"The Hustle" is a famous disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

 song by songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

/arranger

Arranger

In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...

 Van McCoy

Van McCoy

Van Allen Clinton McCoy was an accomplished musician, music producer, arranger, songwriter, and orchestra conductor. He is known best for his 1975 internationally successful song "The Hustle", which is still played in dance halls and on radio to this day more than thirty years since his death...

 and the Soul City Symphony. It scored #1 on the "Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

" and the "Hot Soul Singles" charts during the summer of 1975. It also peaked at #9 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report) and #3 in the UK. It would eventually sell over one million copies and is one of the most popular songs of the disco era. The song won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance

Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance

The Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance was awarded between 1969 and 2011.*In 1969 it was awarded as Best Contemporary-Pop Performance, Instrumental*From 1970 to 1971 it was awarded as Best Contemporary Instrumental Performance...

 during 1976. The instrumental has a similar sound to two Barry White

Barry White

Barry White, born Barry Eugene Carter , was an American composer and singer-songwriter.A five-time Grammy Award-winner known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic image, White's greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring...

 composed songs: "Love's Theme

Love's Theme

"Love's Theme" is an instrumental piece recorded by Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra and released in 1973. It is one of the few instrumental and purely orchestral singles to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, in early 1974...

" and "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe

Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe

"Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" is a song written, recorded and produced by Barry White. Released as the first single from White's album Can't Get Enough in 1974, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 and U.S. R&B chart and has since become one of White's signature tunes. It was his second...

"; both scored #1 on the popular music charts during the year earlier.

While in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 to make an album, McCoy invented the song after his music partner, Charles Kipps, watched patrons do a dance known as "the hustle

Hustle (dance)

The Hustle is a catchall name for several disco dances which were extremely popular in the 1970s. Today it mostly refers to the unique partner dance done in ballrooms and nightclubs to disco music. It has some features in common with swing dance. Its basic steps are somewhat similar to the...

" in the nightclub Adam's Apple. The sessions were done at New York's Media Sound studio with pianist McCoy, bassist Gordon Edwards, drummer Steve Gadd, keyboardist Richard Tee, guitarists Eric Gale and John Tropea, and orchestra leader Gene Orloff. Producer Hugo Peretti

Hugo Peretti

Hugo E. Peretti was an American songwriter and record producer.Born in New York City, Hugo Peretti began his career as a teenager, playing the trumpet in the Borscht Belt in upstate New York...

 contracted piccolo

Piccolo

The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...

 player Philip Bodner to play the lead melody.

Chart positions

Charts	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	9
UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...	3
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	1
U.S. Billboard Hot Soul Singles	1
Dutch Top 40 Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting...	4

Talko Version

Italian rapper Talko made a rap cover of The Hustle. It was released in 1983 under Babalu Records.