Willis agreed to sing lead and background vocals under the auspices of Village People, a non-existent concept group which included the hits "San Francisco (You've Got Me)" and "In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star)". The album became a huge hit in the burgeoning disco market. After an offer from Dick Clark for the group to perform on American Bandstand, Morali and Willis were pressed to develop a "real" group around Willis to perform live. They did so by placing an ad in music trade papers for "macho" singers who "could also dance" and "must have a mustache".
Willis was soon writing hit after hit produced by and co-written with Morali. Village People quickly rose to the top of the charts with Willis at the helm scoring numerous chart busters such as "Macho Man", "Y.M.C.A.", "In the Navy", and "Go West".
In 1980, as preparations for a Village People feature film Can't Stop the Music were under way, Willis left the group. Although he does not appear in the movie, he wrote the lyrics for two of the film's songs, "Magic Nights" and "Milkshake". Can't Stop the Music became one of the biggest Hollywood movie flops of all time.
After Willis departed, Village People never had another hit. In an attempt to "recapture the magic", Morali and Belolo convinced him to return to the group in 1982 for the album Fox on the Box. Despite the fact that album had a more urban rock feel, and also included one of the earlier hip-hop tracks, it was not a commercial success. In 1983, Willis left the group for good.
Read more about this topic: Victor Willis
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