I Feel Love by Donna Summer

Album: I Remember Yesterday (1977)

Charted: 1 6

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In this sensual song, Donna Summer can "feel" love, experiencing it on a level that transcends words. Her vocal is just the same few lines over and over ("It's so good," "I'm in love"), but she sings them with a conviction that feels spiritual.

There was concern that radio stations would hear it as sexual and refuse to play it, but that wasn't a problem. Compared to Summer's moaning in her hit "Love To Love You Baby" from two years earlier, it was rather tame.
"I Feel Love" is an electronic music landmark, with a track built entirely on a Moog synthesizer. Giorgio Moroder, a leading light in the genre and a longtime collaborator with Donna Summer, came up with the music. His associate, Pete Bellotte, produced the track with him and wrote the lyrics with Summer. Moroder and Bellotte are responsible for most of Summer's early disco hits.
This is the last song on Summer's concept album I Remember Yesterday, where each song gets progressively more modern, starting with the big-band influenced "I Remember Yesterday." "I Feel Love" represents the future.
The song was inspired by the jazzy little tune performed by four fish-headed aliens in the Star Wars Cantina scene. When Giorgio Moroder saw the movie, he was taken by how un-futuristic the Cantina band sounded. That served as the initial spark for "I Feel Love." He said: "I didn't think it sounded like the music of the future - it looked like it, but didn't sound like it. So I thought the only way to do it is to do it with computers - only computers."
Co-writer Pete Bellotte explained how this song came together in a chat with Independent on Sunday magazine July 1, 2007: "We used a Moog synthesizer to give the song this futuristic feel, and discovered a new way to layer level upon level of sound on to the track in perfect sync. We had no idea it was going to sound so special... Donna was one of those phenomenal one-take artists - she could just come in, sing the song and go. She was always spot on."
With its entirely synthesized backing track, "I Feel Love" was enormously influential in the development of disco, electronica and techno music. However, Summer was initially unconvinced. "Giorgio brought me this popcorn track he had recorded," she later recalled, "and I said, 'What the hell is this, Giorgio?'"
When producer Brian Eno first listened to this song, he told David Bowie, "I've heard the sound of the future."
Speaking to Mojo magazine September 2012 about this song, Giorgio Moroder recalled: "When we mixed it, by accident the engineer added a delay at the same tempo as the beat, which suddenly doubled the speed of the synth pulse. That became the key sound of the record and the signature on my own songs like 'From Here to Eternity' and on things like Sparks' 'The Number One Song in Heaven.'"
An extended version running 8:15 was released as a single. The album version, which was also the radio single, runs 5:53, longer than any other Top 10 hit of 1977 except "Hotel California."
"I Feel Love" was used in these movies:

Frost/Nixon (2008)
The Firm (2009)
Behind The Candelabra (2013)
American Hustle (2013)
Trolls (2016)
House of Gucci (2021)

And these TV shows:

Parks and Recreation ("Beauty Pageant" - 2009)
Riverdale ("Chapter Six: Faster, Pussycats! Kill! Kill!" - 2017)
Blue Man Group performed this on their 2003 The Complex tour and included it on the accompanying album. Their version features Annette Strean of the Tennessee band Venus Hum on vocals.

The Blue Man Group interpretation uses their various homemade instruments - those PVC pipe creations they use for percussion. "We thought it would be interesting to take one of the first entirely electronic songs and redo it with real acoustic instruments," they explained.

Comments: 12

Flower Child from New OrleansMoroder is a pioneer! He and Keith Forsey we’re visionaries and knew just how gifted the gorgeous Miss Summer truly was.
She could have sang ANYTHING and had it stand out from other artists.
Rest in power, Donna Summer
Melinda from AustraliaPeople wouldn’t be shocked today. But this song shocked a lot of people when it came out. Because of its overt sexual theme and all her moaning. Like she’s having an orgasm
People were outraged. I loved it.

