"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor

Written by: Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris
Recorded and mixed: August 1978, Mom & Pop's Co. Store, Studio City, CA
Length: 3:18 (single), 8:10 (album)
Takes: 4

Produced and mixed by Dino Fekaris
Engineer: Jack Rouben
Arranged by Freddie Perren and Dave Blumberg

Musicians:

Gloria Gaynor: lead vocals
Melvin Ragin: guitar (as "Wah Wah" Watson)
Bob "Boogie" Bowles: guitar
Freddie Perren: piano
Scott Edwards: bass
James Gadson: drums
unknown: strings


Releases:

Polydor PD 14508 (October 23, 1978: b-side "Substitute")

Highest chart position: #1 (US: two weeks beginning March 10, 1979 and also one week on April 7, 1979; Dance: three weeks beginning January 27, 1979, UK: three weeks beginning March 17, 1979); #4 R&B

History:

When Gloria Gaynor laid down the vocals for her signature hit in late 1978, she was indeed in a crisis, but it wasn't a romantic one. She'd been one of the first female vocalists in the burgeoning disco genre, scoring one of the earliest hits in the style with her version of the Jackson 5's"Never Can Say Goodbye"; indeed, she was crowned "The Queen of Disco" by the New York borough of Queens in a nightclub ceremony soon after. But followup hits were hard to come by, and Donna Summer had meantime ridden a couple of European "orgasm records" to fantastic success. Disco, which had been a black, gay, coastal trend at the time of "Never Can Say Goodbye," had become a bonafide cultural phenomenon throughout America thanks to the movie Saturday Night Fever.

It's not exaggeration to describe this song as Gaynor's last shot at lasting fame. Worse, she was attempting the comeback just months after a horrific stage fall that left her with a severe spinal injury.

Meanwhile, Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris were struggling with their own career crisis. As songwriters, they had been part of The Corporation, the Motown collective that had written all of the Jackson 5's early hits. Like so many in Berry Gordy's stable, however, they had chafed at Berry's notorious stinginess and excessive control, and in 1975 they lit out to write and produce their own hits. They eventually succeeded with "Shake Your Groove Thing" and "Reuinted," the comeback hits for minor '60s duo Peaches and Herb, but at the time they wrote "Survive," their fate was still very much up in the air. (For his part, Perren says the title came to him after he turned on his TV at just the right moment to see one of his songs featured in an old movie, and took it as a good omen for his songwriting career.) Some accounts have the song written before Gaynor came into the story; some remember the song being written to order in the studio.

The duo knew "I Will Survive" was a hit in waiting, or would be with the right female singer, and so when.the head of the Polydor label asked them to record a song for Gaynor, they insisted that their new tune be recorded for the b-side. This meant that both songs had to be cut at the same session, and it led to the spare arrangement for "Survive," which featured no backup singers and only a small string section for color. Gaynor, still wearing a back brace, came in and laid down her vocal, but only got four takes out before the pain forced her to go home. Fekaris spliced together her two best performances, layering one on top of the other.

It was the combination of that spare sound, Gaynor's vocal, and an unusual minor home key that drove home the idea of the song as a danceable ballad of grim determination, and when Studio 54's Richie Kaczor heard it as the b-side, he became the first DJ in America to recognize its potential. Before long, Top 40 jockeys all over America started to flip the single, and the anthem was well on its way toward moving its eventual two million copies. Easy to perform, easy to identify with, easy to love, "I Will Survive" became the default song for women struggling to find themselves again after a bad relationship. And while disco would soon flame out in an orgy of overexposure, Gaynor and her signature song only became more entrenched in pop music history, proving that the power of positive thinking works for just about any problem.

Trivia:

• The original a-side Polydor contracted for was called "Substitute," and it's not the Who song, but rather a tune first covered by the Righteous Brothers in 1975. A South African group called Clout had just scored a big hit all over Europe with their version, and America was sure to be next. Gaynor's "Substitute," however, didn't even make the Billboard Hot 100.
• Although it would become wildly popular with single women in bars, especially after karaoke became popular outside of Japan, the LGBT community wholeheartedly embraced "Survive" from day one and never let go, having never abandoned disco when Middle America did. The AIDS epidemic of the early '80s only reinforced the very real need for gays to have a survival anthem, and several gay groups and media outlets have named the song the #1 gay anthem of all time.
• For her part, Gaynor's Christian faith has only deepened over the years, and she's never tired of performing the song that ensured her lifelong fame. These days, however, she uses the song as an evangelical tool to spread the message of her religion, a move which has not always sat well with her gay fanbase. She's also co-written a book called We Will Survive, which details how the song has helped her fans through tough times.
• "I Will Survive" won the Best Disco Song Grammy in 1980, a category the notoriously out of touch organization had just gotten around to creating. Disco died in America at around the same time, leading to the category's demise the very next year. Gaynor remains the only person to have ever won the award.

Covered by: Cake, Johnny Mathis,Diana Ross, R.E.M., Celia Cruz, Selena, Pet Shop Boys, Shirley Bassey, Melanie, Billie Jo Spears, Snuff, Chantay Savage, Jemaine Clement and Kristin Chenoweth, Hermes House Band, The 49ers, Jimmy Somerville, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, The Puppini Sisters, Glee, Conan O'Brien