The weekly “Discover the (Album) Cover” feature delves into album artwork (or, in this case, single covers) and explores some of the unusual themes in dance music history. A recurring motif in disco is the use of "double entendre," which, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is a word or phrase with two interpretations, often one risqué or indecent. This concept is front and center in Celi Bee's track “Superman.” At first glance, casual listeners might assume she’s singing about the famous comic book hero, as she opens with “It’s a bird? Noooooo… It’s a plane? Noooooo…,” followed by the delighted exclamation, “It’s Superman!”
But then the lyrics take a turn, and it becomes clear this isn’t your typical superhero anthem: “Superman, you make me feel so special when you move me up and down and round…” At this point, one might still imagine she's a “damsel in distress” looking for rescue. The next verse, however, leaves little room for doubt: “You get so deep inside and wow, you warm me up, it’s super then. I wanna shout again and again.”
Interestingly, I initially thought the song was capitalizing on the late-1970s Superman movie craze, but a look at the timeline reveals it actually predates the film by over a year. The cover art, too, doesn’t exactly scream “superhero”; in fact, it shows a figure that seems more in line with a bodybuilding contest than with any comic book cape.
Celi Bee, a Puerto Rican singer, recorded the track with lyrics by her husband, Pepe Luis Soto, for the prominent disco label TK Records in Miami. Released in 1977, “Superman” became a major club hit (reaching the top 3) and even climbed to No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100. Given the lyrics, it’s easy to see why radio play might have been limited.
After analyzing “Superman,” I turned my attention to the, even stranger, B-side, “Hurt Me Hurt Me,” which sounds like an invitation to an S&M session. Searching for images of Celi Bee reveals plenty of shots of a short-haired woman in leather, a style that aligns with this interpretation. The song’s lyrics consist almost entirely of “Hurt Me,” “More,” and “Loverboy”—she repeats “Hurt Me” 34 times in just over three minutes. The wondrous world of disco never ceases to amaze !
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Discover The Album Cover : Celi Bee & Buzzy Bunch
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The weekly “Discover the (Album) Cover” feature delves into album artwork (or, in this case, single covers) and explores some of the unusual themes in dance music history. A recurring motif in disco is the use of "double entendre," which, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is a word or phrase with two interpretations, often one risqué or indecent. This concept is front and center in Celi Bee's track “Superman.” At first glance, casual listeners might assume she’s singing about the famous comic book hero, as she opens with “It’s a bird? Noooooo… It’s a plane? Noooooo…,” followed by the delighted exclamation, “It’s Superman!”
But then the lyrics take a turn, and it becomes clear this isn’t your typical superhero anthem: “Superman, you make me feel so special when you move me up and down and round…” At this point, one might still imagine she's a “damsel in distress” looking for rescue. The next verse, however, leaves little room for doubt: “You get so deep inside and wow, you warm me up, it’s super then. I wanna shout again and again.”
Interestingly, I initially thought the song was capitalizing on the late-1970s Superman movie craze, but a look at the timeline reveals it actually predates the film by over a year. The cover art, too, doesn’t exactly scream “superhero”; in fact, it shows a figure that seems more in line with a bodybuilding contest than with any comic book cape.
Celi Bee, a Puerto Rican singer, recorded the track with lyrics by her husband, Pepe Luis Soto, for the prominent disco label TK Records in Miami. Released in 1977, “Superman” became a major club hit (reaching the top 3) and even climbed to No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100. Given the lyrics, it’s easy to see why radio play might have been limited.
After analyzing “Superman,” I turned my attention to the, even stranger, B-side, “Hurt Me Hurt Me,” which sounds like an invitation to an S&M session. Searching for images of Celi Bee reveals plenty of shots of a short-haired woman in leather, a style that aligns with this interpretation. The song’s lyrics consist almost entirely of “Hurt Me,” “More,” and “Loverboy”—she repeats “Hurt Me” 34 times in just over three minutes. The wondrous world of disco never ceases to amaze !
Listen to the (Superman) song in this week’s Twelve Inch mix on mixcloud. It’s song n°5 !