August 28, 2024 • 28 mins
When Donna Summer was recording her album I Remember Yesterday, she wanted each song to evoke a different decade. "I Feel Love" was meant to represent the future of music, and as time has gone on, that label has been proven to be a prophecy. Co-produced by Giorgio Moroder and Peter Bellotte, "I Feel Love" is a hypnotic, ethereal piece of synth music that’s left an incomparable mark on music that still lingers to this day. From the house and techno movement to pop and R&B, Summer's song opened new doors and is still wildly beloved and popular on the dancefloor. On this week’s episode, hosts Rob Sheffield and Brittany Spanos celebrate Donna Summer’s massive impact on pop, R&B, electronic music and beyond and are joined by Bruce Sudano, Summer's husband, who began dating Summer around the time she recorded the song.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to five hundred Greatest Songs, a podcast based on
Rolling Stones hugely popular, influential, and sometimes controversialist.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm Britney Spanos and I'm Rob Sheffield. We're here to
shed light on the greatest songs ever made and discover
what makes them so great. This week, we're diving into
Donna Summer.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I Feel Love, absolute classic, a perfect song, a song
that's hard to turn off. It's like it should be
a thirty minute song. Actually the song can always go longer.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It can always go longer in the way. It feels
like it's been going ever since it came out.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
So I Feel Love ranked at number fifty two on
the twenty twenty one list, and it jumped from number
four eleven on the two thousand and four list, And
it is, I mean, just like my absolute favorite. I
may I love Donna Summer's entire catalog. We could have
listed basically all of our singles on the list, and
I would have been like, that's not even enough. But
I mean, I think this one obviously takes.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
The cake, totally a transformative song. It's amazing that it
never sounds dated. Yeah, it always sounds alien, It always
sounds futuristic.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, I mean it pretty much invented dance music as
we know it. You know, it invented so much of
house and techno, and I mean just the way that,
of course, like Georgia Mroder produced this song, I mean,
using the Moog synthesizer and kind of doing that repetitive
synth hook on there that really just was the foundation
of so much of club music until now.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, it was number one on Rolling Stones list of
the two hundred Greatest Dance Songs. Ever, it's a song
that definitely cuts history in half. There's before and after
I Feel Love in terms of dance music.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, I mean, very appropriately. It was the last song
on Donna's album I Remember Yesterday, and the theme of
that album was each song represented a different decade, and
of course the song represented the future, and what better
song to represent that. I mean, it's a song that
sounds just as fresh today as it did when it
came out. You know, it still sounds like there are
so many songs and mixes and remixes of songs that
(01:58):
are just trying to emulate what that Moroder was doing
with that beat, what Donna was doing with her vocals.
I mean it was such a kind of unique vocal
for her in terms of sort of that euphoric, kind
of like head voice that she was going for instead
of that like chesty, deep R and B sound that
comes with so much of disco prior to I Feel
Love coming.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Out, Yes, but just that it was so mechanical, it
was so filled with synthesizer and just totally dependent on
the synthesizer. There's a human drummer, everything else is synthesizer,
and it was so bold in terms of just using
that as the basis of the music.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I love a story that David Bowie had told about
Brian Eno hearing the song when they were working in
Berlin together and Brian running in and playing and saying
this is the sound of the future, and predicting that
this would be the sound of what we would hear
in the clubs for decades to come. And it absolutely is.
I mean, it's a song that every time I go out,
I hear it like it's constantly playing, like it's always
(02:53):
in the mix. It's hard to not play it and
see everyone actually lose their minds on the dance floor.
And it is very much the sound of what the
platonic ideal of a club music is.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Totally just that sort of synthesized pulse. So many different
types of international music come together in this song. Donna
Summer such an eclectic kind of singer with so many
different kinds of tastes, and she winds up in Germany
making this futuristic robot disco record.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, I think she's obviously becoming more and more of
that sort of legend and icon in terms of people
really giving respect to her music. Obviously, her songs have
always been a part of popular music, Hannon, you know,
constantly used in movies and TV shows. I mean, like
you know, on Drag Race, I think they've used like
every single Donna Summer song possible for Lift Saying for
(03:40):
your Life Challenge, you know. But I think Donna as
a figure and Donna as like a true pop diva
is getting more and more recognition with every year, because
I mean, she is so foundational to so much of
pop music and so much of what makes a great
hit a great song.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
She was so innovative in terms of just all the
different things that she did. She didn't think of herself
as a soul singer or an R and B singer.
She was really into Broadway tunes. She was trained on operetta,
she was combining that with the sort of gospel belter tradition.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, she had moved to Munich to Star and Hair right,
that was Yah, the musical she had moved for. Yeah,
I mean there was so much I mean even just
in the songs that, of course are kind of more
classically disco, thinking of like bad Girl and a song
like MacArthur's Park, Like there's so much of like a
rock vocalist in there too, Like there was all these
kind of meeting points of genre in the way that
she presented herself.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, her first tip loved to Love You Baby.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, that's a cluss that vocal on that. I mean,
just her as a singer is just like completely insane.
I mean, her range is incredible. I mean that performance
is just like unique, especially for that time of just
like what a female singer could do on a song
like that obviously was like very shocking to a lot
of listeners to kind of have this like super erotic
performance on a disco song, and I mean just like
(04:56):
an absolute banger.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't the first like orgasm vocal record,
but it was. It definitely took it to an extreme. Yeah,
and just with that euro disco esthetic that was so new,
it just seemed to stretch out forever.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, what was your relationship with like disco in the seventies,
because I feel like there's such a generational difference for
how people view disco now versus you know, obviously there's
like the disco demolition and all of that stuff, but like,
what was that kind of I guess the coolness range
of disco when you were growing up.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
For you and for your peers, disco is always massive.
It was always hit music that had started out as
you know, a cult sort of dance style. It was
always in the air. And with something like I Feel Love,
there's a real advance from the sort of live band disco.
I mean the seventies were just full of disco hits,
yeah Casey in the Sunshine Band to disco texts and
(05:50):
the sex allettes, and yet there was something about I
Feel Love. It was so stark and so cold. It
doesn't sound like a band playing because it isn't band playing.
