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Van McCoy
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Van Allen Clinton McCoy (January 6, 1940 – July 6, 1979) was an accomplished musician, music producer and arranger, songwriter, and orchestra conductor. He is best known for his massive 1975 international hit "The Hustle", which is still played on dance floors and radio today, nearly 30 years after his death. He has around 700 song copyrights to his credit and is also notable for producing such recording artists as Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Stylistics, Aretha Franklin, Brenda & The Tabulations, David Ruffin, Peaches & Herb, and Stacy Lattisaw.
y was born on January 6, 1940, in Washington, D.C. the second child of Norman S.
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Encyclopedia
Van Allen Clinton McCoy (January 6, 1940 – July 6, 1979) was an accomplished musician, music producer and arranger, songwriter, and orchestra conductor. He is best known for his massive 1975 international hit "The Hustle", which is still played on dance floors and radio today, nearly 30 years after his death. He has around 700 song copyrights to his credit and is also notable for producing such recording artists as Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Stylistics, Aretha Franklin, Brenda & The Tabulations, David Ruffin, Peaches & Herb, and Stacy Lattisaw.
Biography
Early life
McCoy was born on January 6, 1940, in Washington, D.C. the second child of Norman S. McCoy, Sr. and Lillian Ray, and grew up there. He started to play piano at a young age and sang with the Metropolitan Baptist Church choir as a kid, and was writing his own songs in addition to performing in local amateur shows alongside older brother, Norman Jr., by the time he was 12. The two formed a doo-wop combo called the Starlighters with two friends while in high school, and issued the single The Birdland, a novelty dance record, in 1956, gaining some interest that led to their touring with drummer Vi Burnsides. The Starlighters cut three singles for End in 1959. Marriage and other things would eventually cause the group to disband in the mid-'50s. He also sang with a group called the Marylanders.
Career
McCoy entered Howard University to study psychology some time later, only to drop out after two years to move to Philadelphia, where he formed his own label Rockin' Records, and released his first single Hey Mr. DJ in 1959. This single gained the attention of Scepter Records owner Florence Greenberg, who hired McCoy as a staff writer and A&R Representative. As a writer there, McCoy penned his first hit, Stop the Music for the female vocal group the Shirelles in 1962. He also ran Vando and Share and co-owned Maxx during the mid-60s, supervising such artists as Gladys Knight & The Pips, Chris Bartley, and the Ad-Libs. However, he really came into his own after first working for top producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as a writer and then signing with the major April-Blackwood music publishing concern, connected with Columbia Records. McCoy would go on to write a string of hits as the '60s progressed. He penned Giving Up for Gladys Knight & The Pips, (later a hit for Donny Hathaway), The Sweetest Thing This Side Of Heaven for Chris Bartley, When You're Young And In Love for Ruby and the Romantics, Right On The Tip Of My Tongue for Brenda & The Tabulations, Baby I'm Yours for Barbara Lewis, Getting Mighty Crowded for Betty Everett and I Get the Sweetest Feeling for Jackie Wilson. He also put together the hit-making duo of Peaches & Herb, arranging and co-producing their first hit, "Let's Fall In Love" for Columbia subsidiary, Date in 1966. The same year, McCoy recorded a solo LP for Columbia entitled Night-time Is a Lonely Time, and, a year later, started his own short-lived label Vando, as well as his own production company VMP (Van McCoy Productions).
Van wrote or produced most consistently for The Presidents (5-10-15-20 (25 Years of Love)), The Choice Four (The Finger Pointers, Come Down To Earth), Faith, Hope & Charity (To Each His Own and So Much Love) and David Ruffin (Walk Away From Love). In the early '70s, McCoy began a long, acclaimed collaboration with songwriter/ producer, Charles Kipps, and arranged several hits for the soul group, The Stylistics as well as releasing the solo LP on Buddah, Soul Improvisations in 1972. The album included a minor hit Let Me Down Easy, but it wasn't a success following poor promotion. He formed his own orchestra, Soul City Symphony and, with singers Faith, Hope and Charity, produced several albums and gave many performances.
Mainstream success
In 1975, McCoy released to low expectations the mostly instrumental LP Disco Baby for the Avco (later "H&L") label. It should be noted, however, that the title song Disco Baby was written by David Weiss and Hugo & Luigi and performed by the Stylistics. Unexpectedly, a single called "The Hustle" from the album, written about the dance of the same name and recorded last for the album, went to the very top of both the Billboard pop and R&B charts (also #3 in Britain) and won a Grammy. The album was also Grammy nominated. McCoy, then regarded a disco hitmaker, never repeated the success of the song, although the singles "Party," "That's The Joint" and "Change With The Times" got significant airplay. The latter reached #6 in the Billboard R&B chart and was a Top 40 hit in the UK. There were no further major sellers in the USA, despite a series of follow-up albums, From Disco to Love (the 1975 reissue of Soul Improvisations), The Disco Kid (1975), The Real McCoy (1976), Rhythms of the World (1976), My Favorite Fantasy (1978), Lonely Dancer (1979), and Sweet Rhythm (1979)). However, he hit the UK top 5 again in 1977 with the instrumental hit The Shuffle.
Van also had major success with former Temptation David Ruffin's comeback LP, Who I Am, featuring Walk Away From Love, a number 1 R&B hit (#9 pop) in the USA and a UK Top 5 success. He went on to produce the next two albums for David Ruffin, which spawned further successes. McCoy produced Gladys Knight and The Pips' "Still Together" LP, and for Melba Moore ("This Is It" and "Lean on Me"). He discovered Faith, Hope And Charity whose major success in 1975, To Each His Own was another R&B chart-topper for him.
Death
He died from a heart attack in Englewood, New Jersey on July 6, 1979.
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