Audio Mixer: Tom Moulton.

Recording information: 1977-1983.

Arrangers: Jörg Evers; K. Shultze; Bobby Orlando.

Many gifted disco divas, no matter how substantial, have had a hard time getting exposure outside of dance-music circles. A classic example is Claudja Barry, who first thrilled club hounds during the disco era and continued to excite them in the 1990s. Unlike Donna Summer, Barry never became the pop star she deserved to be. The Best of Claudja Barry, a fine compilation released by the small, Miami-based Hot Productions, ranges from the expressive Canadian singer's disco-era hits "Boogie Woogie Dancin' Shoes," the gritty "Sweet Dynamite" and the haunting "Love for the Sake of Love" to such '80s club smashes as "Radio Action" and the addictive "Work Me Over." While the Canadian singer's early material emphasizes horns and strings, her '80s output is very synthesizer-oriented. This collection illustrates an important fact: disco hardly died with the '70s -- it simply changed its name to "dance music" and went high-tech. ~ Alex Henderson