In 1977, Russell and Ron Mael opened their ears to the burgeoning electro-disco sound as heard on Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and were put into contact with her producer Giorgio Moroder.
With aspirations to work with a band, the Munich-based Italian set to work with the first fruit of labours being the tremendous ‘No1 Song In Heaven’. Released in 1979 on Virgin Records, it hit the UK single charts a few months before TUBEWAY ARMY’s ‘Are Friends Electric?’.
While the parent album ‘No1 In Heaven’ also featuring ‘Beat The Clock’ and ‘Tryouts For The Human Race’ did not sell well, it retrospectively became highlighted as the landmark electronic pop album that heralded the emergence of the synth duo with acts like YAZOO, SOFT CELL, BLANCMANGE and PET SHOP BOYS following not long after.
Photo by Jack Lorenz
SPARKS’ career trajectory has since seen them become spread into collaboration, production and musicals. The Maels had discovered Patricia A Noël, a Los Angeles-based model-turned-singer playing Farfisa organ and doing background vocals with The Mick Smiley Band at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. Having learnt about electronic instrumentation from working with Giorgio Moroder on ‘No1 In Heaven’, they wanted to apply those techniques and processes with Noël as the Maels’ very own Donna Summer.
Written and produced by SPARKS at Larrabee Sound Studios in LA, perhaps unexpectedly Virgin Records gave the brothers total freedom to work with their protégée on ‘Is There More To Life Than Dancing?’. Acting as the Maels’ Harold Faltermeyer on programming was future film composer Gary Chang.
Only released as a 5 track picture disc in the UK with limited availability elsewhere and surprisingly not issued at all in the US, ‘Is There More To Life Than Dancing?’ became a mythical album that no-one had ever heard. There were even rumours that it was SPARKS in-joke with Noël actually being a varispeeded Russell Mael! Noël’s vocal delivery was different from the more soul oriented disco diva, so gave the record a more leftfield edge despite being aimed at the dancefloor.
Taking cues from Moroder’s MUNICH MACHINE side project, at nearly 10 minutes, ‘Dancing Is Dangerous’ was hypnotically catchy with Noël’s histrionic vocals closely imitating Russell Mael’s own intonation. Declaring that “dancing is dangerous gently embraces us, then won’t let go ’til the end of our days…”, the track length allowed for trancey instrumental breakdowns to highlight the sequencer and synth craft that would have made Moroder proud.
Seguing into the ‘Is There More To Life Than Dancing?’ title song, it saw Italo-styled male backing vocals from Oren Waters dropped in while Noël’s own were more Donna Summer asking that euphoric rhetorical question while encapsulating glitterballs and Studio 54.
Punctuated by gospel tinged voices from Julia and Maxine Waters, ‘The Night They Invented Love’ also brought in some frenetic conga madness from noted Brazilian percussionist Paulinho Da Costa and nocturnal sax from Herbie Hancock Quartet member Michael Brecker. Meanwhile the accompanying arpeggios recalled another disco pioneer, Frenchman Marc Cerrone whose ‘Supernature’ has been a huge international smash.
Photo by Jack Lorenz
With a smoother Liza Minnelli cabaret lead from Noël, ‘Au Revoir’ provided a less convincing theatrical outlier with a unexpected fade but ‘I Want A Man’ provided the rousing energetic finale; with icy string synths and bubbling effects but also bass guitar, lyrically this was however more throwaway in its repeated declaration of desire.
Like with the solo Giorgio Moroder electronic disco albums ‘From Here To Eternity’ and ‘E=MC2’, side one was the superior set but overall, it was a joyous celebration of hedonism. A worthy companion album to ‘No1 In Heaven’, ‘Is There More To Life Than Dancing?’ deserved a more receptive audience but it was not to be and became a SPARKS collectors curio. There would an aborted attempt by the Maels to write for the Belgian-based popster Lio, but this led to a collaboration with TELEX instead and SPARKS would continue a well-documented up-down-up-down-up career over the following decades.
Meanwhile Virgin decided not to take up the option on a second album, so Noël continued modelling but would release one more album ‘Peer Pressure’ with American new wave band THE RED WEDGE before a career working on radio and TV commercials while also co-owning two recording studios in Los Angeles.
Photo by Jack Lorenz
Long deleted but with growing interest in the wider career of the Maels thanks to ‘The SPARKS Brothers’ documentary in 2021, they reissued ‘Is There More To Life Than Dancing?’ on their Lil Beethoven label in 2024. As well as the original album and bonus single edits, it contained three previously unreleased songs; of those, the blippy female empowering statement ‘I Never Want To Be A Mother’ would, with more work, have made an ideal sixth track on the album if the tracklisting format of ‘No1 In Heaven’ had been totally aped.
“It was inspiring to work on this album and inspiring to work with Noël. We hope that people will rediscover what a lost gem this record is” said SPARKS in the press release for the reissue of ‘Is There More To Life Than Dancing?’; the missing part of the electronic disco trilogy which sits between ‘No. 1 In Heaven’ and ‘Terminal Jive’ has been found again and can take its place alongside other similarly spirited diversions such as the Peter Baumann produced ‘Welcome To Joyland’ by Leda and the Klaus Schulze produced self-titled long player from Jyl that have previously only been heard and appreciated by the cognoscenti.
‘Is There More To Life Than Dancing?’ is reissued by Lil Beethoven Records as a 2CD set
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Text by Chi Ming Lai
21st December 2025
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