It's a surprise in a way that there's a human
drummer on it. It was definitely something that the first
time you hear it, you know it's something different, and
hearing it, I couldn't believe my ears at how alien
(06:12):
it sounded. It didn't sound like any other pop music
I'd ever heard.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, there's something about it. I mean, even in terms
of how there's so much like house and techno that
emulates it and is so inspired by it, there's still
nothing that kind of captures exactly what Donna and Giorgio
kind of where we're creating on this type of song,
I mean, so unique in so many ways. There's kind
of there's still this like absolute warmness to it too,
Like I find in her vocals, like and even with
(06:37):
all that coldness of the sense and just kind of
the way that all that combines and builds up over
the course of the song, Like there's something really beautiful
about what that brings to any sort of like communal
setting where it's being played, Like it really is just
kind of that perfect communal song to experience.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
It's really communal, I guess is the word. And yet
it's so she sounds like she's floating in space in
a way.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, I've been fascinated by kind of like the last
decade of this Donna renaissance and sort of the I
Feel Love renaissance and disco renaissance has been happening where
there are so many like people really gravitating to basically
all of Donna's discography, any sort of big disco hit
from that era, and any song that kind of comes
from this like family of what Donna and Georgio were
(07:21):
creating during this era, because there's so many like disco
parties and so many disco nights that are happening, And
is really fascinating how much that's become so repopularized and
so important to people lately. And I mean, like I
love it. Every time I see, like there's a you know,
Donna Summer on a party flyer, I'm like, see there.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
You can hear. It's influenced just everywhere in pop music. Yeah,
it's wild how many hits that she packed into her
run in the late seventies. Yeah, especially in seventy eight
seventy nine, she was really evolving musically really fast. Like
you said she was going to for more of a
rock sound with something like that.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Girls, Yeah, I mean, and I mean she has a
great duet with Barbara streisand too, I mean like she's
like kind of was she was doing so much with
this disco and kind of showing off that vocal range
and kind of doing these like kind of more standard
kind of soulful duets and standards and things like that.
But there was so much that she was kind of
exploring in her music and a pretty like now seemingly
(08:21):
short time of kind of that major hit period that
she had in her career.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, what's your favorite Donna summer hit?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I Feel Love is definitely this. It was on my
ballot for the five hundred Greatest Songs. But I'm a
huge d fan of MacArthur Park. Like, I love her
cover of that song.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Wow, I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I mean I think just like the scream, the like
howl that she does is so I absolutely adore that,
Like I think that that howl is like one of
my favorite moments and like in a song ever Wow Yeah, Yeah,
I just like Also that song is just so lyrically
silly and I love it. But yeah, I think that
that one's like a big one, and Bad Girl probably
(08:59):
would be another.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yes, the Elemental to two It's hard to step to
that one. Dim All the Lights, Yeah, is a huge
favorite of mine. I like the Donna summer songs where
she begins with the ballad and then sort of kicks
it in. I mean you mentioned MacArthur Park.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Oh I love that one. Yeah, I just I love
her vocals on that song.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Ye.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
She's definitely going for that sort of witchy power.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, kind of that's, you know, sort of the vibe
I go for all music is what's the most witchiest
song that they have? And that one, for sure is
a tough one.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
I feel love teaming up with Georgio Moroder and people lot.
What was their influence on dance music?
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, I mean so much of what we consider to
be kind of great dance music. Georgia Roder is so
much a foundation of that, and you know, especially his
partnerships with Donna, like they kind of reinvented everything about
the genre. I mean he was just like has like
kind of that perfect sort of like europop euro dance brain.
Like so much of that is kind of what we
would hear for the next several decades of dance music,
(09:58):
like lean Up, especially kind of to the big boom
of house music in the nineties, Like all that is
so so much leaning on what Georgia Roder was creating
in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, such a sleek sound. He worked with so many
different types of artists and made so many different kinds
of records. One of my favorites is his David Bowie
record Cat People in the nineteen eighty two version, which
is not as sleek and synthesized as Georgia Moroder really
usually comes off as. But it's just a fantastic meeting
of minds.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah, I really love he did a version of Tom's
Diner with Britney Spears like six or seven years ago.
Great song that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Sounds like a perfect storm of like stuff that you love.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, it's a real fun one, but yeah, it was
a great combination.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I think just kind of everything that I love about
dance music. That really slick melody and really really good
sense of groove that Georgia Roder is so known for.
Like that is everything that I love about dance music
and about kind of really great kind of club music,
and he's kind of he's very foundational to that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Absolutely, I love his Blondie so much. Call Me is
such a banger.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, I mean, even thinking just like how much he
did on I feel love and how much I inspired
so many artists like Blondie and I know for this song,
like Kylie Minogue, this is a big foundational song for
her musically. I mean, there's so many artists that you
kind of can pinpoint this particular song and this particular
turning point musically for him and for Donna, as a
(11:24):
turning point for all these artists who came after them.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And just the idea of the synthesizer as not imitating
another instrument, but just the synthesizer in itself. It's well
that this came out around the same time that craft
work we're making phenomenally innovative records in Germany.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, I mean just kind of that. I know, there's
like that sort of hypnotic nature of the song, is
just that kind of repetitiveness that doesn't grow tiring with it,
and kind of the way it builds up and keeps
going and is again sort of that ideal of what
you want from a really great kind of dance hit
moment of creating that euphoria, creating that kind of like
(12:00):
hypnotic moment of it kind of like really new in
and I just like love the way that builds up
and that's why I love like, I love like the
eight minute version of the song. It's just like really
like I like it. It's really hard for me to
listen to the like three or five minute versions because
I really need the eight minute version is exactly I
lost it to me.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
That's fun. I guess that's part of the reason it
works so well always on the radio or on the floor,
that you can fade it in faded out, because it
is so repetitive and because it didn't structured like a
classical song.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, it's really it's kind of hard to turn off
the song only one time, so it's a real like
kind of play it on loop for a good couple
hours and never wanted to be cut short when you
hear it at like the club or something.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, it's impact on the Detroit techno sound, yes, especially fruitful.
