Born in the gay clubs of America in the late 1970s and early 1980s, sleaze/morning music remains something of a forgotten strand of disco. Most associated with The Saint in New York and Trocadero Transfer in San Francisco, this genre-hopping form of DJing was played around dawn after a night of uptempo disco.
With a strong focus on slow emotional grooves that could veer from Philly soul and slo-mo disco to cosmic synth pop and new wave through to camp pop and diva torch songs, the morning music section became a trademark of the great DJs. “By the time of 5 A.M., dancers were ready for more emotion and intimacy but also some gritty bump and grind,” says San Francisco DJ Steve Fabus. “There were only certain DJs who could be a vessel for all these different moods and feelings through the night.”
While The Saint became the best known home of sleaze in New York from 1980–88, this style of DJing went much further back. “At the end of the night in private clubs in NYC, there was an entire set devoted to a more emotional and dreamier mood dictated by the DJ’s style,” says Marsha Stern, lighting operator and technician at The Saint.
In 1981, she designed and also operated the lighting system at the Pines Pavilion on Fire Island, the gay party enclave in the state of New York. “It was on Fire Island in the summer months that we could physically experience what we called ‘morning music,’ swirling around the packed and sweaty Ice Palace on Cherry Grove and out onto the sun-dappled outdoor terraces,” says Stern. “We saw the daybreak while dancing at the Ice Palace followed by a walk on the beach to the home of a ‘morning party’ where the festivities would continue.”
One of the original masters of morning music was Ice Palace resident Roy Thode. “At the Ice Palace on Fire Island Roy was able to execute a proper morning music set,” says Stern, who inherited over 100 of Thode’s reel-to-reel master tape mixes, some of which are now online. “After he called last orders for drinks at around 3:45 A.M., the music would go on for hours, transitioning to the ‘morning music feel’ as the music experienced its tempo drop typically around daybreak.”
Over on the West Coast, a similar scene to New York had evolved. “Before the Trocadero Transfer opened, one could dance to these [morning music] selections at regularly staged loft and warehouse parties usually in the South of Market [SOMA] area downtown,” says Steve Fabus. “Many of these inspirational parties were produced by Rod Roderick and I was one of the signature San Francisco DJs along with Tim Rivers, Lester Temple, and a number of NYC DJs like Vincent Carleo, Larry Rossiello, and Richie Rivera, all known for their morning music sets. This is where I started playing sleaze.”
For Robbie Leslie, who would happily drop Gloria Gaynor next to Tears for Fears, there was a subtle distinction between morning music and sleaze. “They were very much alike, yet fundamentally different,” he suggested when he posted his Slippin’ Into Darkness – The DNA of sleaze mix in 2024. “Morning music was full of sentiment and romance; sleaze was imbued with sexual energy…it was emotion and sensuality intertwined.”
The best-known pioneer of sleaze in San Francisco, though, was Bobby Viteritti. Inspired to DJ by witnessing Roy Thode on Fire Island, Viteritti made his name in Miami spinning at hot spots like Marlin Hotel’s Poop Deck, where future DJ at The Saint Robbie Leslie worked the lights. But it was at Trocadero Transfer [founded by Dick Collier at 520 4th Street] that he earned his legendary status, working the Graeber sound system to the max against the kaleidoscopic disco-ball arrangements of lighting man Bill Langenheim.
Viteritti’s sets veered from Al Wilson’s soul groover “Show & Tell” and low-slung disco numbers like Faith, Hope & Charity’s “Don’t Pity Me” to Claudja Barry’s cosmic classic “Love for the Sake of Love.” These slower songs, Viteretti told me in 2014, provided the foundation for the sleazy aesthetic of the 5 A.M. slot, a kind of after-hours primetime. “For all the hardcore dancers who didn’t want to go to bed,” he said, “This is the mood they would come for.”
The masters of sleaze weren’t just defined by their slow tempos, but their fluid energy exchanges, reflected in the sequenced and mixing—a nuance that comes with a steep learning curve. “There’s lots of good music in the slow area, but a lot of DJs don’t know how to get down there from the high energy,” Viteritti told me. “There is an art to playing it. If you can get them down to the nitty gritty, though, it can be amazing.”
Viteritti’s regular warm-up DJ at Trocadero Transfer was Steve Fabus, who took sleaze in a new direction when he started a morning party at the famous San Francisco club EndUp in 1980. “My sleaze is different from, say, Bobby’s, in the sense of it being more soulful,” he says. “You could call a lot of it as being deeper, soulful disco—emotional, sexual. Some of my favorites included The Trammps’ ‘Living the Life,’ Jean Carne’s ‘Was That All It Was,’ Brass Construction’s ‘Give and Take,’ Michael Wycoff’s ‘Looking Up To You,’ Bunny Siglar’s ‘Your Love Is So Good,’ and Toto’s ‘Georgy Porgy.’
While the Trocadero Transfer brought a new level of drama to San Francisco clubs, over in New York, The Saint redefined gay nightlife forever. Opened by Bruce Mailman at 105 2nd Avenue in September 1980, at a reported cost of $4.2 million, the temple of pyrotechnics included an incredible quadrophonic sound system and the most legendary lighting system in all of disco. The centerpiece was a planetarium-style star machine that projected the star-lit night sky onto the dome above. It would all make for a magical visual accompaniment to the transcendent morning music for which The Saint became known.
One of those lucky to have been there was Stern, who, along with lighting designer Mark Ackerman, proved instrumental in bringing the magic of morning music to physical spaces. “It was March 15th, 1981, Sunday Tea dance at The Saint, and Roy Thode was DJ; I was on lights. The first time a woman was on the schedule,” she remembers. “Roy named that night ‘The Land Of Make Believe’ and it was simply magical… The most memorable mix I’ve ever heard Roy do was that night. It was Tony Orlando’s ‘Don’t Let Go,’ which is a very long record with a very long break. Over that break, Roy laid Stephanie Mills’s ‘Never Knew Love Like This Before’ in its entirety. It was also the only time he ever did that mix.”
