Disco Clone
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| "Disco Clone" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Cristina | ||||
| Released | 1978 | |||
| Recorded | May–June 1978 | |||
| Studio | Blank Tape Studios | |||
| Genre | Disco | |||
| Length | 4:07 | |||
| Label | ZE | |||
| Songwriter | Ronald Melrose | |||
| Producer | John Cale | |||
| Cristina singles chronology | ||||
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"Disco Clone" is a song by American singer Cristina and written by Ronald Melrose. It was released as a single on ZE Records in 1978.
"Disco Clone" was written by Ronald Melrose, a classmate of Cristina's from Harvard University.[1] Her boyfriend Michael Zilkha wanted to take advantage of the disco boom and record the song.[2] She called it "the worst song I have ever heard" and decided to perform it as a "Brechtian pastiche".[3]
Tony de Portago, a friend of Cristina's, was the first to record the male vocals for "Disco Clone", but his were thrown out as sounding "too foreign" and "insufficiently jaded". Anthony Haden-Guest recorded the part in both English and French, which appear on song's first release. Kevin Kline, a little known actor at the time, appears on the re-release.[4][5] Tom Moulton was approached to mix the track, but he did not want to be involved with something that mocked disco. Island Records founder Chris Blackwell mixed it instead.[6]
The song's writer, Ronald Melrose, later became an arranger and musical director on Broadway shows, including Jersey Boys.[7][8]
Composition
"Disco Clone" uses a common disco rhythm, with a four-on-the-floor bass drum pattern and prominent hi-hat. It features a large string section, with 24 violinists double tracked.[6] The song's lyrics poke fun at the idea of men wanting to hook up with attractive women who look alike.[9]
Release
The original version of "Disco Clone" had a limited release of 1,500 twelve-inch singles, the first release by Zilkha's fledgling label ZE Records.[10] It received a re-release shortly after. The re-release includes a remix that was later retitled "The Ballad of Immoral Manufacture", in reference to "The Ballad of Immoral Earnings" from Brecht's The Threepenny Opera.[11] The single was not commercially successful.[12]