D.C. LaRue - History

History

His first big hit happened in 1976 and was titled "Cathedrals". D.C. was the first white male to ever hold the #1 R&B/Soul chart position in England. Cathedrals was the first commercially available 12" disco single in the USA and the only 12" single to be charted on Billboard Magazine's Top 100 Singles chart before or since.

In less than a year he began work on his second album, The Tea Dance. The 1976 recording featured such notable background singers as Lani Groves and Sharon Redd. It also included a duet with legendary 1960s rock/pop icon Lou Christie. The stand out cuts included the 12" of "Face Of Love," "Overture" and "Don't Keep It In The Shadows." The album presented itself was a concept capturing the essence and feel of a Broadway show and all the cuts from this album would peak at number two for two weeks on the disco chart. LaRue's Cathedrals album sold over 100,000 copies in its first three weeks of release but The Tea Dance more than doubled that sales figure and over the course of its life and became a bigger hit.

1977 brought putting the finishing touches on several tracks for his third album Confessions. 1978 began with the release of the soundtrack album for Thank God It's Friday which included D.C.'s track "Do You Want The Real Thing?" LaRue's movie debut was a cameo in the Bee Gees' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. D.C. also appeared in the Village People film Can't Stop The Music (1980).

In 1979 he released Forces Of the Night. It featured the 12" single "Hot Jungle Drums And Voodoo Rhythm" as well as duets with Rita Moreno (Hollywood actress/Broadway dancer) on "Have A Good Time" and Michelle Aller (the beautiful voice on Cerrone's "Call Me Tonight") on "On With The Dance."

1981's Star Baby retained the spark and ingenuity that had been prevalent in his earlier releases but with the disco area coming to an end it was sadly overlooked. It did however feature yet another exciting duet with Lou Christie ("Into The Ozone") and the 12" release of "So Much For L.A." garnered quite a bit of positive club reaction. It was the first ever double sided Casablanca Records 12" single with the flip side being the track "Boys Can't Fake It."

In 2006 his "Cathedrals" was sampled in England (3AM/Bobby Blaco & Miki Moto) and it turned into an internationally successful dance hit again.

In 2010, D.C. recorded his first track since the disco era, "Crash And Burn", which was produced by Ian Levine and included on the compilation album "Northern Soul 2010".

In February 2012, D.C. LaRue returned once again with a powerful Nu Disco genre track he did with artist/producer Jimmy Michaels titled "More Things Change", which is from the Jimmy Michaels album of the same name.

The editors of GQ Magazine voted LaRue one of the 6 creative artist who would epitomize "success in the decades ahead."