Twenty-five years after his untimely death at the age of 41, the iconic legacy of Sylvester, the “Queen of Disco,” will be resurrected with Mighty Real: Greatest Dance Hits, due out on Fantasy Records. This collection will celebrate the life and music of the artist who once danced his way into the hearts and minds of the disco and LGBT communities.

A quarter of a century after his passing, Sylvester will make a fabulous debut back into a prolific time in the LGBT community just the way he would have liked it – through dance music. This 11-track release will feature a number of original album tracks and 12” mixes that are rare or no longer available, as well as the brand new remix of the iconic “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” by Grammy-nominated remixer and DJ, Ralphi Rosario (Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Madonna).

As a dear friend of Harvey Milk and an icon to the LGBT community, Sylvester has long held a special place in music and socio-political history. Sylvester was not only one of the first disco stars to stand openly gay, but bravely crossed beyond the boundaries of race, gender and sexuality to become a proud figure of the gay liberation movement.

“Sylvester James was an unlikely star: an androgynous, cross-dressing, openly gay, African-American, falsetto-singing, unapologetically flaming man-diva influenced primarily by church women, black blues singers, drag queens, hippies and homos,” liner notes writer Joshua Gamson said. “Like very few before him, and quite a few after, Sylvester rode his marginality right into the mainstream.”

A Los Angeles local, Sylvester found his home in the vibrant subcultural scenes of San Francisco in the late 1960s. As the community around him became devastated with AIDS, Sylvester’s music took on a sort of weary determination, becoming a call to live, to keep dancing and to keep loving. Sylvester died on Dec. 16, 1988 and bequeathed royalties from the sale of his music to benefit two charitable organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area: the AIDS Emergency Fund and Project Open Hand. “Decades later, even as strides have been made in the fight against the disease that has taken so many lives, Sylvester’s music lives on, a call to be fabulous against the odds,” Gamson adds.

Mighty Real: Greatest Dance Hits was produced by Tom Cartwright and Chris Clough on Fantasy Records with liner notes written by Gamson, author of The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, The Music, The Seventies in San Francisco. The double vinyl edition features all 11 tracks on two 12” pink vinyl LPs.

1.  You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) (Ralphi's Mighty Dub Mix)

2.  Dance (Disco Heat)

3.  Stars

4.  Can t Stop Dancing

5.  Changes

6.  Over and Over

7.  I Need Somebody to Love Tonight

8.  Sell My Soul

9.  I Need You

10. Body Strong

11. You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)