Disco Hits

“I Will Survive,” belts Gloria Gaynor, but even the OG survivor herself couldn’t know just how long her epic anthem would endure in the hearts and hips of live-strong party people everywhere. After all, an incurable case of dance fever is what our Disco Hits is all about, from Barry White’s insatiable “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe” to the never-die beats of Carl Carlton’s “Everlasting Love.” And for proof of longevity, look no further than ABBA’s immortal “Dancing Queen” — you know a tune has some serious legs when you still hear it blasting from karaoke bars and night-out limos more than three decades after the fact.

“Get Down Tonight,” instructs KC & the Sunshine Band. But we say, “Why not every night?” More legendary disco hits await in Next Steps.

Sure, you’ve got the feathered hair and the white polyester suits, the rainbow suspenders and the satin dolphin shorts. But ages after the fads and fashions have fallen away, one thing remains the same — above all, disco hits were and are about having fun. Just ask the Ohio Players, who live for the rush on their dancetastic thrill ride “Love Rollercoaster”; or Peaches & Herb, whose get-loose command “Shake Your Groove Thing” still has the power to move modern-day rumps. Chic celebrates the impulse to get strange on “Le Freak,” and even minimum-wage labor sounds like a good time when it’s being detailed by Rose Royce and their soundtrack smash “Car Wash.”

Andrea True Connection pleads to keep the tunes coming on “More, More, More, Pt. 1 (‘A Tom Moulton Mix’),” and we happily oblige, with more great disco hits in Deep Cuts.

There were some who were born to be disco creatures — witness Musique and the beat-heavy heavy-breather “In the Bush” — but the lure of the 4/4 beat attracted everyone from Motown mainstays the Miracles, who geared up the perpetual motion “Love Machine (feat. Billy Griffin),” to soundtrack sorcerer Giorgio Moroder and his synth-style “Chase.” Southern-soul siren Candi Staton took her turn on the floor with “Young Hearts Run Free,” and R&B survivors The Spinners teamed up with Dionne Warwick to do disco their way, with the classic-sounds stepper “Then Came You.”

The history of American pop music has its iconic sounds, but few pack the moment-in-time intensity of the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive,” the street-strutting, finger-pointing, hip-swiveling anthem of an era that lived on far beyond its ’70s heyday. Its title was prophetic — more than 30 years later, disco hits like Chic’s “Good Times” and Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music” are as immediately recognizable, and as much a cherished part of the celebratory soundscape, as “Happy Birthday.” They’re also a heck of a lot of fun, as good an excuse as any to turn up the temperature to tracks like the late Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” or Heat Wave’s sultry “Boogie Nights” and let it all go. As fit for a workout as a party night, wedding reception, or even an afternoon of housecleaning, these one-size-fits-all tracks are the very meaning of Essential.