Dancing Into Midnight By Top Secret

Dancing Into Midnight By Top Secret was released in 1979. It's part of the album Top Secret by Top Secret, which is a six track album, with three tracks on each side.

Album Or E.P.

Although this was released on an album. The format of the album is DJ friendly because having only three tracks on each side means the tracks on the vinyl can be a bit wider than a typical album. However, it's still not as loud and clear as a 12" with a single track on one side. Therefore the album is a compromise format that's somewhat like an EP, making it suitable for DJs to play.

Dancing Into Midnight By Top Secret

Big In Italy

This is a Canadian disco track that was influenced by European Space Disco, and then imported back into Italy just in time to influence the next generation of Italo Disco.

A Part Of House Culture?

I don't have any evidence that this track was played in Chicago in 1979.

"Dancing Into Midnight" sounds like European Space Disco, and that sound was popular with Chicago teens. Although it's an album track, the EP-like format could appeal to a young DJ trying to build their collection, and there are other playable tracks on the album. For example "I Like The DJ" and "Jealousy" are also good, and playable in a club. This makes the album good value if you're trying to build your DJ collecton in 1979. Although this logic suggests popularity with young DJs, I can't find any evidence "Dancing Into Midnight" was popular with mobile crews or at The Playground.

"Dancing Into Midnight" is fast, has a heavy compressed kick, a driving synth bass, orchestral strings, Garage-like organ stabs, Salsoul-style percussion and Euro-style synths. This would also suggest potential for Ron Hardy to have played it, but I couldn't find any evidence of that either.

I'm not sure whether "Dancing Into Midnight" was ever imported into Chicago. It seems to have been bigger in Italy than anywhere else. The Canadian release on Telson Records is quite limited, but it was licensed for release in Italy on the Italian label OUT Records in 1980.

I'm inclined to believe that "Dancing Into Midnight" was picked up by someone in South Side Chicago, but if not then it had an indirect influence on house music by influencing Italo Disco just as it was getting started.