Donna Summer ~ I Feel Love 1977 Disco Purrfection Version

The Billboard chart for the week ending August 6, 1977 had Andy Gibb’s "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" at #1, Bill Conti’s #1 "Gonna Fly Now" had dropped to #47 and The Brothers Johnson "Strawberry Letter #23" was on its way up at #34. The top new entry that week was Meco’s future #1 hit "Theme From Star Wars" at #71.


There were eleven other new songs that week and at #86 was this groundbreaking electronic disco tune from Donna Summer. It was the coda for her latest LP "I Remember Yesterday" which pretty much summed up pop music from the 40’s to the future with each era having a song on the album. This song’s unmistakable intro of a rising synthesizer and at the crescendo, a dizzying array of layered synthesized sounds burst out of the radio at me that late spring. It started just as i got to the pharmacy and I had to turn off the car and listen to the whole thing while my sister waited digging the groove.


Hypnotizing and mesmerizing, it was a watershed moment in pop history. Disco historians and critics both agree that "I Feel Love" is the birth of EDM (Electronic Dance Music), courtesy of Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte and Donna Summer. Summer’s voice and Keith Forsey’s kick drum are the ONLY elements not created by a computer. Moroder had this idea for a song using oscillators to create a sonic disco experience and brought it to Summer. She said, "Giorgio brought me this popcorn track and I said ‘What the hell is this, Giorgio?" The "popcorn" she was referring to was the 1972 single by Hot Butter, an early song that used the Moog Synthesizer to great effect that replicated the sound of popcorn popping and syncopating it with the electronic beats and bass. She finished the song "as a joke" not realizing the impact it was going to have.


Summer notes that she knew the song was about the groove and that too many vocals would get in the way, so Pete Belotte wrote simple lyrics and she sang the song as if she were in a romantic reverie in her ice princess soprano and it fit perfectly. It was not considered for commercial release, and was relegated to the B side of "Can’t We Sit Down And Talk It Over". DJ reaction was much stronger for the B side and Casablanca re-released the single with "I Feel Love" as the A side.


Peaking at #4 disco and #6 pop in the US, it topped the UK charts for four weeks. Its influence never wavered and in 1982 Patrick Cowley, an ex-lighting man and neophyte disco producer made a name for himself with his astonishing nearly 16 minute remix that actually improved on the original.


For this version I have edited together the original 12" version, the hard to find instrumental version and finish off with Patrick Cowley’s remixed version for 27 minutes of disco heaven. I spent more money trying to find a pristine vinyl copy of the Patrick Cowley remix from 1982, acquiring FIVE copies and finally found one that was crystal clear…I hope you keep with the whole trip here…