I mean I Feel Love went everywhere and traveled everywhere
and pop music. It's wild how much the sound of
Detroit techno, which is my favorite style of house it
was built so much on just that little I Feel
Love synthesizer rhythm.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Even just like yeah, like everything that would come for
the next day, specially like specifically two decades after this
song like leaning in from like the Detroit techno into
like Chicago house scene. Like just hearing this song be
sort of replicated so much over the course of those
two decades is like pretty insane. How how much it
kind of shifted, like everything of what yeah, people thought
(13:23):
you can make from from a synthesizer and what could sound.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Like Yes, all the English new wave groups like wanted
to do it Deuran. Duran began their career with the
single Planet Earth, which basically begins with that I Feel
Love beat. They worked with him on their last album.
It's still a fruitful partnership after all these years.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, I was. I was also like I was shocked
to the I wrote a quote from the inventor of
the Moog synthesizer, whose name I believe is Robert Moog
mog Mog, Yes, and he was very critical of the song.
He's very critical of the repetitive nature of that synth
hook that Moroder uses on it. Like he was really
he didn't like it, which I'm really shocked that he wouldn't.
He wouldn't like the way this came out, which is,
(14:01):
you know, kind of this like really intoxicating song that
exists and completely reinvented the use of it.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
You listen to something like that next to something like
James Brown, and it's clear that this is a real
break with that sort of funk sound. The fact that
it was with the human drummer is always a little weird, yeah,
because it sounds so much like a drum machine. It's
Keith Force, who is the producer who did all those
billy idol hits oh in the eighties. His most famous
(14:28):
production is Don't You Forget About Me? Oh simple mans
that it's wild to even think that he was sort
of the ghost in the machine for this song.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
I mean, it's like I think, especially with thinking about
how like the longevity of the song and sort of
the way that it's continued into this era of pop music, I.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Feel love it's still really the standard of that sort
of obsessive, hypnotic, as you said, sort of sound that
dance music still aspires to.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah. So, like I feel like thinking so much with
that sort of disco come back of like twenty twenty
twenty twenty one and hearing like Doja cat On Say
So and like Hallucinate by Dua Lipa and songs from
that kind of resurgence of disco, like hearing artists emulate
so much of like Donna Summer and so much of
(15:14):
those like great disco vocalists, and also that hypnotic nature
of really great disc of music in a song like
I feel Love, I Love kind of hear that hearing
that come back and inspire so much.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, and a couple of years later, just two years
after I Feel Love, She's got Bad Girls, which is
a totally different kind of sound. I Feel Love such
an innovative record, Yeah, I mean love to Love You
Baby is one thing, because there's a great tradition of
dance records where it's just people moaning and groaning. That's
to see. That's that goes way back before disco, and
(15:44):
for Donna Summer to make that her debut hit seemingly
would have stereotyped her and that sort of direction. But
I Feel Love it's not a very difficult kind of record.
Nobody's moaning or groaning, She's sounding really kind of robotic.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah, I mean, it's just like so completely out of
I think what anyone sort of anticipated she would follow
that type of song with or so kind of continue
with what she would do with her career, and I mean,
I think allowed so much of what she's able to
explore on her albums after that, and be able to
try new things and explore kind of that go back
to that theater side, try the rockside, kind of do
(16:19):
the standards and things like that that she would continue
doing for the rest of her singing career. What do
you sort of see happening with sort of Donna Summer's
legacy and I feel love in the coming years, like
will this song shoot up in the next like version
of this of this list, will it kind of maybe
crack the top ten, fifteen or twenty.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Well, it's wild that it never sounds dated. It never
has a quaint sort of quality. I guess because it's
so cold and sleek and hard and metallic. It's very
strange how it never does sound destier. I've dated in
a way that so many records from that period have
very much a time capsule quality. That's part of what's
(16:58):
great about them. But I feel loved at the time
and now very much almost disconnected from well, it's not
disconnected from disco, but it's a record that stands out
and just sort of stands out, is beyond time.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, I feel like with each growing obviously this it
jumped up a lot from the original list, Like, I
can very much see this song because it is so
foundational to so much of dance music and so many
genres that continue to kind of grow with popularity and
kind of remain popular over the years. Like, I feel
like I could see the song kind of jumping up
on the next vote because it seems still so so
(17:34):
relevant to everything that people love about really great pop
music and dance music and just a really great song.
We are joined now by singer songwriter Bruce Adanna, who
is also the husband of the late great Donna Summer.
Thank you so so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Hey, Rob, Hey Brutany. Nice to be here.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
We really appreciate you joining us, and I mean especially
talking about this really great song that's on our five
hundred grest songs list, but also to talk to someone
who I've read is the inspiration behind I Feel Love,
And I'm curious if remember a little bit about hearing
about those songwriting sessions that Donna had and the kind
of what led to to the song.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
I don't know about the validity of it being a
song inspired by me, but It did happen at a
time when Donna and I had just met. We met
in March of nineteen seventy seven in Los Angeles. That
was right around the time that she was recording the
I Remember Yesterday album. I was in a group called
Brooklyn Dreams and we had recently got signed to a
(18:36):
label in New York call Millennium Records, and we were
recording our first album out in Irvine, California. On that
first album, Donna came out and sang on our album.
We conversely sang on the I Remember Yesterday, and this
was the same album that I Feel Love was on,
and the I Remember Yesterday album was kind of like,
(18:59):
you know, Georgia, Pete and Donna liked to do conceptual albums,
and I Remember Yesterday was kind of recollection of music
through time, and when they got to the future, it
was like, what was the future going to be? And
this was at the beginning of synthesizers nineteen seventy seven,
and Georgio put together this track, which was at the
(19:21):
time was like what's that? How cool? But Pete and
Donna got together and started working on the lyric for
I Feel Love, which was the song to be of
the future.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I remember Donna telling me that. You know, they kept
writing all these lyrics and at some point she just
was like, no, this song has to be really, really simple.
It has to float over the track, and it can't
be a lot of words, and so basically wrote the
very beautiful but simple lines that became I Feel Love.
