Day 348: Dennis Parker – Like An Eagle
It’s once again the best day of the weeeeeek, it’s Disco Friday. It’s also a Friday where I’ll have a long weekend ahead with Monday off, so it’s an even better than usual best day of the week. I will obviously need a better than usual album to go along with it, so I went for Dennis Parker’s Like An Eagle.
Album cover courtesy of Casablanca
Dennis Parker was a disco singer from Freeport, New York, who only ever made one massively impactful album. He started off his career as a porn star under his alias Wade Nichols, and he was apparently one of the most recognisable adult film stars of the ‘70s. He then started a relationship with the French disco producer Jacques Morali, who created the Village People and The Ritchie Family, and he made Parker into a disco singer.
Originally Parker was supposed to be a member of the Village People, but they decided to hold him back to make him a solo artist. He got signed with Casablanca records and released his only album, Like An Eagle, in 1979. He was somewhat of an unlikely disco star, as he hated dancing and disco, and according to the album’s producer Henri Belolo (careful if you click on that link, the article has willies) he wasn’t that much of a singer either:
One day Jacques said to me, “We’re going to make an album with Dennis.” I told him, “But Jacques, we can’t. He’s not a singer!” Jacques said, “I know. He’s an actor, but he’s good looking and believe me, we can make him a star. Trust me.”
That they did – while the album wasn’t that much a commercial success, it did become a cult classic for fans of sleazy alternative disco, and Dennis Parker landed a role on a daytime soap called The Edge of Night.
Don’t ask me why, I can’t explain it, but I just think there’s something very chic about making your porn star boyfriend a disco sensation, the ‘70s must have been fun. And the album is just great – it’s somewhat scuzzy-sounding euro-disco about nightlife with lyrics like “When there’s music in the air / There’s no one who can compare / Watching me is something rare / Tonight I’m a star.” Sure, it’s a bit cheesy and a little bit camp, but all good disco is – that’s honestly just a part of the charm. And the songs are actually good, the titular track is probably going into semi-regular rotation.
It’s a shame that this came out at the tail end of disco fever, it feels like it could have been massive. At least it’s an album that’s appreciated now, it’s a cult classic, but I’m sure it would have been nice for it to be a big thing while he was still here, as Dennis Parker died of AIDS at a young age. Like An Eagle is top-tier disco album and I loved every second of it, I’m giving it a 9/10.