over half a century after the disco took over the world, the genre is still surprisingly relevant...and some of the biggest hits of the disco era are still getting millions upon millions of streams. Case in point: Leo Sayer's classic "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing."
While "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing," was the first of Sayer's two #1 singles, Sayer didn't exactly expect the song to be his ticket to success. In fact, as Stereogum reported, he recorded the tune "on the spur of the moment" in the studio for his 1976 album Endless Flight, co-writing it with session musicians (including guitarist Ray Parker, Jr.).
When Harry Nilsson/Carly Simon producer Richard Perry told Sayer that "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" was destined to be the record's hit, Sayer didn't even remember recording it.
Maybe Sayer didn't remember recording "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" because he wasn't a big disco fan in the first place; in fact, he was quoted as saying "I hate disco music" in Fred Bronson's Billboard Book Of Number 1 Hits.
Whether Sayer liked the song or not, it was still a huge success. Not only did it go to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 15, 1977 (where it stayed for one week), it even went on to win the 1978 Grammy for Best R&B Song despite never making an appearance on Billboard's R&B chart.
Leo Sayer's manager scammed him out of hundreds of thousands of dollars
Considering he had one of the biggest disco hits of all time, fans probably assume Sayer has had plenty of money in the bank all these years. Alas, as he explained in an interview last month with The Guardian, he was unfortunately swindled out of a massive sum by his manager, former pop star Adam Faith.
"Adam was an incredible mentor, it must be said," Sayer recalled. "I can't forgive him for the things he did later, but in the early days he was incredible. He knew everybody, he could open doors. Guys like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, everybody looked up to him."
While Faith did play a huge role in making Sayer's career, they weren't always on the same page; as Sayer explained, "I always wanted to be an artist and he wanted me to be a pop star."
Even worse, Faith took advantage of Sayer's naivety, convincing the singer to sign power of attorney over to him when they started working together.
"When he picked me up, he said: ‘Right, we've got to make this legal, so sign this otherwise we're not going to get started.' It was very gangster."
Eventually, Sayer got himself a lawyer and the case was settled out of court for £650,000. Nowadays, he's doing just fine, earning a "nice crust from streaming, downloads and even the occasional record sale," in addition to touring. At the time of this writing, "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" has close to 200 million streams on Spotify alone.
Related: 1974 Disco Anthem Was a Total Flop Before It Made History as a No. 1 Hit
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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 8:04 PM.