Jimmy Ellis, lead singer for 1970s disco group The Trammps, died Thursday in a South Carolina nursing home. He was 74.

The Trammps’ biggest hit was, of course, “Disco Inferno,” on which Ellis delivered the infamous refrain, “Burn, baby, burn!” Originally released in 1976, the song missed the Top 40, though it reached #9 on the Billboard R&B chart and spent six weeks at #1 on the Dance chart in early 1977.

But upon its inclusion on the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever later that same year, “Disco Inferno” really caught fire. A 1978 re-release of the single peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100, and The Trammps also earned a Grammy when the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack won Album Of The Year. Recognizing the impact of “Disco Inferno” and its place in music history, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named the song one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.

In 1993, Tina Turner covered “Disco Inferno” for the soundtrack to her biopic, What’s Love Got To Do With It. But it’s another singer’s cover — for yet another soundtrack — that bests Turner’s take. Cyndi Lauper recorded “Disco Inferno” for 1998’s SNL sketch-turned-big-screen bomb, A Night At The Roxbury, releasing a maxi-single of remixes in late 1999.

Produced by Soul Solution (Bobby Guy and Ernie Lake), Lauper’s fiery re-do of “Disco Inferno” reached #8 on the Dance chart (as did Turner’s version, oddly enough). She turns that mutha out. Hear here:

Also worth noting is Madonna’s “Music Inferno,” as performed on her 2006 Confesssions Tour, excluded because it’s not strictly a cover but a rather brilliant mashup of her own “Music” (and some of “Where’s The Party”) with “Disco Inferno.”

Purchase Cyndi Lauper – “Disco Inferno” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.