Feature Song: “I Will Survive”
Gloria Fowles (1943), known professionally as Gloria Gaynor, is an American singer and is best known for her disco-era hits, including the feature song, “I Will Survive,” as well as “Let Me Know (I Have a Right)” (1979), “I Am What I Am” (1983), and her cover, re-interpreting a Jackson 5 song, written by Clifton Davis, of “Never Can Say Goodbye.” She was born in Newark, New Jersey. As she wrote in her autobiography, I Will Survive: “There was always music in our house,” which greatly influenced her decision to pursue a musical career. Her father played the ukulele and guitar and sang professionally in local nightclubs with a group called Step ‘n’ Fetchit. She also had five brothers who sang and formed a group with one of their friends. Gaynor began singing in a nightclub in Newark, having been recommended to a local band by a friend. After several years of club performing along the east coast, she began her recording career in 1971 after signing with Columbia Records.
Over the next few years and the release of two albums that did not fair that well, Glorious and Gloria Gaynor’s Park Avenue Sound, she climbed to the top of the pop charts with the 1978 release of Love Tracks, which featured her breakout hit, “I Will Survive.” The lyrics are written from the point of view of a woman recently dumped, telling her former lover that she can make it on her own. The song eventually became an anthem of female emancipation. The song earned her a Grammy Award for Best Disco Recording. The song was unique for the time, as it did not have lush production and background singers, which was the norm in those days. Her follow up album, I Have a Right (1979), contained her second disco hit, “Let Me Know (I Have a Right),” which happened to feature Doc Severinsen (The Johnny Carson Show) playing a trumpet solo. Also in 1979, Gaynor recorded another disco song, “Love is Just a Heartbeat Away,” for the cult vampire film, Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula, a movie that featured a number of disco hits, so I’ve been told!
Once again, I am relying on PMJ and the very talented, Sara Niemietz (who I recently featured in DUTC#87), for the cover version of this song. To be honest, I had not been thinking about Gloria Gaynor or her celebrated disco anthem until I heard this cover version, which really surprised me. As I have mentioned previously, I was not the biggest disco fan back in the day, but hearing this song turned into a Vintage ‘40s Jazz/Latin Ballroom Style cover. . . well, it was just too good to pass on. The crowning touch was the Latin ballroom dance break provided by Liora Paniz, and Jose Valencia. Niemietz is enjoying a very diverse career in the entertainment field, following in the footsteps of several women who have been, and continue to be, successful singers, songwriters, and actresses – Dolly Parton and Lady Gaga come to mind. She got an early start. She first appeared on stage at 4 at a BJ Thomas concert. As the story goes, Thomas helped her up onto the stage and was blown away at how comfortable and at ease she was singing “Hooked on a Feeling” in front of the audience. Thomas can be heard saying in the background: “I can’t believe she knows the words,” and then he repeats an inaudible comment from the audience, “… she knows all my songs?” The even better part of this story is that she reunited with Thomas in 2012 and recorded “Hooked on a Feeling” for Thomas’ album, The Living Room Sessions (2013). To date, on the music side of things, she has released two studio albums, five EPs, two live albums, and has appeared on 21 compilation albums, over and above her continuing work on stage, on television and in movies.
Enjoy!
Gloria Gaynor. “I will Survive” 1978.
PMJ featuring Sara Niemietz. “I Will Survive.” Vintage ‘40s Jazz/Latin Ballroom Style cover 2016.
And since I mentioned it, here is Niemietz and Thomas’ live performance of “Hooked on a Feeling” 2012.
Los Angeles 2024
Sara has an incredible voice. Thanks for adding that bonus clip with BJ Thomas, I would like to see a clip of when she was four! Total respect for Gloria’s talent.
She sure does. Check you email!
Being a huge Disco fan, I loved Gloria Gaynor’s early music, and in fact, bought her first two albums Never Can Say Goodbye and Experience, both of which were released in 1975. I really like “I Will Survive”, of course, though I don’t actually consider it a true Disco song, but rather a pop/R&B song that happens to have a dance beat. The PMJ cover, featuring Sara Niemietz, is pretty cool. Her duet of “Hooked on a Feeling” by B.J. Thomas is great too.
I agree that it is really not a true “disco” song, but the whole system of categorizing songs into so-called “genres” is pretty messed up as far as I’m concerned, but I will spare you the full rant🤗!
While for a rock music fan like myself it’s perhaps not as common, I like a good deal of disco music, including Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” Sara Niemietz’s vintage jazz rendition really takes this song in a completely new direction – pretty cool!
I Will Survive is such an anthem, whatever musical genre it’s supposed to be in. But I absolutely hated the PMJ cover, surprisingly, as I am usually such a fan of everything they do. It felt self-conscious and over-the-top. The song is perfect as it is, and suffers from a jazzy interpretation IMHO! And BJ Thomas? Sappiness incarnate, but in a good way! They were clearly having such a good time!