Any listener geared up to enjoy the marvelous music in the Disco Fever collection is probably prepared to stride onto the dance floor, to get caught up in the pulse of the night, to let the steady rhythm guide body movement - and undoubtedly will also be struck by the sheer joy inherent in so much of the best disco music. For the producers, writers, arrangers, musicians and singers who dreamed up all this fantastic music didn't only want to get people dancing, they aspired to lift spirits as well.

Perhaps no other group during the disco era was a better and more convincing representative for this approach than Earth, Wind and Fire, whose very foundation was built upon coupling funk rhythms with positive-message influences from Eastern religions. Formed in the late '60s by Maurice White, a veteran of the Chicago session musician circuit, the group - sometimes featuring as many as 10 members - signed to Warner Bros, and released its first album in 1970. But after only mild success with the first few releases, White decided that Earth, Wind and Fire should leave the label and, having assembled a completely new line-up, signed the band with Columbia Records in 1972.

Over the next few years, Earth, Wind and Fire's fortunes gradually improved, and in 1975 the band finally made the big time by scoring a No. 1 pop and R&B hit with the funky and gritty Shining Star (found on Disco Fever's Young Hearts Run Free volume). Shining Star could almost serve as an anthem for the disco era, detailing as it does White's vision of the individual's potential to be a "star" in one sense or another. The philosophy that the people on the dance floor are as much stars in their own right as the artists performing the music is, of course, at the core of club culture. And once Shining Star (and its album, That's the Way of the World) hit No. 1, Earth, Wind and Fire ranked among the biggest bands in America for the remainder of the decade.

Although the band enjoyed only one No. 1 pop hit, their R&B tally was an impressive eight chart-toppers, among them 1978's September, which has remained one of the most fondly remembered of their many hits. During this golden era, White also applied his writing and production skills to other acts. Perhaps the most brilliant and certainly the most successful outcome of this was Best of My Love by the sister trio the Emotions. In pure chart terms it was a bigger pop hit than any of Earth, Wind and Fire's singles, staying at No. 1 for five weeks in 1977 and also reaching the summit on the R&B chart. No doubt some of the song's success was fueled by the lead vocal work of Wanda Hutchinson, who performed Best of My Love a whole octave higher than her usual register - small wonder that it received a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus.

In 1979 the Emotions returned the favor by providing spirited vocal accompaniment on the amazing Boogie Wonderland, trading lines with White and occasionally giving way to the energetic falsetto tones of Philip Bailey - Earth, Wind and Fire's other lead singer. Quite simply, Boogie Wonderland (a No. 6 pop and No. 2 R&B hit) was a masterful production, "stunningly encapsulating the disco experience and putting it into user-friendly dance terminology," as authors Alan Jones and Jussi Kantonen put it in their book on disco, Saturday Night Forever.

Another disco band with abundant musicianship was Heatwave. Formed by U.S. servicemen brothers Johnnie and Keith Wilder while based in Germany, this truly international band also contained members from Spain and Czechoslovakia. In the mid-'70s, Heatwave relocated to Great Britain and recruited English keyboard player Rod Temperton. He quickly emerged as the band's artistic leader, writing virtually all their songs for the first few years of their career. Heatwave struck platinum with its very first U.S. chart entry, Boogie Nights, which peaked at No. 2 pop and No. 5 R&B in 1977. Just like Earth, Wind and Fire's Boogie Wonderland, Boogie Nights was a song that perfectly captured the spiritual excitement of disco - "get that groove, let it take you higher," as the lyrics phrased it.

Heatwave scored one more major hit with The Groove Line (No. 7 pop, No. 3 R&B) before Rod Temperton stepped back from being an active member of the band, although he still contributed songs. The success Temperton had achieved with Heatwave would be enough to secure him a prominent position in the story of modern dance music, but as his focus shifted completely to a career behind the scenes, he achieved the kind of rewards most songwriters can only dream of. Over the next few years Temperton wrote several songs for Michael Jackson's Off the Wall and Thriller albums, including the title tracks for both - and as most music fans know, Thriller rapidly became the world's biggest-selling album of all time.

If songs like Boogie Wonderland and Boogie Nights relayed the emotional intoxication of a night on the dance floor, another Disco Fever track seems to perfectly sum up the typical "urban disco person." At least, Odyssey's Native New Yorker (No. 21 pop, No. 6 R&B) paints an evocative picture of what one might imagine such an individual's life to be like at the end of the 70s. The lyrics depict a woman "talkin' that street talk," who's struggling to make it through the hustle and bustle of big city life - "no one opens the door for a native New Yorker" - and looking for love on the dance floor, where "everyone's dancing closer and closer." The vivid lyrics coupled with pop-funky rhythms and a "big" arrangement practically make the skyscrapers and exhaust fumes the song evokes seem genuine.

Odyssey was a New York trio consisting of sisters Lillian and Louise Lopez and Tony Reynolds. Initially guided by the song-writing team of Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell - who'd been around since the '60s, contributing many hits for groups like the 4 Seasons - the group achieved only limited chart success at home after Native New Yorker, becoming much more popular in Europe, where its next hit held the No. 1 spot for two weeks despite not even making it onto the U.S. charts.

Most of the time, artists, songwriters and producers were rewarded with both chart positions and the appreciation on the dance floor that they so rightly deserved. Like the other volumes in the Disco Fever collection, this one is chock-full with the best tracks and the biggest hits of the disco era, guaranteed to create the perfect dance feeling at any social gathering. Donna Summer has brought two of her most famous classics to the party - the electro-disco prototype I Feel Love (No. 6 pop, No. 9 R&B) and the epic MacArthur Park (No. 1 pop, No. 8 R&B) - while funk-masters Kool and the Gang call out for a Ladies Night (No. 8 pop, No. 1 R&B) and Cheryl Lynn vows that it's Got to Be Real (No. 12 pop, No. 1 R&B). Over in the corner, Wild Cherry is urging Play That Funky Music (No. 1 pop and R&B), the Hues Corporation warns listeners not to Rock the Boat (No. 1 pop, No. 2 R&B), Vicki Sue Robinson pleads for someone to Turn the Beat Around (No. 10 pop) - "love to hear percussion!" - while Dan Hartman demands an Instant Replay of his fabulous Relight My Fire. And listeners dancing their way through this volume of Disco Fever will surely join with pleasure in the Andrea True Connection's calls for More, More, More!

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