Day 334: The Trammps – Where the Happy People Go

Reader, we made it to the end of the week – to celebrate, it’s time for another Disco Friday, this time in form of the Trammps. Aside from having heard “Disco Inferno” as much as anyone else, so obviously a whole lot, I know absolutely nothing about these guys, so let’s delve into some disco history.

Album cover courtesy of Atlantic

The Trammps were formed in Philadelphia in 1972 as one of the first disco bands ever. They were originally called the Volcanos, then they changed into the Moods, before eventually settling on the Trammps – apparently they got their start singing on street corners and they got called tramps for it, but they added an extra ‘m’ to sound a bit more high-class.

Their first hit was a cover of Judy Garland’s "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart", but their big break came when they were on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack with their classic tune, “Disco Inferno”. Where the Happy People Go was released in 1976 as the group’s third studio album, and it peaked at number 13 on the R&B albums chart.

I’ll be honest, when it started, I thought this album might be a bit too unremarkable to be a fun listen, but it does pick up after the opener. It mostly contains of up-tempo orchestral disco tracks with soulful vocals, and it’s a fairly good example of just pure disco, with nothing to get in the way of having a good time. One of the stronger songs from the album is the titular track which pretty much tells a story of disco as an antidepressant, but they save the best for last with the smooth and meandering instrumental, "Love Is a Funky Thing".

It’s fine, it’s by no measure my favourite disco album and I’m probably not going to reach for it again, but it’s still a very reasonable 6.5/10. I’m almost tempted to give an extra half point for having a keyboardist with a very cool name: he’s listed as Ron "Have Mercy" Kersey.