"Ten Percent" (also written as "Ten Per Cent") is a

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

song written by Allan Felder and T.G. Conway and recorded by

Double Exposure In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be id ...

. Originally released on the band's 1976 album of the same name, "Ten Percent" was later

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

ed by Walter Gibbons for a single released on Salsoul Records, the label's eighth ever release. Gibbons's remix of "Ten Percent" was the first commercially available

12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a "single" or a few related sound tracks on each surface, compa ...

. The

was reserved for DJs until the release of "Ten Percent."

Disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

had already begun to exploit the 12-inch's allowance for higher volumes, better sound quality, and longer playing time, but no record companies had previously seen commercial value in the new format.

Production

Ken Cayre, the head of Salsoul Records, decided to sign a number of famous musicians and bands to the label, hoping to "consolidate the success of the faceless Salsoul Orchestra", and

was chosen as the newly signed band whose first release, "Ten Percent," would feature the orchestra and be promoted with a 12-inch single as well as the typical seven-inch format. Walter Gibbons was a DJ, not a producer, but his innovative skills, along with his punctuality and serious nature, got Gibbons the "Ten Percent" assignment at Salsoul Records. One of his original techniques was "taking two records and working them back and forth in order to extend the drum breaks," a technique he applied to the "Ten Percent" mix, which displeased the original songwriter, Allan Felder, but which was supported by Salsoul in the front-page story in which

Billboard magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to th ...

covered the release. It was "mostly an exercise in stretching the original track out," and Gibbons transformed it from a "four-minute song into a nine-minute-forty-five-second-cut-and-paste roller coaster."

Public reaction

When Gibbons first played the "Ten Percent" 12" remix at Galaxy 21, where he was a regular DJ. One witness said, "It sounded so new, going backwards and forwards. It built and built like it would never stop. The dance floor just exploded." Peter Shapiro "The Secret History Of Disco" 2005 pp46

Chart history

Release

* Release Date: May, 1976 * Album Jacket: 4-colors, with a center window showing the record's label * Price: $2.98 * Speed: 45rpm * Publicity: front-page stories in

and

Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of three major weekly music industry trade magazines in the United States, with ''Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 as ''Music Vendor''. In 1964, it was changed to ''Record World'' under the ...

Effects on dance music

"Ten Percent" was a "dancefloor stormer that radically changed the disco underground in terms of record production." The release "signalled the rise of remixers", and the rise of the DJ.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Mixed With Love: The Musical World Of Walter Gibbons
1976 singles American disco songs Songs written by Allan Felder 1976 songs Salsoul Records singles