Van McCoy

Van Allen Clinton McCoy ( born January 6, 1940 in Washington, DC; † July 6, 1979 in Englewood, New Jersey) was an American record producer, songwriter and musician. He had his biggest hit in 1975 with the instrumental title The Hustle.

His mother let him take piano lessons and played in duet with his older brother Norman, played the violin. At the age of 12 he began to write songs, but the music was teenage temporarily, mainly because his friends teased him about playing the piano. It was only when he was already studying psychology at Howard University, he began again to play the piano.

His first experience as a singer Van McCoy collected the age of 15. He founded after several unsuccessful 1960 his own record label and has worked as a producer for The Drifters, The Shirelles and the Gladys Knight. With the smash hit The Hustle Van McCoy had a 1975 number-one hit in the U.S., for which he won a Grammy in it. Despite all his pop hits his love was actually the classical music because he liked especially Wagner, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff.

Van McCoy died in 1979 of a heart attack.

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