“Get Off” Was the Hit, but This Is the Foxy Track We Love
Forty-six years after Foxy sent “Party Boys” onto American dance floors, we finally figured out what Ish Ledesma was actually singing — and rediscovered a record with far more going on than its title suggests.
Foxy will forever be best known for “Get Off,” the 1978 disco smash that became the group’s signature hit. But as much as we love “Get Off,” “Party Boys” has always been the Foxy track we return to. It was — and still is — one of our all-time favorite disco records.
It never became another crossover smash, but “Party Boys” did reach No. 24 on Billboard’s dance chart in 1980. More than four decades later, it remains one of those Foxy records that deserves considerably more attention than it gets.
For us, it has also been something of a musical mystery.
We Have Been Trying to Figure Out These Lyrics for Years
For the life of us, we could never completely understand what Ish Ledesma was singing on “Party Boys.”
We searched for lyrics. We replayed sections. We tried headphones. We tried different masters. We even attempted to contact Ledesma hoping he might finally settle it himself.
There is still an old INYIM Media comment sitting on Ish’s official Bandcamp page asking if the official lyrics could someday be posted.
They never were.
Then modern technology finally caught up with a 46-year-old disco record.
So we finally went straight to the source and purchased the album directly from Ish Ledesma’s Bandcamp page. The download quality is excellent: a lossless 16-bit/48 kHz version that gave us the clearest copy of the song we had ever heard.
Paired with modern vocal-isolation and audio-separation technology, that high-quality master finally let us pull Ish’s vocal far enough forward to understand almost all of what he was singing.
If you love this record too, listen to — and support — the album directly from Ish Ledesma here:
▶︎ Party Boys | Foxy | Ish Ledesma
Three small phrases remain open to interpretation, so we are still calling ours a working transcription rather than an official lyric sheet.
And once the words finally came into focus, “Party Boys” became an even more interesting record.
Watch + Read/Sing Along: “Party Boys” Album Version
For the full effect, play the original album-length version while following along with our working lyric transcription below.
Foxy — “Party Boys” | Working Lyric Transcription
[Opening / Verse 1] Ooh, my, my, my Your face is pretty That kind of look is new to [any / inner] city Ooh, my, my, my Have lips like candy That’s what she told herself: “My mirror loves me” Take a guy Make him cry Till he dies With my eyes ’Cause they look like the sky But her daddy said she would not fly No, she couldn’t go out with the guys With the party boys Party boys [Verse 2] Ooh, my, my, my, she took the back way Daddy was [in / into] the news and didn’t notice Ah, she took a taxi And got there at ten o’clock, already dancing Took a guy, then he turned her around And she found that she was out of bounds Stood around for an hour or so Then decided to give it a go With a party boy Party boy With a party boy [Bridge] That kind of love should not be dependent on [need / me] They like to break your heart with the greatest of ease To make you see What is a party boy Party boy [Final section] They can lie, but you have to believe They can cry, but it’s part of a plan Getting caught in the middle is fun If you like what they like, it’s all right The party boys And we’re the party boys Yeah, we’re the party boys And you’re invited to a party
INYIM Note: This is a careful working transcription made from the lossless copy purchased directly from Ish Ledesma’s Bandcamp page and analyzed with modern audio-separation tools. The three bracketed phrases remain unconfirmed by songwriter Ish Ledesma.
“Party Boys” Isn’t Really Just About Partying
Underneath that ridiculously infectious groove is a little story.
The song follows a young woman who knows she can turn heads, has a protective father who does not want her going out with the guys, and eventually finds a way to sneak out anyway.
Then she meets the party boys.
What initially sounds like a straightforward disco invitation gradually becomes something closer to a playful warning. These boys charm. They manipulate. They break hearts. And the girl who was desperate to join the party discovers that entering their world comes with its own set of rules.
The music never stops smiling while the lyric quietly complicates everything.
That contrast is one of the best things about the track.
Ish Ledesma’s Vocal Is What Makes the Whole Thing Work
“Party Boys” was written by Ish Ledesma, and Billboard’s original coverage credited Foxy themselves as producers of the Party Boys album.
Ledesma’s own archival credits put him on lead vocals, guitars and keyboards, with Joe Galdo on drums, Arnold Paseiro on bass and Richie Puente on percussion.
That matters when you listen to “Party Boys” now.
This is disco being played by a band.
The groove is locked in, but it does not feel sterile. Bass, drums, percussion, guitars and keyboards move around one another while Ish’s voice gives the record its personality.
And Ish does something particularly smart with the vocal: he does not oversing it.
