In the Navy
"In the Navy" is a song by the American disco group Village People. It was the last top 10 hit for the group in the United States.
Background and writing
After the enormous commercial success of their 1978 hit "Y.M.C.A." which unexpectedly became the unofficial hymn and powerful advertising tool for the YMCA, the group took on another national institution, the United States Navy. The Navy contacted group manager Henri Belolo to use the song in a recruiting advertising campaign for television and radio. Belolo gave the rights for free on the condition that the Navy help them shoot the music video. Less than a month later, Village People arrived at Naval Base San Diego where the Navy provided them with access to film on the deck of the berthed frigate USS Reasoner, in the end the Navy did not use the video, choosing to remain with the traditional 'Anchors Aweigh'.[1]
In a landmark ruling in 2012, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California ruled that under the Copyright Act of 1976, Victor Willis (Village People's "Cop"/"Naval officer") can recover his share of the copyrights to songs co-written by him. The 1976 act extended the copyright term, but provided a mechanism for artists to benefit from the extension even if they had already signed their rights away to a publisher. His publishers had argued unsuccessfully that copyright recovery was only possible if all co-writers claimed it.[2] Willis now owns 33% of his songs.[3]
Chart performance
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
| Chart (1979) |
Rank |
| Australia [7] |
51 |
| Canada [8] |
27 |
| UK [9] |
39 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 [10] |
48 |
| US Cash Box [11] |
36 |
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In popular culture
- The song is played in The Simpsons episode "Simpson Tide," referred as an "ancient sea shanty." It is also briefly sung by The Sea Captain in the episode "Mr. Plow".
- In the game Grand Theft Auto III, there is a gay pedestrian who will occasionally say "In the navy!" and "You can sail the seven seas!" on separate occasions.
- The finale of the 2000 Leslie Nielsen comedy 2001: A Space Travesty features a performance of "In the Navy" sung by impersonators of the Three Tenors.
- During the credits of the 1996 comedy film Down Periscope, the Village People are joined by the film's cast, led by Tom Dodge (Kelsey Grammer), Emily Lake (Lauren Holly) and Marty Pascal (Rob Schneider) in an updated music video of the song aboard the protagonists' submarine, the USS Pampanito (named the Stingray in the film), a diesel Balao-class submarine from World War II.
- The Israeli pop-rock band "Tislam" has a very famous line in one of their greatest hits, "Tnu Li Rockn'Roll" (Give me Rock 'n' Roll), that says "Hoshavt oti Ba'cheder etmol ad meuchar, lishmo'a Indeonezi shel Anshei Hakfar" (You sat me down in the room yesterday evening, to hear "Indinezi" by The Village People). This line was written after the songwriter, Yair Nitzani, was a DJ at a club where people kept asking him to put on the song "Indonezi" (meaning "Indonesian") because they misheard the real name of the song. This is an example of a mondegreen, the mishearing of a phrase such that it acquires a new meaning.
- Old Navy had a radio spot containing the lyric "We want you in a new swimsuit," sung to the tune of the song.
References
External links
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| Studio albums | |
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| Compilation and other albums |
- Live: Seoul Song Festival
- Greatest Hits
- Greatest Hits '89 Remixes
- The Best of Village People
- The Very Best Of
- 20th Century Masters, The Millennium Collection ... The Best of Village People
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| Singles | |
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| Other songs | |
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| Concert tours | |
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| Filmography | |
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| Related Articles | |
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