Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine, about

the hits from coast to coast.

I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of

Slates Why is this song number one series. On our last episode, we walked through the first two decades of Barbara Strissans career.

How she emerged as a Broadway star, movie star, and yes, pop star virtually simultaneously and how she struggled to adapt to

contemporary music before finally finding an approach in the mid-70s that consistently generated hits.

We are now at the end of the 70s.

Disco is on the wane, but Barbara is about to score her biggest pop album ever by teaming

with a leading disco singer and songwriter.

By 1980, the leading acts of disco were all finding ways to pivot their careers amidst the

disco backlash.

Striseand's friend, Donna Summer, not long after their hit duet,

pivoted toward a fusion of dance pop and synthesized rock on her 1980 album, The Wanderer.

I know already now it's just a little time.

Because I'm a lot of that. Sheik, the hit-making disco group led by Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards that had revolutionized dance music and even helped

launch hip-hop in the closing months of 1979. increasingly turned their attention toward production and songwriting for other acts.

Sheik's greatest 1980 Triumph was producing and writing the album Diana,

the transformative post-disco blockbuster

by Motown legend Diana Ross.

Outside down, boy, you turn me. upside down.

Boy, you turn me inside out and round and round and round.

You might say the sheik approach was also the strategy being pursued by Barry, Robin, and Morris Gibb, the Bee-Gs.

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