View full sizeSailors beware: Macho men (with bellbottoms and a beat) on board.Courtesy of
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All-male singing group the Village People was originally created to target the enormous gay disco scene so prevalent in the late 70s. When their first two hits, "Macho Man" and "YMCA," made it on mainstream radio, much of the country didn't get the references. But by the time their third hit, "In the Navy," broke into the top 10 in May of 1979, most of the country was catching on.
Except for some of the military's top brass.
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For the guys in the singing and dancing group, shipshape stage presence was everything. When they were first forming, group creators ran an ad to recruit members which read: "Macho Types Wanted: Must Dance and Have a Moustache." Constantly in dress-up mode, members of the original group always took stage costumed thusly:
Victor Willis as a police officer, Felipe Rose as a Native American, Randy Jones as a cowboy, Glenn Hughes as a biker, David Hodo as a construction worker and Alex Briley as a G.I.
When "In the Navy" became a mega-hit and Willis and Briley switched to Navy whites, the real McCoys in the service took notice. According to popular lore, the military branch requested rights to use the tune in their recruiting efforts. The band agreed to provide rights for free on the condition that the Navy help with shooting the music video. However, after the Navy provided the group access to a warship and its crew, they must have gotten a sinking feeling. Because in the end, the admirals in charge did an about face and said "bon voyage" to the whole idea.
Hey sailor, did you ever
dance to this? (Don't ask, don't tell.)