Y.M.C.A. is a hit song recorded by American disco group Village People. It was released in 1978 as the only single from the album Cruisin'. The song reached No. 2 on the U.S. charts in early 1979 and reached No. 1 in the UK around the same time, becoming the group's biggest hit. It is one of fewer than forty singles to have sold 10 million (or more) physical copies worldwide. A medley with "Hot Cop" reached number 2 on Billboard's Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart.
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The song remains popular and is played at many sporting events in the U.S. and Europe, with crowds using the dance in which the arms are used to spell out the four letters of the song's title as an opportunity to stretch. Moreover, the song also remains particularly popular due to its status as a disco classic and gay anthem, even among listeners who are otherwise uninvolved in disco or gay culture. "Y.M.C.A." appeared as Space Shuttle Wakeup call on mission STS-106, on day 11.
In 2009, "Y.M.C.A." was entered into the Guinness World Book of Records when over 44,000 people danced to the song with Village People singing live at the 2008 Sun Bowl game in El Paso, Texas. "Y.M.C.A." is number 7 on VH1's list of The 100 Greatest Dance Songs of the 20th Century.
"Y.M.C.A." — Village People, #2(3), 11-78; #32 R & B. This Jock Rock Glam/Glitz Rock and Soul anthem has been boisterously blaring over your baseball stadium for a generation. The song is simply a lot of fun for everyone. People comically attempt to contort their inflexible bods into letters Y — M — C — A. Their hilarious limb-flapping wave looks like macaroni trying to do the Macarena. Who are these [Greenwich] Village People anyway? Victor Willis (cop), Felipe Rose (Indian Chief), Glenn Hughes (motorcyclist), Alexander Briley (Army guy), David Hodo (construction worker), and cowboy Randy Jones. The actual Y.M.C.A. they celebrate is the 34th Street `Y,' by Penn Station, just a mile south of peep show Times Square. With spoofy fervor and theatrical wizardry, they strut their wild routine — engaging in various macho jobs (#24, 6-78 "Macho Man"); "Macho Man" plies the huff-puff theme of working out with aerobic glee. With #45, 5-79 "Go West," the one-year Village People phenomenon is best remembered for their second biggest hit to "YMCA," #3, 3-79 "In the Navy." They previewed the Rock Video 1981+ MTV Era. A mecca to New York's alternative lifestyle community, this wide-open YMCA catered to the joie-de-vivre atmosphere of the whoop-it-up late 70s, before the ball dropped on the 80s. With a colorful array of costumery often seen in the Greenwich Village Outrageous Hallowe'en Parade, the Village People zapped gray-suit conformity in a whirlaway wonderland of grand/grotesque garb.
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