Who Needs ‘The Real Thing’ when you’ve got ‘Imagination’?

YOU CAN EVEN CELEBRATE YMCA WITHOUT REAL PEOPLE!

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ITS FUN TO STAY AT THE Y M C A (author creation)

A song that became a phenomenon:

In 1978, ‘The Village People’ … a group of singer-performers … had a hit with a song, titled: ‘YMCA’ ... with very few words … and a chorus line that simply said:

“Y M C A ... It’s fun to stay at the Y M C A”

Written by Jacques Morali, Henri Belolo, and Victor Edward Willis, here’s a brief line or two from the chorus:

Y.M.C.A. It’s fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A. Young man, young man, there’s no need to feel down Young man, young man, pick yourself off the ground

There’s not much to it, really, but it became a worldwide phenomenon!

Yes, and what a phenomenon this song turned out to be, especially after it adopted special dance moves sometime after its original release.

After taking on the dance moves, it became popular all over the world, although the original performers didn’t actually do them in the song’s 1978 release. (see original YouTube link further down).

The dance moves were key factors in making the song a worldwide phenomenon. They became an ‘essential’ component, and wherever and whenever that song is sung today, be it in theatres, pubs, or home parties, those dance moves must be made… And they always are !!

I’ll give you a video link to the original performance two paragraphs down, and another video showing the dance moves, but first let me explain the dance moves … they added so much to the song’s performance popularity:

When performing the song, each of the chorus letters (‘Y M C A’) is played out by the performers (and the whole audience), by shaping their bodies into letter shapes, (e.g: When the ‘Y’ is sung, they shape their bodies into a Y-shape) … like the old semaphore flag-system that was used for sending ship-to-ship messages. (If you’re interested, here’s a link to a semaphore story after the end of this one)

For now, here is the promised ***Video link of the YMCA song, sung by The Village People before it became the worldwide phenomenon of today. (Note: there’s no semaphore-letter-moves here, but take a look at their outfits***)!

Try to remember the outfits … you’ll find that especially important as I develop the final section of today’s article … which will focus on its title.

I also promised a video of the semaphore dance moves … *Here’s that* link. (Note:* Please choose ‘skip*’ if there are any adverts that get in your way)

The final section … re-visiting the title of today’s article:

The title of today’s article is ‘Who Needs ‘The Real Thing’ when You’ve Got ‘Imagination’?’, and this final section of my article sets out to demonstrate just how, with lots of ingenuity and imagination, you can create the impossible!

If you don’t believe me, just read on, ’cos this final bit is mind-blowing:

It is amazing what you can do with a little ingenuity and imagination, and one guy named Christopher used it to create an amazing performance of the ‘YMCA’ song for an audition on the TV show ‘America’s Got Talent’ in 2016.

Remember the outfits of the original Village People? … The singers were in ‘uniforms’ … they included an American Indian; a couple of hard-hatted workers, and a policeman (or did I remember wrong?). Anyway, see them here in the video.

Here it is: The **YouTube video of Christopher’s performance of ‘**YMCA’.

Q: How many real people can you spot?

Ans: This is YMCA without the real Village People … in fact, without any real people … except for Christopher … the creator of the performance.

If you haven’t enjoyed this, there’s something wrong with you!!!

Thanks for giving it a go.

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‘*Who Needs ‘The Real Thing’ when you’ve got ‘Imagination’?*’ ** written by **Fred *** ** © Fred Ogden 2024 ****

I hope that you enjoyed reading this story of mine. You can Clap & Comment (via icons at the top or bottom of this article) … I will always reply to comments and would love to send YOU a reciprocal response.

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I also promised to give you a link to one of my earlier stories that has a semaphore-flag connection. If you are interested, here’s it’s box-link:

[embed]Twelve Headless Angels and a Message (via semaphore) No Heads … No Talk … But these Guys Tell Their message medium.com

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