Remember the awesome disco anthem “Native New Yorker” by Odyssey? It seemed like this song permeated the airwaves in late 1977/early 1978. At that exact time, “Native New Yorker” was used in the movie Eyes of Laura Mars, a thriller starring Faye Dunaway and the then unknown Tommy Lee Jones.

 
While the song only reached number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, it reached # 3 on the U.S. Disco chart and # 6 on the Soul chart. With the massive airplay it received at the time, one would think that it would have scored higher than # 21 in the Top 40. Then again, any song to reach # 3 on the U.S. Disco chart in January 1978 with the prominence of the movie Saturday Night Fever certainly had staying power.
What is significant about “Native New Yorker” is that its lyrics are embedded in the lexicon of people who live in the New York City Metro area and who were aware of the song when it was on the radio. For instance, the phrase “No one opens the door for a native New Yorker” is still used to some extent, as well as the phrase “Up in Harlem, down on Broadway”.
The lead singer of Odyssey was Lillian Lopez, and the back-up was her sister Louise. Tony Reynolds looks like a happy bass player in the video. None of these three people were native New Yorkers themselves, as the Lopez sisters were born in the Virgin Islands and Reynolds was actually born in the Philippines.

There were tributes to Liilian Lopez at the time of her 2012 death, such as this obituary in The Independent.

“Native New Yorker” was written by the successful songwriting duo of Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell. The duo wrote songs for both The Four Seasons and Frankie Valli solo. Some of these songs are “Working My Way Back to You”, “Let’s Hang On!”, “Swearin’ to God”, “Dawn (Go Away), and Opus 17 (Don’t You Worry ‘bout Me). The two wrote other known songs both as a team and separately. For instance, Linzer wrote the song “Fresh” by Kool & The Gang.
Actually, “Native New Yorker” was written for Frankie Valli, who recorded the song for an album in early 1977 but did not release it as a single. Odyssey recorded it six months later.
Think back to December 1977 and early 1978. It was an easier time. “Native New Yorker” was definitely part of the distinctive soundtrack.