(19:53):
And it was exactly the right call because the way
the melody and the simplicity of it, but the see
of the message at the same time, So it was
both modern and forward thinking, and it had a sensuality
to it, and it became the godmother of EDM.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
So what do you recall of the song blowing up
and kind of hearing that song begin to spread and
you know, sort of seeing it become popular at that time.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
You know. At the time, you know, Donna kept having
these songs that were would start as ballads and then
kick off into a dance song. I know that she
and the record company they wanted to have a song
that was a ballad as a hit. So there was
this song called Can't We Just Sit Down and Talk
It Over, which was also only I Remember Yesterday record,
and that went out as the single and in those days,
(20:43):
there was an A side and the B side, and
I Feel Love was on the B side, So the
stations went out. The ballad was the one that they
were supposed to play, and a couple of weeks went
by and the ballad was doing okay, but it was
kind of like just like lumbering along, and then all
of a sudden, you know, it got flipped over and
I Feel Love just took on a life of its own,
(21:05):
you know, and casta Blancer Records. It was an in
the moment label, you know, headed by Neil Bogart, but
with a lean, mean staff you know, who were all
creative and from the promotion department to the marketing department
to the art department. I mean, if you look at
all Donna's album covers, you know that they were really
(21:25):
you know, special, each individual in their own way. But anyway,
so quickly they realized that I Feel Love was moving,
and in a moment, they jumped on it and it
started flying.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
And what do you recall of what Donna was like
behind the scenes, especially as someone who worked with her
on this album and also then was beginning a relationship
with her, you know what was sort of motivating her
and driving her.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
At that time, Donna was a super creative person, and
she had a lot of energy, and she was very
positive and funny and felt that she was called to
her career and he took it so seriously and respected
the gifts that she was given and worked very hard
along with a team of a lot of people to
(22:09):
create the career that she had. But she was also
a very complete person and we got married in nineteen eighty.
We were married for thirty two years until she passed away.
We raised three daughters, I have nine grandchildren. It was
like not only a successful career, but more importantly was
to have a successful life. So, you know, we navigated
(22:31):
the balance of being super creative and having a great team,
you know, like Georgia and Worrolda, Pete Baladi, Howard Foldemeyer
Casablanc and Neil Bauguart, all these people. There's a certain
chemistry that happens when magic happens that you know, you
can conceptually try to put a team together that you
think is going to happen, but when it happens, it's
(22:52):
really magic, and things take on a life of their
own and you just basically are along for the ride
and try to stay out of it.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
What does the innovation and inspiration come from.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Well, this is you know, you're dealing with super talented people.
And like I said earlier, I remember Yesterday was dealing
in different genres of music over time, and I feel
Love was essentially, in a way, Giorgio Moroders musical take
on maybe what the future would be. Donna and Georgio
and Pete were always wanting to push the envelope. They
(23:25):
were not people that were in complacent in doing what
they had just done. It's you know, Donna was always
excited about what's next and what's the new gadget we
can incorporate, And this was how their minds work. So
synthesizers were coming into play for the first time nineteen
seventy seven. You know, there was craftwork doing things. And
(23:49):
it's interesting because a very underrated member of this team
in my estimation, is Jurgen Coppers, who was the engineer
who engineered Donna's record from Love to Love You Baby,
to Four Seasons of Love and Once Upon a Time
and then I remember used to Yesterday Bad Girls, and
those records sounded as great as they sounded, you know,
(24:12):
because Jorgan was so great and people don't mention him,
but as it applies to I Feel Love, he was
the one that put the slap back delay on that baseline,
that gave it that bouncing deal. So, you know, inspired
of what would the future be, finding a melody that
would float in it and work, and a message that
(24:34):
has a sensuality and a meaning to it. So it's
a combination of greatness, you know, the ability of the
record company to adapt in the moment of you know,
it's the B side. Let's go, let's with shifting gears.
Now boom, I'll bring it home. And for many years,
Last Dance was a Donna's biggest song. Then She Works
(24:56):
Hard for the Money was a big song, and MacArthur
Park and I mean there's all these big songs, but
I Feel Love is the one that, as I sit
with the catalog, is the one that continues to grow
in its power and its importance. You know, Beyonce has
(25:16):
just did an interpolation. I mean, there's ongoing things, you know,
as many stories of I Feel Love, but it's the
one that has continued to grow exponentially over time.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
You talk about her as the godmother of DM but
in so many ways she in this record seem like
they basically invented modern pop.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
It's an interesting evolution. In the early days, it was
hard to get airplay. Radio stations did not want to
play disco music. Dance music was like not cool, you know,
And I always struggled with the concept because I come
out of folk music and rock music in the sixties.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
And all that.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
But I was never a snob. There were corny things
in dance music, for sure, but there was always things
with great musicality, great horn arrangements, great string of arrangements,
great rhythm arrangements, all things musically working together in a
very great and powerful way. So there was great musicality
(26:13):
in a lot of those records, and that moment peaked
and then it became I Feel Love, and that became
what dance music transitioned from bus You know, you had
MacArthur Park and you had Last Dance and these beautiful arrangements,
but dance music shifted right at that moment, and you're
saying pop music, and you know, then dance music became
(26:35):
what radio was about. So you know, maybe it was
I Feel Love that cracked the egg in that moment
and created the transition from what pop radio was into
what it was becoming.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
There's been a countless number of albums that artists have
released that are directly referencing not just I Feel Love,
but directly referencing Donna's discography and Donna as sort of
this mother of disco, And what has it been like
for you and your family to kind of hear the
longevity and influence and impact of her singing style, of
(27:09):
her music, of her musicality, of her creativity, and of
this very future forward thinking that she had with her
with her songs that she released for us.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
It's gratifying and in the sense bittersweet, you know, because
for all Donna's success, there was always an underlying struggle
for the recognition that she honestly disserved. She had an
amazing gift, and not only as a singer, bit as
a songwriter. You know, her sense of fashion, you know,
(27:39):
there were so many pictures. I've started collecting him now
because I've forgotten, you know, all the different looks and
all of that, you know, so when I see them
online now I'm like making a file. It's you know,
but she just influenced the culture in so many ways,
and you know these things take time, because it takes
a while for history and time to go by for
(28:00):
people to look back and go like, oh wow, this
defined the decade.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Yeah, thank you so much for joining us to day.
