**1/2 THE WORLD'S GREATEST CLUB COLLECTION

(Alpha Wave)

What the dancer gets in this 15-track remix compilation is an honest look at glam, a genre that in the mid '80s made a brief but significant contribution to getting disco some acceptance among rock fans. Glam was an in-your-face music, quite different from the subtle teases of '70s disco. It paralleled a contemporaneous move, in rap music, from old school's niceties to the oversized goofs of Run-D.M.C. and the Beastie Boys. The ass-kicking drag of Dead or Alive's Pete Burns (here represented by "You Spin Me Around") assaults the fan rather than flirting with him; the loud push of Burns's fight for the right to wear dresses and lipstick shapes the compilation's vocal remixes -- Rosetta Stone's big and bosomy "Adrenaline," Information Society's "What's on Your Mind," Gene Loves Jezebel's "Gorgeous" -- as well as its techno-ized instrumentals, especially Spahn Ranch's "Vortex" and Transmutator's "My Wonderful Friend." Remixes of Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" and Gary Numan's "Cars" take you back even further, to glam's sources in Blondie and the tubular bells of Kraftwerk.

-- Michael Freedberg