While morning music faded away in the late ’80s as house music dominated the clubs, Steve Fabus sees a glimmer of hope for its future. “There are some clubs that are opening up to more intimate party nights, especially in the after hours,” he says. “One can hope there will be more room for morning music on these nights. In these times we’re living through, we need that feeling of sanctuary that morning music provides.”
Here are some of the best morning music and sleaze records available on Bandcamp.
Recorded for Motown by The Temptations’ lead singer David Ruffin alongside producer Van McCoy, “Walk Away from Love” entered the US R&B charts in 1976. Proving that Morning Music didn’t need to be rare or expensive, this was one of those rip-your-heart-out soul records every sleaze DJ had in their box. It featured backing vocals by Faith, Hope & Charity, whose own single “Don’t Pity Me” appeared next to “Walk Away from Love” on Luke Howard of Horse Meat Disco’s Falling In Love With Love – sleaze Volume 1 mix.
Fitting into the same corner of soul-drenched morning music as the David Ruffin classic is this soaring 7-inch by soul group Delegation from Birmingham, in the UK Midlands. Recorded in 1977, it appeared on the group’s album The Promise of Love. Dropped next to tracks like Freda Payne’s “We’ve Got to Find a Way,” Phylis Hyman’s “Loving You, Losing You,” and Gloria Gaynor’s “Most of All,” it would cause devastation in those emotional early hours back in the early to mid-‘80s.
Representing the cosmic electronic side of sleaze is this sultry, moody gem from Jamaican-Canadian singer Claudja Barry. Produced by her husband, Jürgen S. Korduletsch, it was the B-side to her 1976 single for London Records, “Sweet Dynamite;” a slow-mo disco anthem the sleaze set took even deeper on the 8-minute Tom Moulton remix. One of many sleaze/morning music records found on the great Disco Discharge compilation series, it was a big anthem at The Saint and Trocadero Transfer.
Sleaze DJs loved throwing a camp disco pop track into the mix whether as part of their storytelling or simply the sonic tapestry they were weaving. In 1977, Melbourne, Australia-based artist Samantha Sang recorded the Bee Gees-penned “Emotion,” one of a number of Gibb Brothers sleaze records; she followed it a year later with “You Keep Me Dancing,” also on the Private Stock label. It was co-written by Sandy Linzer, who penned Odyssey’s tracks “Native New Yorker” and “Use It Up and Wear It Out.”
Not all sleaze records needed to be slo-mo—it was the emotion that counted and nothing hit more emotionally in those early mornings than Celi Bee & The Buzzy Bunch’s “One Love.” Recorded for the TK Records label in 1977 it was the work of Celi Bee [Celida Ines Camacho], a Nuyorican singer whose husband, Pepe Soto, encouraged her to go down the disco route with him acting as writer and producer. Together with Celi Bee’s “For the Love of My Man,” “One Love” would go on to become a standard at The Saint.
. 00:10 / 00:58 Back in 1973, Jim Spencer was releasing folk-rock on his own private press labels, Thoth and Akashic Records. Recorded that same year and recently reissued by Numero Group, his Landscape album gives no clues as to the soulful direction he ultimately took, which makes it all the more fascinating. Recorded and co-written with Ed Tossing, “Wrap Myself Up In Your Love” was one of a string of 7-inches released on Spencer’s Armanda Records label. With Spencer singing on the A-side and Angie Jarée on the flip, this is a sultry slab off AOR soul that doesn’t leave a dry eye in the house.
Dennis Posa started out in adult films in the mid-1970s under the name Wade Nichols before signing to Casablanca Records under the name Dennis Parker for the 1979 album Like An Eagle. Produced by Jacques Morali, creator and producer of Village People, the album’s title track quickly became an anthem in the gay clubs of New York. With symphonic strings arranged by jazz and soul musician Horace Ott and swirling keys by Nathaniel Wilkie of Village People, and one of the greatest breaks in disco, this was a cut tailor-made for The Saint. His other sleaze anthem, “New York by Night,” occupies the flip side.
Marti Caine was a comedienne and dancer from Sheffield in the north of England who was a familiar face on UK TV thanks to the talent show New Faces. But since 1976, Caine had also been making music of the pop variety. Her venture into slo-mo disco on the album Point of View was as unexpected as it was inspired. “Love the Way You Love Me” had exactly the slow and sleazy groove The Saint’s dancers craved, and so another club classic was born. It got another boost thanks to UK DJ Bill Brewster, who included it on his compilation Too Slow To Disco.
Sandwiched between The Motels’ 1979 pop hit “Total Control” and Etta James’ R&B groover “Leave Your Hat On” on Robbie Leslie’s mix Slippin’ Into Darkness – The DNA of sleaze, Fern Kinney’s version of King Floyd’s “Baby Let Me Kiss You” came out in 1979 on TK Records—the B-side to “Groove Me,” another sleaze favorite. Found on the same Disco Discharge compilation as Dennis Parker’s “Like An Eagle,” it’s a classic electronic sleaze anthem.
With the devastating impact of AIDS on the New York club scene, the messages and mood of morning music took on a more poignant meaning. One can only begin to imagine the emotional embraces at The Saint when records like “American Love” by French singer Rose Laurens came on. Released in 1986, it’s less a chanson synth pop song than a balm for all the friends and lovers lost. Today, it’s remembered as a sleaze anthem. Check it out on Disco Discharge: Gay Disco & Hi-NRG Pt.2
