In the Navy

After the enormous commercial success of their 1978 hit "Y.M.C.A." which unexpectedly became the unofficial hymn and powerful advertising tool for the YMCA[1], the group took on another national institution, the United States Navy. The Navy contacted group manager Henri Belolo to use the song in a recruiting advertising campaign for television and radio. Belolo gave the rights for free on the condition that the Navy help them shoot the music video. Less than a month later, the Village group arrived at Naval Base San Diego where the Navy provided them with access to film on the deck of the berthed frigate USS Reasoner, in the end the Navy did not use the video, choosing to remain with the traditional "Anchors Aweigh".[2]

In a landmark ruling in 2012, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California ruled that under the Copyright Act of 1976, co-writer Victor Willis (Village People's "Cop"/"Naval officer") can recover his share of the copyrights to songs co-written by him.[3] Willis now owns 33% of his songs.[4]

In the Canada, Netherlands and Japan it reached #1 on the charts, while in the UK it went to #2, being kept off the spot by Gloria Gaynor's major hit I Will Survive. It also reached #2 in Ireland, #3 in Norway, Sweden and the US, #5 in Austria and #7 in Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland.

In 1979, two Japanese-language covers were released. The first was "Pink Typhoon (In the Navy)" by Pink Lady, and the second was "Young Sailor Man (In the Navy)" by Teppei Shibuya.[13][14][15]

One of the first foreign language covers was done by the children group Parchís in 1979 for whom the lyrics where translated into Spanish as "En La Armada" (lit. In the Navy). The cover was one of the group's most popular songs, and a big hit in some Spanish speaking countries.

The Pirate metal band Alestorm covered the song as a single in 2013.[16]

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics