NEW YORK \u2014 Victor Willis, who co-founded the Village People, co-wrote the disco group\u2019s classic hits \u201cY.M.C.A.,\u201d \u2033Macho Man\u201d and \u201cIn the Navy,\u201d and delighted crowds while dressed as the band\u2019s helmeted and mustachioed police officer, has died. He was 74.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are profoundly sad to announce the death of Victor Willis, lead singer of Village People,\u201d the group posted on its official Facebook page. The cause was identified as \u201ca short but aggressive illness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willis was a musician-actor who, among other things, had appeared on Broadway in \u201cThe Wiz\u201d when he decided to cash in on the disco craze in 1977 by joining a group made up of beefy, macho-looking guys dressed as a biker, a construction worker, a cop, a cowboy and a Native American chief.<\/p>\n
With producer Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, Morali\u2019s business partner, Willis founded the six-member Village People. The idea came to them while partying at an after-hours gay nightclub in the West Village of Manhattan. The group\u2019s self-titled debut album was released in 1977.<\/p>\n
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In 1978, the group released two albums, \u201cMacho Man\u201d and \u201cCruisin\u2019\u201d \u2014 which featured the international hit \u201cY.M.C.A.,\u201d a song that peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard chart. A year later, Village People released the album \u201cGo West,\u201d which included \u201cIn the Navy,\u201d a song that peaked at No. 3 hit on the chart. \u201cMacho Man\u201d peaked at No. 25 in 1978.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Congress described \u201cY.M.C.A.\u201d \u2014 with its infectious chorus of \u201cIt\u2019s fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.\u201d and an accompanying dance spelling out the letters \u2014 as \u201can American phenomenon\u201d and added the song to the National Recording Registry. In 2021, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
Willis also starred in the 1980 movie \u201cCan\u2019t Stop the Music,\u201d a widely ridiculed comedy starring the Village People and Steve Guttenberg and directed by Nancy Walker. Critic Rex Reed called it \u201cone of the silliest movies ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n
Village People music is the backbone of pool parties, high school dances, weddings, proms, bar mitzvahs, games and whenever an uplifting mood is needed. The songs also played at gay marches and the White House.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will think of Victor every time \u2018Y.M.C.A.\u2019 is played, like today, and all throughout this July Fourth Birthday week,\u201d President Donald Trump wrote on social media Wednesday. \u201cMy condolences to his wonderful family and group, Victor Willis will be sorely missed.\u201d<\/p>\n
While musicians like Neil Young, John Fogerty, Phil Collins, Panic! At The Disco and the estates of Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty and Prince sent cease-and-desist letters to stop Trump from using their music, Willis said he didn\u2019t feel he was endorsing Trump when the song played.<\/p>\n
Willis was born in Texas and grew up in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. When he moved to New York, he went to a YMCA on West 63rd Street in Manhattan, which inspired the hit song.<\/p>\n
The ownership of Village People\u2019s songs came into doubt decades after the hits, and in 2015, a federal jury ruled that Willis was entitled to 50% copyright ownership in the United States of 13 of the group\u2019s songs, including \u201cY.M.C.A.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a series of arrests on drug-related charges that resulted in a rehab stint, Willis told The Associated Press in 2012 that his life had turned around. \u201cLife is fine. I went through whatever I went through, but everything is going great now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In May, Willis and the Village People \u2014 he was the only original member \u2014 sang \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d and \u201cY.M.C.A.\u201d for Secretary of State Marco Rubio during an event in India.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n