By: HISTORY.com Editors

1975

Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” is the #1 song in America

Published: April 01, 2010Last Updated: May 27, 2025

On July 26, 1975, Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts simultaneously, signaling the beginning of the disco era.

For as popular as it was during much of the first half of the 20th century, couples dancing seemed poised to go by the wayside of American popular culture by the early 1970s. That is, until the arrival of a dance called the Hustle, along with a #1 song by the same name.

“The Hustle” would earn Van McCoy a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and give him the biggest hit by far of his tragically shortened career (he died of a heart attack in 1979). The impact of the record went well beyond its commercial success, however. As “The Hustle” climbed the pop charts, it took an already substantial dance craze and turned it into a cultural phenomenon, with variations like the Latin, the Line and the New York Hustles popping up on dance floors nationwide.

Timeline

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Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on July 26th

1533

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Atahuallpa dies at the hands of Pizarro’s Spanish conquistadors.

1775

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1797

John Quincy Adams marries Louisa Johnson, first foreign-born first lady

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1847

Liberian independence proclaimed

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1863

Confederate leader John Hunt Morgan is captured

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1908

FBI founded

On July 26, 1908, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is born.

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1941

United States freezes Japanese assets

On July 26, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt seizes all Japanese assets in the United States in retaliation for the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China. On July 24, Tokyo decided to strengthen its position in terms of its invasion of China by moving through Southeast Asia. Given that France had long occupied parts of the region, […]

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1943

Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger is born

The musician, actor, film producer and Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger is born in Dartford, Kent, England on July 26, 1943. Raised in a middle-class English family, Michael Philip Jagger attended the London School of Economics but left without graduating in order to pursue a career in music. In the early 1960s, Jagger, along […]

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1943

Hitler discusses plans to prevent Italy’s imminent defection

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1945

Winston Churchill resigns

In the 11th hour of World War II, Winston Churchill is forced to resign as British prime minister following his party’s electoral defeat by the Labour Party. It was the first general election held in Britain in more than a decade. The same day, Clement Attlee, the Labour leader, was sworn in as the new […]

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1947

President Truman signs the National Security Act

President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act, which becomes one of the most important pieces of Cold War legislation. The act established much of the bureaucratic framework for foreign policymaking for the next 40-plus years of the Cold War. By July 1947, the Cold War was in full swing. The United States and […]

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1948

President Truman ends segregation in the military

On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, banning racial discrimination in the military. Truman’s order ended a long-standing practice of segregating Black soldiers and relegating them to more menial jobs. African Americans had been serving in the United States military since the Revolutionary War, but were deployed in their largest numbers […]

1956

Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal

The Suez Crisis begins when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the British and French-owned Suez Canal. The Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas across Egypt, was completed by French engineers in 1869. For the next 87 years, it remained largely under British and French control, and Europe depended on it as […]

1984

Infamous serial killer Ed Gein dies

On July 26, 1984, Ed Gein, a serial killer infamous for skinning human corpses, dies of complications from cancer at the Mendota Mental Health Institute at age 77. Gein served as the inspiration for writer Robert Bloch’s character Norman Bates in the 1959 novel “Psycho,” which in 1960 was turned into a film starring Anthony Perkins […]

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1990

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) signed into law

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the most sweeping affirmation of rights for the disabled in American history at the time, into law. As disability rights attorney Arlene Mayerson would later write, the story of the ADA began “when people with disabilities began to challenge societal […]

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1998

Three race fans killed at Michigan Speedway

The U.S. 500, the most prestigious race in the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) series, dissolves into tragedy on July 26, 1998, when three fans are killed and six others wounded by flying debris from a car at Michigan Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. CART (later known as Champ Car) was an open-wheel racing circuit created […]

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Citation Information

Article Title: Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” is the #1 song in America
Author: HISTORY.com Editors
Website Name: History
URL: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-26/van-mccoys-the-hustle-is-the-1-song-in-america

Date Accessed: November 04, 2026
Publisher: A&E Television Networks
Last Updated: May 27, 2025
Original Published Date: April 01, 2010

Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” is the #1 song in America

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