NEW York City was the dance capital of the world in the 1970s when disco was king. That sound was still popular 40 years ago thanks to songs like I’ll do Anything For You by Denroy Morgan.

Written and produced by Bert Reid, it was a massive song throughout the United States in the summer of 1981. It made Clarendon-born Morgan — who had lived in that country since 1966 — a star.

“The first time I heard it I knew it was going to be a great song. Bert always tell mi dat him hear a hit song in mi voice,” Morgan told the Jamaica Observer.

I’ll do Anything For You was not a hit right out of the gate. Released in March, it was not until June when Frankie Crocker, king of New York radio, put his considerable muscle behind the song that it took off.

It entered Billboard Magazine’s pop, R&B and dance charts and was eventually certified gold.

Morgan first settled in Florida when he moved to the US, but lay down roots in New York during the late 1960s. For most of the 1970s, he was a member of the Black Eagles, a reggae band that played mainly clubs in Brooklyn.

One of the musicians he befriended was Reid, who was born in New York to Jamaican parents. Reid was a saxophonist/vocalist with the Crown Heights Affair, a successful dance band.

Prior to I’ll do Anything For You, he had written Sweet Tender Love for Morgan but it saw little action in terms of airplay. I’ll do Anything For You, their next song, featured New York session musicians and fared much better.

Reid’s pen was hot at the time. He co-wrote I Hear Music in The Streets for Unlimited Touch and Raw Silk’s Do it to The Music which were jamming in the Big Apple’s hippest clubs.

After Crocker heard I’ll do Anything For You in The Garage, a nightclub in The Bronx, he played it repeatedly on his programme on WBLS. Other radio stations quickly followed.

Morgan said although Reid made his name in disco circles, he never went for a particular sound with I’ll do Anything For You.

“He wanted a hit record, it didn’t matter to him what sound. It just happened that I’ll do Anything For You was a dance track and disco was the hottest thing at the time,” he recalled.

Morgan played the New York/New Jersey club scene to promote his rising song. He even performed at the famed Studio 54 alongside soul group, The Main Ingredient.

Morgan went on to tour the United States with dance maverick Evelyn “Champagne” King and funk band Slave. Becket Records distributed the I’ll do Anything For You album, his first.

Three years later, RCA Records released his follow-up album, Make my Day. To contemporary dancehall/reggae fans, Denroy Morgan is best known as patriarch of Grammy-winning band Morgan Heritage.

Bert Reid, whose songs have been covered by stars such as P Diddy, died from cancer in 2004 at age 48.