Isn’t the title of PT Anderson’s epic disco masterpiece “Boogie Nights” curious? Certainly it is catchy, and plenty of the action in the film takes place at night, and there is a fair amount of boogieing throughout. Still, if you saw the film without a title, wouldn’t you name it something like “Golden Age Porn Goodfellas?” Where did such a catchy title as “Boogie Nights” come from?

Heatwave, that’s where. Just like Elvis Costello’s “High Fidelity” doesn’t appear in the movie “High Fidelity,” Heatwave’s “Boogie Nights” is nowhere in the film that takes its name. Two classic, propulsive songs slighted in movies that take their name. Something happened in editing, I guess.

Heatwave is actually one of the most accomplished and overlooked acts of the disco era, if not the 70s outright. I first became aware of them through one of the best compilations from a label that makes a habit of finding the best of things, and telling you all about it in enthralling liner notes. The label is Soul Jazz and the compilation was “British Hustle: The Sound of British Jazz-Funk from 1974-1982.”

An amazing, revelatory collection, “British Hustle” featured forgotten hits from the era by artists such as Hi-Tension, Freeez, Atmosfear, Central Line, Light of the World, and Beggar & Co. It is one of many illustrations of how the disco sound, before the post Saturday Night Fever explosion of manufactured imitation, was an innovative and vital extension of both jazz and funk traditions. Most people who still don’t like disco simply haven’t heard the right disco. Or they comply with the rockist stereotypes and they deserve the outrageous potshot that they are secretly racist and/or homophobic.

The highlight of the “British Hustle” collection, with its enticing buildup, syncopated instrumental virtuosity, and overlapping harmonies, is Heatwave’s “Put the Word Out.” This is the first track on Heatwave’s finest album, and an overlooked 70s classic, “Central Heating.” At nine songs, the album is brief, as was the style of the time, when albums were better. “Send Out for Sunshine,” the title cut, and the pop smash “The Groove Line” all rival the opening track for complex and scorching (their name was appropriate) disco fire, and still have the power to ignite a dance floor. Other tracks, particularly “Happiness Togetherness” and “Mindblowing Decisions,” display a more acoustic, contemplative side, where the Brian Wilson worthy layered harmonies are on good display.

Heatwave were a numerous integrated ensemble resembling the Family Stone (except all guys). The primary songwriter and arranger was Rod Temperton. Temperton was a trusted studio producer, performer and arranger for Quincy Jones, and was heavily utilized by Q in the late 70s and early 80s. This is a roundabout way of pointing out that Temperton has sole writing credit for songs on two important albums otherwise almost completely credited to Jones and Michael Jackson. But where would those albums have been stripped of Rod Temperton’s compositions, “Thriller,” “Rock With You,” and “Off The Wall?” Heatwave’s “Central Heating,” really an eye-opening tour de force of jazzdiscofunkpop songwriting and production wizardry, contains all the charms and virtues of the world changing Jackson albums, and does not suffer in comparison.

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