Dennis Parker — New York By Night (extended version)

from Like An Eagle (1979)

I posted yesterday about pornstar-turned-disco-crooner-turned-soap-opera-cop Dennis Parker… since then I’ve been listening to his sole LP over and over, and I’m kind of haunted by it, especially knowing his story. The music isn’t all that spectacular—this track, for example, is terribly overproduced even for disco, with string accents, horn blasts and vocal overdubs worthy of a commercial jingle.

But lyrically this is great stuff, especially sung in such an offhand way by a mustachioed pornstar:

At Studio 54 / they’re waiting at the door / can’t get in / just can’t win
Bushes in the park / shadows moving dark / fast romance / furtive glance

On 42nd Street / x-rated is the beat / see some skin up on the silver screen
At 53rd and 3rd / A dollar is the word / turn that trick / you better hurry, kid

So flashy and so heartbreakingly painful all at once…

Dennis Parker — Like an Eagle

from Like an Eagle (1979)

Wow.. amazing music video for ‘Like an Eagle,’ a 1979 disco track.. taped from French television. Great shots of the seedy 70s Times Square, and Dennis Parker is strutting around NYC like a crazy person—just the way you should with a disco track like this.

Dennis Parker aka Wade Nichols started his career as a porno actor, starring in flicks like Boynapped! and Bang Bang You Got It, before being noticed by disco producer Jacques Morali (the man behind the Village People). Morali convinced Parker to record a disco album and this track is one of the hits that resulted from the collaboration.

In the meantime, Parker continued his work in the x-rated business, and took a gig as police chief in the soap opera Edge of Night, but he was forced to quit in 1984 as his health deteriorated due to AIDS. He committed suicide the year after.