About Me
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One of the most recognized members of the Disco group "The Village People", performer Glenn R. Hughes was a real-life Brooklyn biker before adopting that image for the campy band that dominated club and dance music charts through the 1970s and 80s. Hughes, whose career with the band continued through the 80s and 90s and spawned a solo club act in the 1990s died March 4th, 2001 in Manhattan, New York after battling lung cancer.
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orn July 18th, 1950, Glenn R. Hughes was working as a toll collector for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel when he answered an advertisement in a 1977 trade publication seeking "macho" singers with moustaches. Hughes responded to the ad, placed by record producer Jacques Morali, who had already sold Casablanca Records (a top Disco label whose artists included Donna Summer) on the premise of a music act that emulated those found in Greenwich Village clubs. Morali had been inspired by the flamboyant act of professional club dancer Felipe Rose, who incorporated his Native American descendancy into his act. Hughes joined Rose and four other performers including lead singer Victor Willis as a member of the six-man act dubbed "The Village People".
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ughes, who was in real life a motorcycle fanatic who kept his own road machine parked inside his New York home became the "Leatherman" in the band's line up, decked out in black leather motorcycle gear and sporting an extravagant handlebar moustache. The prefabricated act also sported cowboy, construction worker and military personas, while lead vocalist Willis was costumed as a police officer and Rose retained his inter-tribal Native American costume. Hughes and his band mates were given a crash course in the synchronized dance choreography that typified the band's live shows before the band was launched in the less inhibited music market of England in 1977. Hughes and his band mates became overnight sensations with the #1 British single "San Francisco" the same year.
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Hughes soon found himself one of the best recognized figures of the Disco era when "The Village People" next conquered America, gracing magazine covers and making guest appearances on a slew of music and variety programs on television. While the band's act and double entendre song lyrics had been calculated to target the "Gay community", mainstream audiences quickly embraced "The Village People", who scored top-of-the-chart hits with "YMCA", "Macho Man", "Go West" and "Key West". Hughes and his band mates were surprised when their single "In the Navy" was used as a recruiting campaign anthem for the US Navy and Naval Reserves. With the full support of the War Department, Hughes and his band mates were taped performing aboard a US Navy Destroyer as part of the recruitment campaign, the footage and the hit song being used in television ads for the recruiting drive until the Pentagon demanded that the ads be dropped in light of The Village People public image as a pro-homosexual group.
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hortly after the Navy campaign crumbled it was revealed that Felipe Rose was the only member of the group who lived an alternative lifestyle, and Hughes, a straight member of The Village People, was attacked by the gay community for purportedly exploiting the minority's stereotypes. Despite criticism from what had been their target market, Hughes and The Village People enjoyed Gold Record sales, Grammy nominations, and top spots on the Disco and R&B charts. Hughes performed on such fast selling albums as the debut "The Village People", "Cruisin'", "Macho Man", "Go West" and "Live & Sleazy". With and without his band mates, Hughes was a frequent featured guest on TV shows, Dick Clark's New Year's Rocking Eve celebration, and was hand picked by "Playboy" magazine founder Hugh Hefner to appear on television specials broadcast from the famed Playboy Mansion.
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1980, Disco was dying and bad decisions by Jacques Morali (notably the band's appearance in the film "Can't Stop the Music") damaged the band's record sales. When Morali took the band into a foray as New Wave Romantics in 1981, Hughes was one of the first band members to stop the silliness if not the music: The Village People disbanded, only to reform at Hughes's urging in 1987 with their own company. Hughes was one of the original members to tour with the revived Village People, which became the focus of an E! Entertainment Network documentary. Hughes was active with the group for nearly a decade, departing to launch his own successful New York cabaret act in 1996. In New York, Hughes was known for storming the city streets on his custom Harley Davidson motorcycle until diagnosed with lung cancer. Glenn R. Hughes died at his Manhattan home on March 4th, 2001 at the age of 50. He was buried in his favorite riding leathers at his own request. Unmarried at the time of his death, Glenn Hughes left no immediate survivors.
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