I’m surprised Donna Summer got away with it. No one had done that kind of obvious moaning on music since the French 1960’s song Je t’aime moi non plus. Which was banned immediately by the BBC in England.
But the 1970’s were different.
And Disco was at its height when this came out. The sexual revolution had pretty much been completed.
When I hear this song I think of that famous New York Disco of the era, Studio 54. You always saw pics of in magazines. Where Mick jagger , jerry Hall, Bianca Jagger and all the famous 70’s people danced, snorted cocaine. And allegedly had sex openly at Studio 54. Yuk.

It appeared irresistibly glamorous. But we’ve since learned Studio 54 had a very seedy aspect.
Donna Summer definitely visited Studio 54. I to dance. I wonder if her and Giorgio Maroda developed the equally as sexy song Love To Love You Baby after a night there.
Donna Summer was without doubt, the undisputed Queen Of Disco. And Maroda the musical magician of the era.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn July 31st 1977, "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #86; and on November 6th, 1977 it peaked at #6 {for 1 week} and spent almost a half-year on the Top 100 {23 weeks}...It reached #1 in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand...Between 1975 and 1999 she had thirty-two Top 100 records; fourteen made the Top 10 with four reaching #1, "MacArthur Park" {for 3 weeks in 1978}, "Hot Stuff" {for 3 weeks in 1979}, "Bad Girls" {for 5 weeks in 1979}, and "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough}" a duet with Barbra Streisand {for 2 weeks in 1979}...She just missed having six #1s when "Love to Love You Baby" and "Dim All the Lights" both peaked at #2 on the Top 100...May Ms. Summer, LaDonna Adrian Gaines, R.I.P. {1948 - 2012}.
Esskayess from Dallas, TxMoroder basically recycled and expanded upon the synch backup for his 'Midnight Express' soundtrack.
Carmelo from Genova, ItalyA masterpiece for all ages! I remember I first heard it in a disco on the Ligurian Riviera back in summer 1977 and it was BANG!!! - just love at first sight. The music seemed to come out from the walls and reach out and shake your body you could really FEEL it! It was a hot July night , just a few days before my 14th birthday and when my aunt later asked me what I would like her to get me as a present I answered straight away: "Donna Summer's latest single!" I still have it in my vinyl record collection!
Camille from Toronto, OhMay 23 2012: This is one of 25 songs inducted into the National Recording Registry as sounds of cultural significance. Though Summer died just the week before of cancer, her hit single was selected for the sound registry weeks ago, said Matt Barton, the library's curator of recorded sound. Summer had many hits, but "I Feel Love" rose to the top because it was a breakthrough that would change club music for years to come, according to the library's citation. "From the first time you heard it, it was just, 'Wow, this is very different,'" Barton said. "We hadn't heard this before. It was enormously influential."
Jay from S. Padre, TxI feel Love also. I feel love for the song, the genre, "The Donna", the era, the disco, the moaning, the dancing, the sound, and the look. I felt it most for my girlfriend at the time whom I later married. Bonding over this and other songs of the time was easy even on AM radio. The synthesizer and The Donna's sensual voice could consistently melt your coco butter.
Alan from Sault Ste. Marie, OnOne of the most sensual songs ever recorded. Ranks right up there with "Kiss You All Over" by Exile and "I'm Alive" by Love and Rockets.
John from Nashville, TnDavid Bowie played this record to Brian Eno while excitingly telling him that this was the future of music.
Daniel from Sydney, AustraliaI remember when this song first came out, it was actually the B side to a ballad called Can't We Just Sit Down (and talk it over) which, I think, actually charted in the US very briefly before I Feel Love hit really big.

Dan, Sydney, AU
Reuben from Amsterdam, NetherlandsMoroder said in an interview that they were always looking for some new way to make catchy tunes. Apparently he made this song quite fast - no deeper meanings beneath this groundbreaking song. This song has been an inspiration for the synth dance music ever since.
Mervin from Austin, TxOne of the most unique songs ever made, Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" forwent the usual orchestral background on disco tracks in favor of synthesizer. Out of this world! As usual, Summer, Giorgio Moroder and Peter Bellotte were on point!

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