Outside the shop things were bad - open sewers, pickpockets, thugs, beggars, drunks, lovers for hire and abandoned children running wild by the thousands. They slept crowded into rooms over the company's shop, a location thought to be safer than London's tenements and streets. They worked 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week.įar from home and family, these young men often lived at the workplace. Growth of the railroads and centralization of commerce and industry brought many rural young men who needed jobs into cities like London. The Young Men's Christian Association was founded in London, England, on June 6, 1844, in response to unhealthy social conditions arising in the big cities at the end of the Industrial Revolution (roughly 1750 to 1850). “We decided now would be a good time to release the video, because the song is uplifting and may give people a little hope.Our History - A Brief History of the YMCA Movement “It’s on our Christmas album, but it’s not a Christmas song it’s a song of encouragement,” he said. He recently oversaw the editing of the video for “If You Believe,” a song that was featured on the the 2019 album “A Village People Christmas.” Original plans called for the video to be released this fall, but the coronavirus pandemic prompted Willis to move up that date to today. I tried to write it in an open enough way that anybody could find something in it and relate it to their life.”īecause the coronavirus has led to the cancellation or postponement of the Village People’s spring performances, Willis is remaining at his San Diego home. Whether you’re gay, straight, Democrat, Republican, it doesn’t matter to me. “ ‘Y.M.C.A.’ was written to have universal appeal. “As a writer, you don’t ever know how a song will do, but you hope it’s going to be accepted by people for what it is,” Willis said. 31, 2008, the song made the Guinness World Records after 40,148 attendees at the annual Sun Bowl college football game in El Paso performed the largest public “Y.M.C.A.” dance ever. It was also memorably featured in the 1993 movie “Wayne’s World 2.” And, on Dec. “Y.M.C.A.,” and the letter-forming dance steps its title inspired, has become a staple at wedding receptions, parties and every New York Yankees’ home game since 1996. Willis could never have imagined “Y.M.C.A.” would be transformed from a disco hit, which was especially popular at gay nightclubs, into a musical phenomenon embraced at sporting events and social gatherings worldwide. “That was my reference for my lyrics for the song - remembering what the Y was to me as a youngster.” And I told him that when I was a teenager, growing up in an urban area of San Francisco, my friends and I would go to the Y and play basketball, work out then, take a shower, have something to eat and then come home. “I explained to him that it was an acronym for Young Men’s Christian Association. meant, because he was from France,” Victor Willis, now 68, recalled. in New York City and asked me what Y.M.C.A. “I had no idea when we wrote ‘Y.M.C.A.’ that it would become one of the most iconic songs in the world, and a fixture at almost every wedding, birthday party, bar mitzvah and sporting event,” Willis said in a statement issued by the Library of Congress. He wrote the lyrics to “Y.M.C.A.” and other Village People hits, including “Macho Man,” “In the Navy” and “Go West.” He also wrote the group’s recently released 2019 piano ballad, “If You Believe,” an inspirational song of hope, whose video version has just been released and features coronavirus-inspired footage and images. The selection of “Y.M.C.A.” was welcomed by Village People leader and lead singer Victor Willis, a longtime San Diego resident, who rejoined the group in 2017 after a four-decade hiatus. Dre’s seminal West Coast 1992 rap album, “The Chronic,” and comedian Allan Sherman’s 1963 novelty hit, “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh.” The other recordings announced for induction Wednesday by the Library of Congress range from Whitney Houston’s 1992 version of the Dolly Parton-penned “I Will Always Love You,” and Cheap Trick’s 1978 album, “Live at Budokan,” to Dr. The registry honors songs or albums that are at least 10 years old at the time of their induction and are deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” The Village People’s 1978 disco anthem “Y.M.C.A.” is one of the 25 recordings that is being added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
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