Which song does Graces Jones call “very sexy”? Which other track makes her want to lose all her clothes? The legendary disco diva reveals all…
The first song I fell in love with
Barry White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra, ‘Love’s Theme’: “It’s a very sexy song, and the whole album is very, very sexy. In [my new autobiography] I’ll Never Write My Memoirs I wrote about having an orgasm to it and weeping. I still weep!”
The first song I can remember hearing
Joe Tex, ‘Skinny Legs And All’: “I would have heard it at school in upstate New York. It’s a song that they used to tease me with because I had skinny legs, but I still love the song. And I still have skinny legs and I still don’t like them.”
The first album I ever bought
Santana, ‘Abraxas’: “It had ‘Black Magic Woman’ on it and this amazing cover, very acid trippy and very sexy. It was really quite a striking collage for the time and it’s still a beautiful piece of art.”
The song that made me want to make music
Dionne Warwick, ‘Trains And Boats And Planes’: “I was always moving, and that song was like going on a journey and going somewhere. It made me dream about travelling.”
The song I no longer listen to
Lady Gaga, ‘Poker Face’: “It was just played so much. I would have worked with her if she came up with something that inspired me, but when she asked me the only idea she had was the actual idea of working with me.”
The song that makes me want to dance
The Trammps, ‘Disco Inferno’: “‘Disco Inferno’ still drives me nuts; it’s amazingly soulful and it’s got the most amazing rhythms. ‘Burn baby burn’ – I mean, come on! It sets the place on fire and you’re jumping out of your clothes. Don’t play it too often, or I won’t have any clothes on me!”
The song I do at karaoke
John Lennon, ‘Imagine’: “When I was doing my first auditions and asked to make my first record, that’s the one track that I went in the studio to do. So if I was to do karaoke, I would be fine at doing that one.”
The song I want played at my funeral
Nothing that currently exists: “It hasn’t been written yet! If anyone thinks they’ve written it then they can pass it on to my manager’s office!”
The song I can’t get out of my head
Capleton, ‘Run Away (Extra Gun Riddim)’: “It’s a reggae track by a Jamaican singer. I don’t know if it’s new but I bought it on the beach in Jamaica, on a CD called ‘Extra Gun Riddim’.”
The song I wish I’d written
Edith Piaf, ‘La Vie En Rose’: “All the songs I remade are the songs that I wish I’d written. I didn’t hear the original before I covered it because I didn’t want to be affected by Edith Piaf’s way of singing it. It’s really different, but the melodies are still there.”