(I feel looooooooooooove...... and there's nothing more to say.) The summer (forgive the pun) was hot in 1977. New York had the Son of Sam, the Yankees, the city-wide blackout - they were on fire. In the midst of this was one LaDonna Adrian Gaines, who wanted to create music, and had the voice to do it. As a former backup singer, she really want ed to be in front, because she wasn't hired to show off, she had been hired because she sounded good...
But two years earlier, in the fall of 1975, Donna Summer (as she changed her name after she married an Austrian singer named Helmuth Sommer, from "Sommer" to "Summer") had met one Giorgio Moroder, whose electronic wizardry was yet to be discovered in America. They had talked of collaboration, and together with Giorgio she created the orgasmic "Love to Love You Baby" in 1976.
By mid-year the public was clamoring for more, and with the single becoming an international success came pressure to create the followup hit. At this point many artists fall by the wayside, becoming the "one-hit wonder" and are relegated to the occasional play on the "where are they now" file. Donna went to the Casablanca Records studio and with Giorgio producing created the album "A Love Trilogy," with a few hit singles to boot.
The sound Giorgio was creating, by mixing classical instruments with synthesizers and a heavy dance beat, became a smash in the new dance halls, now called "discos," worldwide. But, unfortunately, there was no real "hits" to speak of in the record companies eyes, although her remake of Barry Mantilow's "Could This Be Magic" charted well.
Another quickly made album from the same year, "Four Seasons Of Love," produced another small hit, and although she was on a roll with a few dance hits, there was still no real universal appeal that could be pushed onto the mainstream public.
Now after three quickly made concept albums and some success, Donna finally decided to go for broke. She wanted to "go back" to the old sound she loved as a child, by combining the 1940's, 50's and 60's era sound with the "sound of tomorrow," the disco sound, of which she was slowly becoming famous for.
Giorgio had an idea to produce one track at the end of the album (titled "I Remember Yesterday") that had to show what the future of disco would be, and with this (and with Donna's signature vocals) he helped create "I Feel Love," a track comprised of nothing but synthesized instruments and beats layered (and some would say smokily twisting) around Donna's vocals, as if she were making love to the machine herself. The lyrics speak for themselves:
The album fell into the laps of DJs all over the world in May of 1977. The single "I Feel Love" exploded onto the public right before the 4th of July. The original single on the album clocked in at 5:56, and immediately upon it's release the song became a smash in every club and disco worldwide, but the song only charted as high as number five on the American pop charts.
But two years earlier, in the fall of 1975, Donna Summer (as she changed her name after she married an Austrian singer named Helmuth Sommer, from "Sommer" to "Summer") had met one Giorgio Moroder, whose electronic wizardry was yet to be discovered in America. They had talked of collaboration, and together with Giorgio she created the orgasmic "Love to Love You Baby" in 1976.
By mid-year the public was clamoring for more, and with the single becoming an international success came pressure to create the followup hit. At this point many artists fall by the wayside, becoming the "one-hit wonder" and are relegated to the occasional play on the "where are they now" file. Donna went to the Casablanca Records studio and with Giorgio producing created the album "A Love Trilogy," with a few hit singles to boot.
The sound Giorgio was creating, by mixing classical instruments with synthesizers and a heavy dance beat, became a smash in the new dance halls, now called "discos," worldwide. But, unfortunately, there was no real "hits" to speak of in the record companies eyes, although her remake of Barry Mantilow's "Could This Be Magic" charted well.
Another quickly made album from the same year, "Four Seasons Of Love," produced another small hit, and although she was on a roll with a few dance hits, there was still no real universal appeal that could be pushed onto the mainstream public.
Now after three quickly made concept albums and some success, Donna finally decided to go for broke. She wanted to "go back" to the old sound she loved as a child, by combining the 1940's, 50's and 60's era sound with the "sound of tomorrow," the disco sound, of which she was slowly becoming famous for.
Giorgio had an idea to produce one track at the end of the album (titled "I Remember Yesterday") that had to show what the future of disco would be, and with this (and with Donna's signature vocals) he helped create "I Feel Love," a track comprised of nothing but synthesized instruments and beats layered (and some would say smokily twisting) around Donna's vocals, as if she were making love to the machine herself. The lyrics speak for themselves:
Ooh, it's so good, it's so good
It's so good, it's so good, it's so good
Ooh, heaven knows, heaven knows
Heaven knows, heaven knows, heaven knows...
Ooh, I feel love........
I feel love.......................
I feel love................................
Ooh, fallin free, fallin free
Fallin free, fallin free, fallin free...
Ooh, you and me, you and me
You and me, you and me, you and me...
Ooh, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love...
I feel love..............
I feel love.......................
I feel love................................
I feel love.........................................
Ooh, Ill get you, Ill get you
Ill get you, Ill get you, Ill get you...
Ooh, what you do, what you do
What you do, what you do, what you do...
Ooh, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love...
I feel love..............
I feel love.......................
I feel love................................
I feel love.........................................
It's so good, it's so good, it's so good
Ooh, heaven knows, heaven knows
Heaven knows, heaven knows, heaven knows...
Ooh, I feel love........
I feel love.......................
I feel love................................
Ooh, fallin free, fallin free
Fallin free, fallin free, fallin free...
Ooh, you and me, you and me
You and me, you and me, you and me...
Ooh, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love...
I feel love..............
I feel love.......................
I feel love................................
I feel love.........................................
Ooh, Ill get you, Ill get you
Ill get you, Ill get you, Ill get you...
Ooh, what you do, what you do
What you do, what you do, what you do...
Ooh, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love...
I feel love..............
I feel love.......................
I feel love................................
I feel love.........................................
