"YMCA," which is played in the key of G, is the title of a joyful and sublimely deadpan 1978 song by The Village People. The song's lyrics extolling the virtues of Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) for the "young man" has a cheeky gay double meaning about the activities that were taking place at many YMCA branches in the 1970s. Many listeners were unaware of these undertones and thought it was simply a musical celebration of the organization:
You can get yourself clean, you can have a good meal,
You can do... what ever you feel!
It is more than a legend. Producer Henri Belolo (describing himself as straight) recalls that he saw the YMCA sign while walking down the street with composer Jacques Morali (whom he describes as gay), who seemed to know the institution fairly well: "Henri, let me tell you something. This is a place where a lot of people go when they are in town. And they get good friends and they go out." And Henri got the idea: "Why don't we write a song about it?"
The song became a #1 hit everywhere except in the USA, where it lost to Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? " (the "Da" in the title is not a typo). It has remained popular at parties, events, and functions ever since.
In 1999, the band rereleased the single. In 2004, American Idol reject William Hung released a cover version of this song on his first album.
"YMCA" is also the name of a group dance with cheerleader Y-M-C-A choreography invented to fit the song.
"YMCA" in war time
On
July 2,
2004,
Colin Powell, the
Secretary of State of the
U.S. performed a modified version of YMCA for his fellow foreign government officials at the
ASEAN security meeting in
Jakarta. His lyrics includes the lines:
President Bush, he said to me: 'Colin, I need you to run the Department of State. We are between a rock and a hard place.'
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