"Macho Man" is the second single recorded by the American disco group Village People. It is the title song of the eponymous album. The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 on June 24, 1978 before picking up more airplay that August. It became the Village People's first charting hit in the United States, peaking on the Hot 100 at number 25 on the week of September 2. Billboard Magazine described the song as a "spirited fast paced percussive track highlighted by multi -part harmonies and a rugged lead vocal." A medley with "I Am What I Am" and "Key West" reached number 4 on Billboard'sDance Music/Club Play Singles chart. On the survey of Chicago radio superstation WLS-AM, "Macho Man" spent two weeks at number 3.
Background and video
Martin Aston writes, in his book Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache: A History of How Music Came Out, that Jacques Morali, already having a lead singer with Victor Willis, and after what he calls the "more comical than sexy: unrehearsed" promo video for the song "San Francisco ", placed the advert "Macho types wanted: must dance and have a moustache" in the trade press. Village People cowboy Randy Jones recalled, "The Monday after Thanksgiving, we signed contracts and the Tuesday after, we were in studio recording "Macho Man," with Victor Willis' handwritten lyrics that were written in the morning with egg stains and coffee rings on it. Everything was happening that quickly." Aston writes that it was "back to the gym for 'Macho Man'" and that "he aesthetic of Bob Mizer's Physique Pictorial was now all over national TV in a Village People music video."
A year after the song's release in 1978, it was performed by the Muppets on The Muppet Show in episode 5, with guest starVictor Borge, of their fourth season. Also in 1979, Donald Duck released a parody, with the title "Macho Duck", on the Disney audio release Mickey Mouse Disco. The song was featured in many movies, such as Addams Family Values, In & Out, and . Later in 1994, in the episode "Homer Loves Flanders" of the animated sitcomThe Simpsons, Homer Simpson sang this song as "Nacho Man", and soon after, in 1995, the song was featured in an Old El Paso commercial, with lyrics changed to "Nacho, nacho, man". In the 1996 episode of BuffyThe Vampire Slayer, titled Witch, Buffy performs the song's chorus while under a spell that leaves her throwing a fellow cheerleader across the gymnasium, the song foreshadows the event by satire. The song is featured in the 1996 filmThe Nutty Professor, and the race horse, Mucho Macho Man, who won the 2013 Breeders' Cup Classic and was third in the 2011 Kentucky Derby, was named after the song. It was featured in the "lip-sync for your life" segment on season 9, episode 11 of RuPaul's Drag Race. In 2020, the song was frequently used at rallies for US President Donald Trump. Originally, the band stated that Trump was entitled to use the song, provided it was not used in a way that suggested endorsement however on 5 June, Victor Willis issued a statement on Facebook saying that Trump would no longer be welcome to use the song if Trump followed through on his threat to set the military on Black Lives Matter protestors.