Instead of turning “Party Boys” into a big R&B vocal showcase, he performs the lyric almost conversationally in places. There is swagger, humor and character in his phrasing. Then the repeated responses around the title turn “Party Boys” into something halfway between a chant, an invitation and a warning.
Once you can actually hear what he is saying, the performance makes considerably more sense.
Our lossless master runs approximately 3:27, with the groove sitting around a brisk 125 BPM. It gets in, establishes the characters, hits that hook and gets out.
But that was only one version of “Party Boys.”
The Album Cut Was Just the Beginning
The version currently hosted by Ish runs 3:27.
When T.K. Disco put “Party Boys” on a U.S. 12-inch, however, the label did something far more interesting than simply slap an extended version on the B-side.
It gave DJs three versions:
- “Party Boys” — 3:26
- “Party Boys (Extended Version)” — 5:18
- “Party Boys (Disconet Mix)” — 10:26
All three are associated with Los Angeles DJ/remixer Mike Lewis.
Record World reported in 1980 that “Party Boys” had already appeared through Disconet before the commercial T.K. Disco 12-inch arrived. Disconet was a subscription remix service aimed at professional DJs, meaning the song was being reshaped specifically for club play rather than merely lengthened for consumers.
The result is almost three different ways to experience the same studio performance.
The 3:26 version is essentially the concise song.
The 5:18 extended version gives the groove more breathing room without losing the structure of the original.
And then the 10:26 Disconet mix takes “Party Boys” fully onto the dance floor, allowing the rhythm and hooks to stretch far beyond the pop-length arrangement.
It is a reminder of something streaming has made easy to forget: in disco, there often wasn’t one definitive version of a record.
The album buyer, radio listener and clubgoer could all know a slightly different “Party Boys.”
Then Foxy Took It Live
And then there is the version we really love comparing with the studio recording.
Foxy opened its 1980 live album with “Party Boys.”
Instead of making it bigger, they made it shorter.
The live performance clocks in at approximately 3:16.
Where the 10-minute Disconet mix pulls the studio recording apart and creates space for a DJ and dance floor, the live version snaps the song back into the hands of the musicians.
Suddenly you hear what “Party Boys” is underneath all the disco architecture:
A band song.
The documented live personnel includes Ish Ledesma on vocals and electric guitar, Joe Galdo on drums and background vocals, Arnold Paseiro on bass and background vocals, and Richie Puente on guitar, percussion and background vocals.
The live LP was produced by Miami recording legends Ron and Howard Albert.
That makes listening to the versions back-to-back especially fun.
The studio version is the tightly constructed song.
The 12-inch versions turn that song into material for the DJ.
The live version reminds you that Foxy could actually get onstage and play the damn thing.
“Party Boys” Arrived While Disco Was Changing
There is another reason this particular record feels worth rediscovering.
Party Boys became Foxy’s final studio album.
Ledesma himself remembers the period very plainly on Bandcamp. The musical climate was changing, Foxy was trying to change along with it, and then T.K. Records collapsed.
Rather than simply attempting to recreate the disco formula that gave Foxy “Get Off,” Party Boys was absorbing more rock and new-wave influence.
That context makes the record sound different in hindsight.
This was not simply a disco band running out of hits.
It was a band trying to figure out what came after disco while the record company underneath them was falling apart.
“Party Boys” sits right in the middle of that transition.
Forty-Six Years Later, We Finally Hear the Story
There is something satisfying about finally understanding a song you have loved for years.
Not every musical mystery needs solving. Misheard lyrics can become part of a record’s charm.
But “Party Boys” always sounded like Ish was telling us more than we could quite reach through the mix.
He was.
Modern audio technology did not rewrite the song or invent a new interpretation. It simply gave us a better way to hear what had been sitting on that master all along.
And now the record has another layer.
There is the girl sneaking out.
There are the party boys waiting for her.
There is the warning hidden underneath the fun.
There is Ish Ledesma singing it with that sly, character-driven delivery.
There is the tight album version.
There is the five-minute extended version.
There is that sprawling 10-minute Disconet mix.
And there is Foxy taking the whole thing back to the stage and ripping through it live.
Foxy may always be remembered first for “Get Off,” but for us, “Party Boys” has never been the lesser record. It has been one of our all-time favorite disco tracks for years, and 46 years later, nothing about that has changed.
Forgotten disco gem? Absolutely.
But maybe the better description is a record we simply weren’t finished discovering yet.
Sources: Ish Ledesma / Bandcamp; Billboard archives; Record World archives; Cash Box archives; AllMusic; T.K. Disco discography; YouTube.
