Song of the Day: Sparks “The Number One Song In Heaven”

Sleazy disco merchants, Sparks‘, 1979 hit “The Number One Song In Heaven” feels like it is the Platonic ideal of Italo disco. Working with Italian producer and electronic music pioneer, Giorgio Moroder, the group manage to combine a gimmicky premise, pulsing synthesizers, a completely bonkers breakdown and soaring falsetto vocals into something greater than the sum of their parts. The song seems like it should be overwhelmed by its innate cheesiness, but instead it asserts itself confidently, its shimmering electro disco glide proving utterly unimpeachable. Indeed, one might say that it strikes the perfect balance of sleaze, cheese and grace. The subject of “The Number One Song In Heaven” is, as the title suggests, about another unheard song, which managed to go to number 1 in the pop charts of the great hereafter. Alas, the tribute to that great heavenly hit only reached number 14 in the terrestrial charts, such is the fickleness of the world we live in.

Sparks were founded in Los Angeles in 1972. The duo is composed of two brothers, singer Russel Mael and unapologetically Hitler-stached keyboardist Ron Mael. While the group would eventually forge ahead into sounds disco, they began life as a sort of hybrid glam/ chamber pop duo with a predilection for titling their albums with terrible puns (ie. Kimono My House, Angst In My Pants, A Woofer in Tweeter’s Clothing, etc). The group were much more popular in the UK than they ever were in their native US though they proved quietly influential in their homeland as well. The band never stopped recording and touring, including, most recently the formation of a super group with the members of indie-rock band Franz Ferdinand, upon whom Sparks were a clear influence.