Macho Man In The Navy

Monday’s Man: Randy Jones

Yes, In The Navy, YMCA, and Macho Man along with many others were the hits of the Village People. I’m sure everyone has their favorite singer from the Village People, but I’d be willing to bet that the one that tops the list of most would be Randy Jones. He definitely tops mine.


After Dark December 1977 featured Randy without the group that made him a household name. Here he is modeling at the "Disco Fantasy Fashion" show at the 1977 Billboard Disco Convention. On the left he is dancing in a quilted outfit from Camouflage and on the right he is modeling the Valentino look from Fiorucci.



















One of the best fashion spreads that After Dark did was in the January 1978 issue. Randy, along with Patrick Branch and Tim Mauche, modeled swimwear and summer fashions in Key West.








The Village People were always on the turntable for me. I was 10 years old in 1978, but there was something about the album covers that I was always drawn to. Plus, let's face it, the music is fun, too.









Can’t Stop the Music is one of my favorite movies. It had some amazing women starring in it, like Valerie Perrine, June Havoc, Barbara Rush, Marilyn Sokol and the wonderful Tammy Grimes. The male leads were Bruce Jenner (yawn), Steve Guttenberg (for some reason screaming every line and acting annoying) and the Village People. It was the “fictional” tale of a “fictional” man who formed a “fictional” group called The Village People. It’s a fun film with ample opportunity to see smiling Randy having a ball.








Look for a What's On Wednesday post for this film to be done very, very soon.

The July 1980 issue of After Dark went off their normal layouts with their “Circus Issue”. It was one of their worst issues without many photos and uninspired writing. Unfortunately, this was the issue they featured the Village People and Can’t Stop the Music. If Randy and the guys or Can't Stop the Music had been featured in any other issue, there would have been a great article and a wonderful photo spread. Instead, this was what they did to the photos.
And that was the only one worth scanning. I guess I should be happy they featured the movie.

When I had my Flickr account, I had a set dedicated to Randy Jones and it was one of my most viewed sets. Randy contacted me because he had seen the set and just as I imagined, he was one of the nicest guys.

Randy is still performing and acting. You can keep up with Randy on Facebook and his site Randy Jones World. His website has a wonderful gallery full of photos like these and others:





He has a CD that you can order. I love his cover of "If I Can't Have You".

Also, his book Macho Man is a fun trip down memory lane for gay men growing up or coming out in Disco America.

Before Brokeback Mountain came out, there was only one gay cowboy I wanted to see and to tell you the truth, it's still Randy Jones. I love Randy's smile and he still looks hot!