Really really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
You are amazing. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Thanks Rob, Thanks NYT.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Y'all, thanks so much for listening to Rolling Stone's five
hundred Greatest Songs. This podcast is brought to you by
Rolling Stone and iHeartMedia. Written hosted by me Britney Spanos
and Rob Sheffield. Executive produced by GUS Winner, Jason Vine,
Alex Dale and Christian Horde, and produced by Jesse Cannon,
with music supervision by Eric Zeiler.
Welcome to five hundred Greatest Songs, a podcast based on
Rolling Stones hugely popular, influential, and sometimes controversialist.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm Britney Spanos and I'm Rob Sheffield. We're here to
shed light on the greatest songs ever made and discover
what makes them so great. This week, we're diving into
Donna Summer.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I Feel Love, absolute classic, a perfect song, a song
that's hard to turn off. It's like it should be
a thirty minute song. Actually the song can always go longer.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It can always go longer in the way. It feels
like it's been going ever since it came out.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
So I Feel Love ranked at number fifty two on
the twenty twenty one list, and it jumped from number
four eleven on the two thousand and four list, And
it is, I mean, just like my absolute favorite. I
may I love Donna Summer's entire catalog. We could have
listed basically all of our singles on the list, and
I would have been like, that's not even enough. But
I mean, I think this one obviously takes.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
The cake, totally a transformative song. It's amazing that it
never sounds dated. Yeah, it always sounds alien, It always
sounds futuristic.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, I mean it pretty much invented dance music as
we know it. You know, it invented so much of
house and techno, and I mean just the way that,
of course, like Georgia Mroder produced this song, I mean,
using the Moog synthesizer and kind of doing that repetitive
synth hook on there that really just was the foundation
of so much of club music until now.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, it was number one on Rolling Stones list of
the two hundred Greatest Dance Songs. Ever, it's a song
that definitely cuts history in half. There's before and after
I Feel Love in terms of dance music.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, I mean, very appropriately. It was the last song
on Donna's album I Remember Yesterday, and the theme of
that album was each song represented a different decade, and
of course the song represented the future, and what better
song to represent that. I mean, it's a song that
sounds just as fresh today as it did when it
came out. You know, it still sounds like there are
so many songs and mixes and remixes of songs that
(01:58):
are just trying to emulate what that Moroder was doing
with that beat, what Donna was doing with her vocals.
I mean it was such a kind of unique vocal
for her in terms of sort of that euphoric, kind
of like head voice that she was going for instead
of that like chesty, deep R and B sound that
comes with so much of disco prior to I Feel
Love coming.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Out, Yes, but just that it was so mechanical, it
was so filled with synthesizer and just totally dependent on
the synthesizer. There's a human drummer, everything else is synthesizer,
and it was so bold in terms of just using
that as the basis of the music.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I love a story that David Bowie had told about
Brian Eno hearing the song when they were working in
Berlin together and Brian running in and playing and saying
this is the sound of the future, and predicting that
this would be the sound of what we would hear
in the clubs for decades to come. And it absolutely is.
I mean, it's a song that every time I go out,
I hear it like it's constantly playing, like it's always
(02:53):
in the mix. It's hard to not play it and
see everyone actually lose their minds on the dance floor.
And it is very much the sound of what the
platonic ideal of a club music is.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Totally just that sort of synthesized pulse. So many different
types of international music come together in this song. Donna
Summer such an eclectic kind of singer with so many
different kinds of tastes, and she winds up in Germany
making this futuristic robot disco record.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, I think she's obviously becoming more and more of
that sort of legend and icon in terms of people
really giving respect to her music. Obviously, her songs have
always been a part of popular music, Hannon, you know,
constantly used in movies and TV shows. I mean, like
you know, on Drag Race, I think they've used like
every single Donna Summer song possible for Lift Saying for
(03:40):
your Life Challenge, you know. But I think Donna as
a figure and Donna as like a true pop diva
is getting more and more recognition with every year, because
I mean, she is so foundational to so much of
pop music and so much of what makes a great
hit a great song.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
She was so innovative in terms of just all the
different things that she did. She didn't think of herself
as a soul singer or an R and B singer.
She was really into Broadway tunes. She was trained on operetta,
she was combining that with the sort of gospel belter tradition.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, she had moved to Munich to Star and Hair right,
that was Yah, the musical she had moved for. Yeah,
I mean there was so much I mean even just
in the songs that, of course are kind of more
classically disco, thinking of like bad Girl and a song
like MacArthur's Park, Like there's so much of like a
rock vocalist in there too, Like there was all these
kind of meeting points of genre in the way that
she presented herself.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, her first tip loved to Love You Baby.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, that's a cluss that vocal on that. I mean,
just her as a singer is just like completely insane.
I mean, her range is incredible. I mean that performance
is just like unique, especially for that time of just
like what a female singer could do on a song
like that obviously was like very shocking to a lot
of listeners to kind of have this like super erotic
performance on a disco song, and I mean just like
(04:56):
an absolute banger.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't the first like orgasm vocal record,
but it was. It definitely took it to an extreme. Yeah,
and just with that euro disco esthetic that was so new,
it just seemed to stretch out forever.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, what was your relationship with like disco in the seventies,
because I feel like there's such a generational difference for
how people view disco now versus you know, obviously there's
like the disco demolition and all of that stuff, but like,
what was that kind of I guess the coolness range
of disco when you were growing up.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
For you and for your peers, disco is always massive.
It was always hit music that had started out as
you know, a cult sort of dance style. It was
always in the air. And with something like I Feel Love,
there's a real advance from the sort of live band disco.
I mean the seventies were just full of disco hits,
yeah Casey in the Sunshine Band to disco texts and
(05:50):
the sex allettes, and yet there was something about I
Feel Love. It was so stark and so cold. It
doesn't sound like a band playing because it isn't band playing.
