THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: I Feel Love

From my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

DONNA SUMMER: I Feel Love
Written by Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, and Pete Bellotte
Produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte
Single from the album I Remember Yesterday, Casablanca Records, 1977

1977 had the potential to be a year of musical revolution. For most, that refers to punk, to the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Clash. Maybe we're not thinking as much about disco, and maybe that's fair. But if we want to consider the possibilities of pop music's revolution in '77, our discussions of "God Save The Queen," "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker," and "White Riot" had better allow some room on the dancefloor for "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer.

In the late seventies, disco and punk were supposed to be at war with each other. As a self-professed punk rocker in that era, I can attest that, yeah, punks didn't like disco, and the bumpin'-n-hustlin' set was appalled by the loud and fast noise my people favored. Hatfields and Capulets, meet McCoys and Montagues. Never mind the fact that the mainstream rock crowd held both punk and disco in nearly equal disdain; this was war!

Except that it wasn't. I'm skeptical of the notion that many of the Saturday Night Fevered ever took much interest in the Damned or the Dead Boys, but a few among the new wave brigade did eventually allow their ears and minds to be a bit more open to non-pogo dance music, to the beat of dat ole debbil disco. I was a pop fan anyway; my intense dislike of disco music evolved into occasional tolerance, and tolerance evolved into a sporadic realization that some of the records weren't bad. We'll return to this subject of reassessing disco later.

Plus: Donna Summer! Donna Summer was gorgeous. I feel love.

Donna Summers's first hit, "Love to Love You Baby," was basically an extended orgasm set to a disco beat. "I Feel Love" is more interesting; still shimmering and sexy—in ’78, Donna Summer could have covered the Singing Nun and still been shimmering and sexy—but its European syncopation makes it even sexier, if not quite as sweaty. Or perhaps not as obviously sweaty.

In 1977, Brian Eno told Bowie that Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" was the sound of the future. In that revolutionary year, a year of important releases by the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, and Television, Eno was still probably right. An amazing single.

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