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Giovanni Giorgio Moroder was born on April 26, 1940, in South Tirol, Italy, and settled in Munich in the late 60s where he released a string of singles, trying to establish himself as a schlager (“bubblegum“) singer whilst also writing for other artists. A young Agnetha Fältskog recorded a couple of his tracks. Giorgio's first hit came with the song Looky Looky (1969), followed by Son Of My Father which Chicory Tip took to #1 in the UK charts in 1972. When Moroder and his songwriting partner Pete Bellotte met a young singer called Donna Summer, they knew they were onto something special. Love To Love You Baby catapulted the trio to fame when it hit the top of the charts in both the US and Europe towards the end of 1975, with disco music now being on the rise. Having just completed Roberta Kelly's first album and Donna's second international album A Love Trilogy, Moroder himself decided to record a cover version of the Moody Blues' Nights In White Satin, with a K added to match the cover art, singing it a sleazy deep vocal, not unlike what his fellow producer Frank Farian would apply for Boney M. soon after. Billboard reviewed the album in July, saying the “blurry, gruff vocals surrounded by muffled steady drums and those gorgeous Munich Machine strings [was] rather amazing“, adding “side two here is far from disappointing.“ Although it failed to hit the sales charts, it was a club hit, peaking at #14 on Billboard's Disco charts when released in the US in August 1976. The single release was I Wanna Funk With You Tonite with Madeline Bell and sisters Sue Leslie & Sunny Glover on backing vocals. Interestingly, the song had been recorded first as Bad, Bad Love. This discarded version was accidentally released on some French LP pressings and is included here along Moroder's stand-alone 1977 single Let The Music Play (which Amanda Lear would cover on her 2008 album Brief Encounters). The latter never had a US release. 00:00 Knights In White Satin 04:44 In The Middle Of The Knight 09:44 Knights In White Satin 14:42 Oh L'amour 20:27 Sooner Or Later 26:07 I Wanna Funk With You Tonite 31:33 Let The Music Play 35:12 Bad, Bad Love (Original Version I Wanna Funk ...) 39:03 Knights In White Satin (Single Version) 42:54 I Wanna Funk With You Tonite (Single Version)