It's a surprise in a way that there's a human
drummer on it. It was definitely something that the first
time you hear it, you know it's something different, and
hearing it, I couldn't believe my ears at how alien
(06:12):
it sounded. It didn't sound like any other pop music
I'd ever heard.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, there's something about it. I mean, even in terms
of how there's so much like house and techno that
emulates it and is so inspired by it, there's still
nothing that kind of captures exactly what Donna and Giorgio
kind of where we're creating on this type of song,
I mean, so unique in so many ways. There's kind
of there's still this like absolute warmness to it too,
Like I find in her vocals, like and even with
(06:37):
all that coldness of the sense and just kind of
the way that all that combines and builds up over
the course of the song, Like there's something really beautiful
about what that brings to any sort of like communal
setting where it's being played, Like it really is just
kind of that perfect communal song to experience.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
It's really communal, I guess is the word. And yet
it's so she sounds like she's floating in space in
a way.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, I've been fascinated by kind of like the last
decade of this Donna renaissance and sort of the I
Feel Love renaissance and disco renaissance has been happening where
there are so many like people really gravitating to basically
all of Donna's discography, any sort of big disco hit
from that era, and any song that kind of comes
from this like family of what Donna and Georgio were
(07:21):
creating during this era, because there's so many like disco
parties and so many disco nights that are happening, And
is really fascinating how much that's become so repopularized and
so important to people lately. And I mean, like I
love it. Every time I see, like there's a you know,
Donna Summer on a party flyer, I'm like, see there.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
You can hear. It's influenced just everywhere in pop music. Yeah,
it's wild how many hits that she packed into her
run in the late seventies. Yeah, especially in seventy eight
seventy nine, she was really evolving musically really fast. Like
you said she was going to for more of a
rock sound with something like that.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Girls, Yeah, I mean, and I mean she has a
great duet with Barbara streisand too, I mean like she's
like kind of was she was doing so much with
this disco and kind of showing off that vocal range
and kind of doing these like kind of more standard
kind of soulful duets and standards and things like that.
But there was so much that she was kind of
exploring in her music and a pretty like now seemingly
(08:21):
short time of kind of that major hit period that
she had in her career.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, what's your favorite Donna summer hit?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I Feel Love is definitely this. It was on my
ballot for the five hundred Greatest Songs. But I'm a
huge d fan of MacArthur Park. Like, I love her
cover of that song.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Wow, I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I mean I think just like the scream, the like
howl that she does is so I absolutely adore that,
Like I think that that howl is like one of
my favorite moments and like in a song ever Wow Yeah, Yeah,
I just like Also that song is just so lyrically
silly and I love it. But yeah, I think that
that one's like a big one, and Bad Girl probably
(08:59):
would be another.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yes, the Elemental to two It's hard to step to
that one. Dim All the Lights, Yeah, is a huge
favorite of mine. I like the Donna summer songs where
she begins with the ballad and then sort of kicks
it in. I mean you mentioned MacArthur Park.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Oh I love that one. Yeah, I just I love
her vocals on that song.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Ye.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
She's definitely going for that sort of witchy power.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, kind of that's, you know, sort of the vibe
I go for all music is what's the most witchiest
song that they have? And that one, for sure is
a tough one.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
I feel love teaming up with Georgio Moroder and people lot.
What was their influence on dance music?
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, I mean so much of what we consider to
be kind of great dance music. Georgia Roder is so
much a foundation of that, and you know, especially his
partnerships with Donna, like they kind of reinvented everything about
the genre. I mean he was just like has like
kind of that perfect sort of like europop euro dance brain.
Like so much of that is kind of what we
would hear for the next several decades of dance music,
(09:58):
like lean Up, especially kind of to the big boom
of house music in the nineties, Like all that is
so so much leaning on what Georgia Roder was creating
in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, such a sleek sound. He worked with so many
different types of artists and made so many different kinds
of records. One of my favorites is his David Bowie
record Cat People in the nineteen eighty two version, which
is not as sleek and synthesized as Georgia Moroder really
usually comes off as. But it's just a fantastic meeting
of minds.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah, I really love he did a version of Tom's
Diner with Britney Spears like six or seven years ago.
Great song that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Sounds like a perfect storm of like stuff that you love.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, it's a real fun one, but yeah, it was
a great combination.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I think just kind of everything that I love about
dance music. That really slick melody and really really good
sense of groove that Georgia Roder is so known for.
Like that is everything that I love about dance music
and about kind of really great kind of club music,
and he's kind of he's very foundational to that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Absolutely, I love his Blondie so much. Call Me is
such a banger.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, I mean, even thinking just like how much he
did on I feel love and how much I inspired
so many artists like Blondie and I know for this song,
like Kylie Minogue, this is a big foundational song for
her musically. I mean, there's so many artists that you
kind of can pinpoint this particular song and this particular
turning point musically for him and for Donna, as a
(11:24):
turning point for all these artists who came after them.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And just the idea of the synthesizer as not imitating
another instrument, but just the synthesizer in itself. It's well
that this came out around the same time that craft
work we're making phenomenally innovative records in Germany.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, I mean just kind of that. I know, there's
like that sort of hypnotic nature of the song, is
just that kind of repetitiveness that doesn't grow tiring with it,
and kind of the way it builds up and keeps
going and is again sort of that ideal of what
you want from a really great kind of dance hit
moment of creating that euphoria, creating that kind of like
(12:00):
hypnotic moment of it kind of like really new in
and I just like love the way that builds up
and that's why I love like, I love like the
eight minute version of the song. It's just like really
like I like it. It's really hard for me to
listen to the like three or five minute versions because
I really need the eight minute version is exactly I
lost it to me.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
That's fun. I guess that's part of the reason it
works so well always on the radio or on the floor,
that you can fade it in faded out, because it
is so repetitive and because it didn't structured like a
classical song.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, it's really it's kind of hard to turn off
the song only one time, so it's a real like
kind of play it on loop for a good couple
hours and never wanted to be cut short when you
hear it at like the club or something.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, it's impact on the Detroit techno sound, yes, especially fruitful.
I mean I Feel Love went everywhere and traveled everywhere
and pop music. It's wild how much the sound of
Detroit techno, which is my favorite style of house it
was built so much on just that little I Feel
Love synthesizer rhythm.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Even just like yeah, like everything that would come for
the next day, specially like specifically two decades after this
song like leaning in from like the Detroit techno into
like Chicago house scene. Like just hearing this song be
sort of replicated so much over the course of those
two decades is like pretty insane. How how much it
kind of shifted, like everything of what yeah, people thought
(13:23):
you can make from from a synthesizer and what could sound.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Like Yes, all the English new wave groups like wanted
to do it Deuran. Duran began their career with the
single Planet Earth, which basically begins with that I Feel
Love beat. They worked with him on their last album.
