The Hustle (song)

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“The Hustle” is a disco song by songwriter/arranger Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony. It went to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts during the summer of 1975. It also peaked at No. 1 on the Canadian RPM charts, No. 9 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report) and No. 3 in the UK. It would eventually sell over one million copies. The song won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance early in 1976 for songs recorded in 1975.

History

While in New York City to make an album, McCoy composed the song after his music partner, Charles Kipps, watched patrons do a dance known as “the Hustle” in the nightclub Adam’s Apple. The sessions were done at New York’s Mediasound studio with pianist McCoy, bassist Gordon Edwards, drummer Steve Gadd, keyboardist Richard Tee, guitarists Eric Gale and John Tropea, and orchestra leader Gene Orloff. Producer Hugo Peretti contracted multi-woodwind player Phil Bodner to play the piccolo lead melody.

On the week of May 16, 1975, “The Hustle” entered the Radio & Records Trend chart at no. 38. The following week, “The Hustle” entered the Radio & Records Pop/30 chart at no. 30.

During the summer of 1975, “The Hustle” became a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts. Billboard ranked it as the No. 21 song for 1975. It also peaked at No. 9 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report) and No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart.

According to producers Hugo & Luigi, who owned the Avco record label that originally released “The Hustle”, McCoy met with them shortly before his death in 1979 to discuss ideas for a new, longer version of the song, in order to appease Avco’s UK and German affiliates who were clamoring for a 12″ disco single release. The new version, clocking in at just under six and a half minutes, was assembled posthumously as a remix, using parts of the original recording plus new parts, including drum, Syndrum, and a “little” Moog synthesizer. It was credited to Van McCoy alone or with an unnamed orchestra, mixed by “The Mix Masters”, identity unknown.

Appearances in other media

The song has been featured in numerous movies, such as Stuck on You, Vampires Suck, and The Lorax, and television shows including the Shark Tale short film Club Oscar, That ’70s Show, Speechless, American Dad!,

and Futurama.

Chart performance

Certifications and sales

Other versions

• Italian rapper Talko made a rap cover of “The Hustle”. It was released in 1983 on Babalu Records.

• Filipino comedienne Rufa Mae Quinto covered this song as “Booba (Do The Hustle)”, which served as the theme song of the 2001 film Booba. Her version was included on her album Rated R from Viva Records.

• Van McCoy & Pan’s People » Do the Hustle (1975)

• The Hustle / VAN McCOY / Dance / Perfume

• The Hustle – Fab Jazz ft. Members of One Light Orchestra (Van Mccoy Cover)

• April 2023 – Do The Hustle ♥ with Path and Lotta @ Paramount Players SL

• The Hustle – Disco – Van McCoy – Solo Acoustic Guitar – Arranged by Kent Nishimura

Hustle (dance)

The Hustle is a catch-all name for some disco dances which were extremely popular in the 1970s. Late 1970s, Bump, Hustle, Watergate and Spank were popular. It mostly refers to the unique partner dance done in nightclubs to disco music. Hustle has steps in common with Mambo and Salsa and basic steps are somewhat similar to Euro dance style “discofox”, which emerged at about the same time and is more familiar in various European countries. Modern partner hustle is sometimes referred to as New York hustle, however, its original name is the Latin hustle.

A great source for research on the origins of the Hustle is a book written by Willie Estrada, one of the original pioneers of the Latin Hustle by the name, “The Dancing Gangsters of the South Bronx,(Rise of the Latin Hustle)”.

History

Latin Strut

Joe Bataan recorded a song called “Latin Strut” after visiting a Bronx Club called the “310 1/2” in 1973 and seeing the first version of a 6-step dance called “The Hustle” this new Latin rhythmic sound helped young Latino Teenagers develop a faster more robust version of the original slower paced six-step dance which was also a bit robotic. However, with the introduction of songs with faster rhythmic tempos young hustle dancers started doing the dance with fancier gyrations which is when it became known as the Latin Hustle. Other variations of the Hustle would soon be developed by the Black and White communities who also helped spread the Hustle throughout New York City, and eventually the world.

James Brown and Fatback

The original early hustle was a 5-step count with no turns, created by Puerto Rican teenagers in late 1972 as a direct result of Puerto Rican elders objecting to young teenagers doing a grinding slow dance known as the 500. Created in the South Bronx among Puerto Rican teens it was originally done at house parties, hooky gigs, and basements club dances in the South Bronx. It became known as “Spanish hustle”; from 1975 to 1976, funk band the Fatback Band made a song with that name. It was also known as the “Latin hustle”; and was a 6 step count to the beat of the music.

