Henri Belolo

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Henri Belolo was a French producer and songwriter from the disco era. He was born in 1936 in Casablanca, into a Jewish-Moroccan family, and as a boy heard the music of American soldiers and of African musicians. In Paris he worked for record boss Eddie Barclay and as a club DJ. At Polydor from 1960 he did artist work and production, with Georges Moustaki and Jeanne Moreau, among others. Later he started his own label Carabine and the music publisher Scorpio Music.

Music and breakthrough

In 1973 Belolo left for New York, where he founded Can't Stop Productions. In early 1975 he met the composer Jacques Morali. Together in Philadelphia they made Brazil by the Ritchie Family, first a club hit and then a worldwide success. Belolo mainly wrote lyrics, Morali the music. In 1977 they came up with Village People, a group that performed with costumed characters playing on stereotypes from New York's gay clubs. Hits such as Y.M.C.A., In the Navy and Go West followed. In 2015 a judge ruled that singer Victor Willis and Morali had written those songs without Belolo, after which his name as a writer had to be removed.

Influence

Belolo was not gay himself, but together with Morali he saw the power of the gay club scene as an audience for disco. In doing so he helped launch one of the best-known concepts in disco history. In the 1980s he also produced Break Machine. He remained active as a producer in France until his death in Paris in 2019.

Listening

In School of Rock

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• Mixtape 6: Fear of a Black Planet^NL Reader