Today’s classic disco track of the day is “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc. It was one of the last big dance hits of that era, released in March of 1980, at the very end of the disco craze. It hit big, however, peaking at #1 all around the world—in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, West Germany, and, in the U.S., on the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard Disco Top 60, and Cash Box Top 100 charts.
“Funkytown” was written by the group’s leader, Steven Greenburg. It’s got a funky bassline, the expected four-on-floor bass drum, some hyperactive electronic cowbell sounds, and a lot (and I mean a lot!) of Europop-flavored synthesizers. That includes a vocoderized vocal from lead singer Cynthia Johnson that seems decades ahead of its time.
Lipps Inc. was a local Minneapolis group that made good. It started out as a personal project by wedding DJ Steven Greenburg who decided to try his hand writing some disco tunes. He initially wanted to call the group Lip Sync but there was another group with that name, so he went with the homophone Lipps Inc. instead. “Funkytown” was written when Greenburg and other members of the group were thinking of moving from the Twin Cities to the big funky city of New York.
“Funkytown” was the group’s first and only mainstream hit, making Lipps Inc. a true one-hit wonder, at least in the U.S. (Several other tunes hit the dance charts and at least one other was fairly big in Europe, but “Funkytown” was really all there was, as far as most people were concerned.) The group broke up in 1985.
Steven Greenburg, who was born in St. Paul, left the music business and became a web designer. Cynthia Johnson joined the Grammy-winning gospel group Sounds of Blackness and did a ton of session work, including some for former Minnesotan producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