And James Brown released Everybody’s Doin’ the Hustle & Dead on the Double Bump album in 1975. Same year The JB’s released Hustle with Speed album. Around 1976 it became known as the “New York hustle”. Later, known as just “the hustle”, when the dance became commercialized after the release of Saturday Night Fever in 1977. The early Latin hustle Pioneers were Willie “Marine Boy” Estrada and many other members. Some of them were members of a gang called the Imperial Bachelors, who used the Latin hustle as a way to bring peace into a violent South Bronx. They hosted hustle parties at St. Mary’s Recreation Center on 145th St. and St. Ann’s Ave, in 1974. Those parties ended on October 1974. However, it was the venue that produced some of the best hustle dancers in New York City, who would help spread the dance in nightclubs throughout New York City in late 1974.

In 1975 music business entrepreneur, Marty Angelo created the first all hustle dance television show entitled, Disco Step-by-Step. Each one-hour show featured top hustle dancers and two 10-minute instructional segments that allowed viewers to learn how to hustle dance in the privacy of their own living rooms. One of the first shows featured a young Billy Fajardo and the Disco Dance Dimensions. Many of the show’s video clips can be found on YouTube. Marty Angelo also created the Hustle Hall of Fame online list of dancers in 2000 that he eventually turned over to Ron Bess and Mark James.

Van McCoy’s song

The original Latin Hustle started being developed in late 1972 by Puerto Rican Teenagers in the South Bronx and by 1974 was being done all over New York and the Tri-State area, and by 1976 became an International Dance Sensation… Do the Hustle became a hit in 1975, following Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony’s song “Hustle“. Tipped off by DJ David Todd, McCoy sent his partner Charlie Kipps Jr.to the Adam’s Apple discotheque in New York City’s East Side. And “The Hustle” reached the top of the Billboard Pop Singles chart the week ending July 26, 1975. Van McCoy with The Stylistics got disco songs such as “Disco Baby”,

“Can’t Give You Anything”,

“Love is the Answer”

and “Funky Weekend”.

Van McCoy and Charlie Kipps produced David Ruffin also.

Depiction in Saturday Night Fever

The 1977 disco movie Saturday Night Fever (the sound track includes Tavares, Yvonne Elliman, Bee Gees, Kool & the Gang, KC & the Sunshine Band, The Trammps) showed both the line and partner forms of hustle, as well as a dance referred to as the “tango hustle” (invented by for that film by Denny Tario, according to the DVD commentary).

Although the popularity of the movie faded quickly as the hype of the movie died down, the hustle and the step-by-step dance has continued even after the Disco Sucks movement and is still a “global social dance” and it took its place beside swing, salsa, mambo, cha-cha-cha, tango, rumba, bolero, nightclub two-step and other partner dances in America.

New York hustle

The couple dance form of hustle is usually called The Hustle but is frequently referred to by other names including “The Latin hustle” or “New York Hustle”. It has some resemblance to, and steps in common with, Mambo and Salsa. As in the Latin dances, couples tend to move more on the dance floor, as opposed to following a line of dance as in foxtrot.

One similarity between hustle and swing is that the lead takes the back-forward steps from his left foot; however it is not exactly a rock-step (there is no rocking action because of speed) and if the dance is taught by counting, the steps happen at the beginning of the count – “and-one, two, three” rather than at the end of the count as in swing – “left, right, rock-step”. However, those who originally developed this dance never used step counts, everything was developed by sight and sound starting in 1972.

The dance is somewhat unusual rhythmically because of the syncopation it is associated with. Most dances are danced with either 4/4 or 3/4 music with counting to match, with either a triple or duple base depending on the dance. The Latin Hustle is generally danced to 4/4 music but counted as a six-beat pattern. The most common Latin Hustle counting pattern is “&1 2 3 &1 2 3”, meaning “LR L R LR L R” in the leader’s pattern and the natural opposite of the follower’s pattern. However, the syncopation in three-count hustle also be danced: 1&23, 12&3, or 123&.

Common steps

• Basic – similar to the basic from single-step swing, except rock-step is at beginning
• Turn – 180 degrees clockwise turn taken after rock-step, between 2 and 3 counts, followed by a rock-step
• Left Turn – 180 degrees counterclockwise turn taken after rock-step, between 1 and 2 counts, followed by a rock-step
• Side Break – lead sends follow out still holding her left hand, then picks her back up
• Wheel – couple in double hand-hold, pumps arms like a bellows; couple as a whole rotates 180 degrees clockwise
• Inside Turn or Loop Turn – similar to the loop turn from swing; follower twirls 360 degrees counterclockwise
• Wrap – similar to wrap from the western swing but the footing is the same as a half turn for the hustle
• Two hand turn – uses 180 degrees turn footing, before the step the lead takes the followers right hand in his, then proceeds as if completing a wrap but changes back to mirror two hand position halfway through the step.

• The Hustle: a step by step dance guide

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