The travesty was taking classic songs, and making disco versions of them...UGGGH!
That was the trend even in the 1950s once rock and roll broke wide.
Keep A Knockin' went back to the 1920s (and was later covered by Louis Jordon in the 1940s).
Blueberry Hill (1940), Blue Moon (1934), et al.
It was about publishing rights, not creativity.