The album fell into the laps of DJs all over the world in May of 1977. The single "I Feel Love" exploded onto the public right before the 4th of July. The original single on the album clocked in at 5:56, and immediately upon it's release the song became a smash in every club and disco worldwide, but the song only charted as high as number five on the American pop charts.
(I lifted the following information from David Bowie's liner notes from his 1994 compilation album "Sound + Vision.") Moroder's futuristic production was so innovative on this track, that while David was recording with Brian Eno in West Berlin, West Germany for his album "Berlin Trilogy," David is quoted as remembering, "Eno came running in and said, 'I have heard the sound of the future' and he puts on 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer… He said, 'This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.' Which was more or less right."
Personally speaking, since then there have only been a handful of disco songs that can even climb near the mountaintop next to this song. It has been remixed twice (and charted again in 1995 after being re-released), it has been covered by artists as diverse as Blondie, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and even The Blue Man Group. It is a disco staple everywhere, it's probably being requested right now to be played in a club somewhere in the world, and is number 411 on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Songs of All Time.
The song is unique because a quantum leap forward in music production - one person preloads the beats and sound into the computerized synth, and the singer merely follows it's lead. That's it. There have been many others who came before of note who helped bring this process forward (Wendy Carlos' wonderful, sadly-overlooked albums, the glorious Deodato, the German grandfathers of Krautrock named Kraftwerk, and who can forget Vangelis and Tangerine Dream?), but Donna's sensuality and feminine yet sexy siren's voice made the cold hardness of the pounding beats and music feel even more real and organic, and made the song accessible to anyone who wanted to let go on the dance floor, in their bedrooms, in the car, anywhere.
Watch THIS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TBmeK9Abg
Her next album, "Once Upon A Time", released only six months later, saw no real hits. In 1978 she finally hit it big again with the album "Bad Girls," and three top ten hits - "Bad Girls," "Dim All the Lights," and "Hot Stuff," for which she won a Grammy the following year.
However, the pressures of being labeled the 'first lady of disco' and the label-created 'the first lady of love' took it's toll. She was depressed, she had collapsed onstage from exhaustion, had tried to commit suicide several times, was taking drugs to try and stay up, and the record company still was relentless in getting Summer to constantly produce hit after hit.
They went so far as to release a "greatest hits" album, titled "On The Radio," featuring "I Feel Love" and other songs from her earlier albums, but two songs off the album, "On The Radio" and a duet with Barbara Streisand "No More Tears (I've Had Enough)" brought her even more fame.
As this was her final album with Casablanca, she immediately jumped ship and signed with Geffen Records and, just like the song, felt free for the first time, embracing Christianity and taking time to produce albums on her own time.
She did well, and her career still is alive (as she never really went away), although disco died, rested, and was reborn a few times, her music still was played everywhere, even on the radio, she still tours even today, and puts out wonderfully made albums (most recently in 2008 with "Crayons," and I LIKED IT).
There have been compilations, greatest hits packages, inclusions into other various artists albums, and for many of those the first song you see on the track list is always "I Feel Love."
She, like many of her contemporaries from the 1970's, has a massive gay following, and she loves them back just as much as they love her. She is a fighter, she has gone through the drama of the highs and lows of fame, and still on any given night, she can still sing her ass off.
This song is going nowhere because it can't - the music still sounds fresh, fun, sexy as hell and for me? It's one of the greatest songs ever made.
She will always be forever summer, and I for one am grateful.
The song is unique because a quantum leap forward in music production - one person preloads the beats and sound into the computerized synth, and the singer merely follows it's lead. That's it. There have been many others who came before of note who helped bring this process forward (Wendy Carlos' wonderful, sadly-overlooked albums, the glorious Deodato, the German grandfathers of Krautrock named Kraftwerk, and who can forget Vangelis and Tangerine Dream?), but Donna's sensuality and feminine yet sexy siren's voice made the cold hardness of the pounding beats and music feel even more real and organic, and made the song accessible to anyone who wanted to let go on the dance floor, in their bedrooms, in the car, anywhere.
Watch THIS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TBmeK9Abg
Her next album, "Once Upon A Time", released only six months later, saw no real hits. In 1978 she finally hit it big again with the album "Bad Girls," and three top ten hits - "Bad Girls," "Dim All the Lights," and "Hot Stuff," for which she won a Grammy the following year.
However, the pressures of being labeled the 'first lady of disco' and the label-created 'the first lady of love' took it's toll. She was depressed, she had collapsed onstage from exhaustion, had tried to commit suicide several times, was taking drugs to try and stay up, and the record company still was relentless in getting Summer to constantly produce hit after hit.
They went so far as to release a "greatest hits" album, titled "On The Radio," featuring "I Feel Love" and other songs from her earlier albums, but two songs off the album, "On The Radio" and a duet with Barbara Streisand "No More Tears (I've Had Enough)" brought her even more fame.
As this was her final album with Casablanca, she immediately jumped ship and signed with Geffen Records and, just like the song, felt free for the first time, embracing Christianity and taking time to produce albums on her own time.
She did well, and her career still is alive (as she never really went away), although disco died, rested, and was reborn a few times, her music still was played everywhere, even on the radio, she still tours even today, and puts out wonderfully made albums (most recently in 2008 with "Crayons," and I LIKED IT).
There have been compilations, greatest hits packages, inclusions into other various artists albums, and for many of those the first song you see on the track list is always "I Feel Love."
She, like many of her contemporaries from the 1970's, has a massive gay following, and she loves them back just as much as they love her. She is a fighter, she has gone through the drama of the highs and lows of fame, and still on any given night, she can still sing her ass off.
This song is going nowhere because it can't - the music still sounds fresh, fun, sexy as hell and for me? It's one of the greatest songs ever made.
She will always be forever summer, and I for one am grateful.
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