From the sublime to , , , , ,well you get ma drift! but bear with me this is a fascinating account from Will
‘More, More, More’: The 1976 disco smash sung by a porn star
Pop quiz, hotshot, y’know the song that goes “More, more, more! How do ya like me? How do ya like me?” Yeah, of course you know it. It’s only one of the most enduring disco songs ever. For a million bucks, could you tell me who sang it? And if I told you they were an internationally known porn star as well, would you believe me?
Because I certainly couldn’t on either account. This is despite the fact that it’s more or less become one of the platonic ideals of a disco song. It’s got the strut, the bass, the brass section and one of the most maddeningly catchy hooks ever put to vinyl. Yet it also sums up the downside of the movement as well. It’s a good hook, yes, but it’s a bastardised, sanitised version of the disco’s edgy, sexy prime. It feels like a corporate vision of disco that’s about as authentic as a clapped-out Ford Focus with “FeRR@reEe” scrawled on it in crayon.
Which is a shame because the story behind ‘More, More, More’ and its singer, Andrea True, is actually pretty incredible. True was a Nashville native, the child of two immigrants from Slovenia who took after her parents and showed an aptitude for music at an early age.
She channelled this into becoming a piano prodigy as a teenager who became something of a local celebrity in Nashville, developing an ease and charm in front of cameras that would go on to serve her well later in life.
True looked set to break into the upper echelon of classical piano after a highly rated audition secured her a place at the prestigious performing arts high school St. Cecilia Academy. However, her musical dreams stalled after meeting the academic David L. Wolfe, who she left college to marry when she was 19-years-old and accompanied him as he travelled the world for work.
True still had the need to perform, though, and since her passion for music had soured, she looked into acting while on the road with her husband.
This left her in dire straits by 1968. True’s marriage had soured, and after settling in New York City, they divorced, leaving a 25-year-old True to fend for herself without a degree or any work experience. She threw herself into acting and finally found work, but not in the part of the industry that she thought she’d break into.
She was offered roles in porn films, and was desperate enough to take them.
This may have started out as an act of desperation, but then True discovered she was in demand. Given the option of returning to the occasional extra job and waiting tables in the meantime, or joining the lucrative world of adult entertainment as a full-on porn star, she chose the latter.
For the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were few people in the industry as popular as she was, establishing herself as one of the most bankable stars in the industry. However, like with pretty much all porn stars, there did come a time when she wanted out.
This was in 1975, when she started looking for mainstream worked and secured a set of commercials for Jamaican TV. She decamped to Kingston, filmed the lucrative commercials and then the strangest thing happened. Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Michael Manley, started cosying up to Fidel Castro. This caused a dramatic reshuffling in the relationship shared by the US and Jamaica, so much so that the Jamaican government forbade any asset transfers to foreign countries. Meaning that True couldn’t return to the United States with the money she’d earned in Jamaica.
True was livid, however, it did also force her hand on an idea that had been brewing in the back of her mind. You see, despite the toxicity her previous music career ended with, True had wanted to get back into music for a while. In fact, she had been writing songs with a producer called Gregg Diamond for a music project called The Andrea True Connection. Rather than leave her cash in Jamaica, she decided to spend it. Recording their most promising demo, a catchy little disco number called ‘More, More, More’. The rest is history.
The song was an enormous hit on both sides of the Atlantic and for a while, it seemed that True had well and truly graduated from porn to become a genuine disco diva. However, music is a fickle industry and The Andrea True Connection were never able to replicate the monumental success of their debut hit, especially after the “Disco Sucks” backlash killed the genre more or less overnight.
Eventually, True had to give up singing entirely due to medical issues and retreated from the spotlight, working as a counsellor for people struggling with addiction issues and living off the considerable royalties that came in from the regular rotation that ‘More, More, More’ had on radio, TV and film.
She might not have been the megastar she dreamed of, but ‘More, More, More’ gave her something better than fame. It gave her independence. Andrea True spent the rest of her days doing precisely what she wanted to do and never had to go back to porn again.
Andrea True Connection - More, More, More (1976)
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