It's still a fruitful partnership after all these years.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, I was. I was also like I was shocked
to the I wrote a quote from the inventor of
the Moog synthesizer, whose name I believe is Robert Moog
mog Mog, Yes, and he was very critical of the song.
He's very critical of the repetitive nature of that synth
hook that Moroder uses on it. Like he was really
he didn't like it, which I'm really shocked that he wouldn't.
He wouldn't like the way this came out, which is,
(14:01):
you know, kind of this like really intoxicating song that
exists and completely reinvented the use of it.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
You listen to something like that next to something like
James Brown, and it's clear that this is a real
break with that sort of funk sound. The fact that
it was with the human drummer is always a little weird, yeah,
because it sounds so much like a drum machine. It's
Keith Force, who is the producer who did all those
billy idol hits oh in the eighties. His most famous
(14:28):
production is Don't You Forget About Me? Oh simple mans
that it's wild to even think that he was sort
of the ghost in the machine for this song.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
I mean, it's like I think, especially with thinking about
how like the longevity of the song and sort of
the way that it's continued into this era of pop music, I.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Feel love it's still really the standard of that sort
of obsessive, hypnotic, as you said, sort of sound that
dance music still aspires to.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah. So, like I feel like thinking so much with
that sort of disco come back of like twenty twenty
twenty twenty one and hearing like Doja cat On Say
So and like Hallucinate by Dua Lipa and songs from
that kind of resurgence of disco, like hearing artists emulate
so much of like Donna Summer and so much of
(15:14):
those like great disco vocalists, and also that hypnotic nature
of really great disc of music in a song like
I feel Love, I Love kind of hear that hearing
that come back and inspire so much.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, and a couple of years later, just two years
after I Feel Love, She's got Bad Girls, which is
a totally different kind of sound. I Feel Love such
an innovative record, Yeah, I mean love to Love You
Baby is one thing, because there's a great tradition of
dance records where it's just people moaning and groaning. That's
to see. That's that goes way back before disco, and
(15:44):
for Donna Summer to make that her debut hit seemingly
would have stereotyped her and that sort of direction. But
I Feel Love it's not a very difficult kind of record.
Nobody's moaning or groaning, She's sounding really kind of robotic.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah, I mean, it's just like so completely out of
I think what anyone sort of anticipated she would follow
that type of song with or so kind of continue
with what she would do with her career, and I mean,
I think allowed so much of what she's able to
explore on her albums after that, and be able to
try new things and explore kind of that go back
to that theater side, try the rockside, kind of do
(16:19):
the standards and things like that that she would continue
doing for the rest of her singing career. What do
you sort of see happening with sort of Donna Summer's
legacy and I feel love in the coming years, like
will this song shoot up in the next like version
of this of this list, will it kind of maybe
crack the top ten, fifteen or twenty.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Well, it's wild that it never sounds dated. It never
has a quaint sort of quality. I guess because it's
so cold and sleek and hard and metallic. It's very
strange how it never does sound destier. I've dated in
a way that so many records from that period have
very much a time capsule quality. That's part of what's
(16:58):
great about them. But I feel loved at the time
and now very much almost disconnected from well, it's not
disconnected from disco, but it's a record that stands out
and just sort of stands out, is beyond time.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, I feel like with each growing obviously this it
jumped up a lot from the original list, Like, I
can very much see this song because it is so
foundational to so much of dance music and so many
genres that continue to kind of grow with popularity and
kind of remain popular over the years. Like, I feel
like I could see the song kind of jumping up
on the next vote because it seems still so so
(17:34):
relevant to everything that people love about really great pop
music and dance music and just a really great song.
We are joined now by singer songwriter Bruce Adanna, who
is also the husband of the late great Donna Summer.
Thank you so so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Hey, Rob, Hey Brutany. Nice to be here.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
We really appreciate you joining us, and I mean especially
talking about this really great song that's on our five
hundred grest songs list, but also to talk to someone
who I've read is the inspiration behind I Feel Love,
And I'm curious if remember a little bit about hearing
about those songwriting sessions that Donna had and the kind
of what led to to the song.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
I don't know about the validity of it being a
song inspired by me, but It did happen at a
time when Donna and I had just met. We met
in March of nineteen seventy seven in Los Angeles. That
was right around the time that she was recording the
I Remember Yesterday album. I was in a group called
Brooklyn Dreams and we had recently got signed to a
(18:36):
label in New York call Millennium Records, and we were
recording our first album out in Irvine, California. On that
first album, Donna came out and sang on our album.
We conversely sang on the I Remember Yesterday, and this
was the same album that I Feel Love was on,
and the I Remember Yesterday album was kind of like,
(18:59):
you know, Georgia, Pete and Donna liked to do conceptual albums,
and I Remember Yesterday was kind of recollection of music
through time, and when they got to the future, it
was like, what was the future going to be? And
this was at the beginning of synthesizers nineteen seventy seven,
and Georgio put together this track, which was at the
(19:21):
time was like what's that? How cool? But Pete and
Donna got together and started working on the lyric for
I Feel Love, which was the song to be of
the future.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I remember Donna telling me that. You know, they kept
writing all these lyrics and at some point she just
was like, no, this song has to be really, really simple.
It has to float over the track, and it can't
be a lot of words, and so basically wrote the
very beautiful but simple lines that became I Feel Love.
(19:53):
And it was exactly the right call because the way
the melody and the simplicity of it, but the see
of the message at the same time, So it was
both modern and forward thinking, and it had a sensuality
to it, and it became the godmother of EDM.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
So what do you recall of the song blowing up
and kind of hearing that song begin to spread and
you know, sort of seeing it become popular at that time.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
You know. At the time, you know, Donna kept having
these songs that were would start as ballads and then
kick off into a dance song. I know that she
and the record company they wanted to have a song
that was a ballad as a hit. So there was
this song called Can't We Just Sit Down and Talk
It Over, which was also only I Remember Yesterday record,
and that went out as the single and in those days,
(20:43):
there was an A side and the B side, and
I Feel Love was on the B side, So the
stations went out. The ballad was the one that they
were supposed to play, and a couple of weeks went
by and the ballad was doing okay, but it was
kind of like just like lumbering along, and then all
of a sudden, you know, it got flipped over and
I Feel Love just took on a life of its own,
(21:05):
you know, and casta Blancer Records. It was an in
the moment label, you know, headed by Neil Bogart, but
with a lean, mean staff you know, who were all
creative and from the promotion department to the marketing department
to the art department. I mean, if you look at
all Donna's album covers, you know that they were really
(21:25):
you know, special, each individual in their own way. But anyway,
so quickly they realized that I Feel Love was moving,
and in a moment, they jumped on it and it
started flying.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
And what do you recall of what Donna was like
behind the scenes, especially as someone who worked with her
on this album and also then was beginning a relationship
with her, you know what was sort of motivating her
and driving her.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
At that time, Donna was a super creative person, and
she had a lot of energy, and she was very
positive and funny and felt that she was called to
her career and he took it so seriously and respected
the gifts that she was given and worked very hard
along with a team of a lot of people to
(22:09):
create the career that she had. But she was also
a very complete person and we got married in nineteen eighty.
We were married for thirty two years until she passed away.
We raised three daughters, I have nine grandchildren. It was
like not only a successful career, but more importantly was
to have a successful life. So, you know, we navigated
(22:31):
the balance of being super creative and having a great team,
you know, like Georgia and Worrolda, Pete Baladi, Howard Foldemeyer
Casablanc and Neil Bauguart, all these people. There's a certain
chemistry that happens when magic happens that you know, you
can conceptually try to put a team together that you
think is going to happen, but when it happens, it's
(22:52):
really magic, and things take on a life of their
own and you just basically are along for the ride
and try to stay out of it.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
What does the innovation and inspiration come from.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Well, this is you know, you're dealing with super talented people.
And like I said earlier, I remember Yesterday was dealing
in different genres of music over time, and I feel
Love was essentially, in a way, Giorgio Moroders musical take
on maybe what the future would be. Donna and Georgio
and Pete were always wanting to push the envelope. They
(23:25):
were not people that were in complacent in doing what
they had just done. It's you know, Donna was always
excited about what's next and what's the new gadget we
can incorporate, And this was how their minds work. So
synthesizers were coming into play for the first time nineteen
seventy seven. You know, there was craftwork doing things. And
(23:49):
it's interesting because a very underrated member of this team
in my estimation, is Jurgen Coppers, who was the engineer
who engineered Donna's record from Love to Love You Baby,
to Four Seasons of Love and Once Upon a Time
and then I remember used to Yesterday Bad Girls, and
those records sounded as great as they sounded, you know,
(24:12):
because Jorgan was so great and people don't mention him,
but as it applies to I Feel Love, he was
the one that put the slap back delay on that baseline,
that gave it that bouncing deal. So, you know, inspired
of what would the future be, finding a melody that
would float in it and work, and a message that
(24:34):
has a sensuality and a meaning to it. So it's
a combination of greatness, you know, the ability of the
record company to adapt in the moment of you know,
it's the B side. Let's go, let's with shifting gears.
Now boom, I'll bring it home. And for many years,
Last Dance was a Donna's biggest song. Then She Works
(24:56):
Hard for the Money was a big song, and MacArthur
Park and I mean there's all these big songs, but
I Feel Love is the one that, as I sit
with the catalog, is the one that continues to grow
in its power and its importance. You know, Beyonce has
(25:16):
just did an interpolation. I mean, there's ongoing things, you know,
as many stories of I Feel Love, but it's the
one that has continued to grow exponentially over time.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
You talk about her as the godmother of DM but
in so many ways she in this record seem like
they basically invented modern pop.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
It's an interesting evolution. In the early days, it was
hard to get airplay. Radio stations did not want to
play disco music. Dance music was like not cool, you know,
And I always struggled with the concept because I come
out of folk music and rock music in the sixties.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
And all that.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
But I was never a snob. There were corny things
in dance music, for sure, but there was always things
with great musicality, great horn arrangements, great string of arrangements,
great rhythm arrangements, all things musically working together in a
very great and powerful way. So there was great musicality
(26:13):
in a lot of those records, and that moment peaked
and then it became I Feel Love, and that became
what dance music transitioned from bus You know, you had
MacArthur Park and you had Last Dance and these beautiful arrangements,
but dance music shifted right at that moment, and you're
saying pop music, and you know, then dance music became
(26:35):
what radio was about. So you know, maybe it was
I Feel Love that cracked the egg in that moment
and created the transition from what pop radio was into
what it was becoming.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
There's been a countless number of albums that artists have
released that are directly referencing not just I Feel Love,
but directly referencing Donna's discography and Donna as sort of
this mother of disco, And what has it been like
for you and your family to kind of hear the
longevity and influence and impact of her singing style, of
(27:09):
her music, of her musicality, of her creativity, and of
this very future forward thinking that she had with her
with her songs that she released for us.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
It's gratifying and in the sense bittersweet, you know, because
for all Donna's success, there was always an underlying struggle
for the recognition that she honestly disserved. She had an
amazing gift, and not only as a singer, bit as
a songwriter. You know, her sense of fashion, you know,
(27:39):
there were so many pictures. I've started collecting him now
because I've forgotten, you know, all the different looks and
all of that, you know, so when I see them
online now I'm like making a file. It's you know,
but she just influenced the culture in so many ways,
and you know these things take time, because it takes
a while for history and time to go by for
(28:00):
people to look back and go like, oh wow, this
defined the decade.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Yeah, thank you so much for joining us to day.
Really really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
You are amazing. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Thanks Rob, Thanks NYT.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Y'all, thanks so much for listening to Rolling Stone's five
hundred Greatest Songs. This podcast is brought to you by
Rolling Stone and iHeartMedia. Written hosted by me Britney Spanos
and Rob Sheffield. Executive produced by GUS Winner, Jason Vine,
Alex Dale and Christian Horde, and produced by Jesse Cannon,
with music supervision by Eric Zeiler.
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