I feel love

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I Feel Love is a disco hit by Donna Summer from 1977. The song was produced by Giorgio Moroder . Due to its innovative production technology and its instrumental, which is produced exclusively with synthetic means, the song is considered a pioneering piece of electronic dance music and an important forerunner of house and techno music.

history

The song appeared on the 1976 recorded Donna Summer album I Remember Yesterday , on which different styles of past decades are run through. The song and the album were recorded at Moroders Musicland Studios in Munich.

With I Feel Love the draft of a futuristic title is presented, the musical content of which, apart from the vocals, is essentially carried by a synthesizer sequence. This made the title one of the first disco productions to be dominated by electronic instruments. While the album version lasts just under six minutes, the title was also released in an eight-minute maxi single version. Brian Eno recognized the innovative power of the title shortly after it was released. Other musicians such as Gabi Delgado-López and Jürgen Engler also stated that they were shaped in particular by the song's sequence.

After its release in June 1977, the title quickly developed into a club hit in the gay scene and finally reached number 1 in the English single charts. It was Donna Summer's only # 1 hit in the UK. In the USA the title took 6th place and was awarded a "Golden Record". In the Federal Republic of Germany I Feel Love reached number 3 in the single charts.

This title is known to television viewers in Germany as the background music for the trailer of the ARD's " Science Fiction " series, which was broadcast in loose succession on Saturday evenings from 1978 to 1981; A Saturn V rocket launch and images from pulp magazines were shown alternately .

Use of sequencer

Influenced by Krautrock and the Berlin School , Moroder wanted to produce a pioneering piece for I Remember Yesterday. The use of the sequencer had already been established by Tangerine Dream on the albums Phaedra (1974) and especially Rubycon (1975).

I Feel Love is essentially based on a bass line programmed by Robert Wedel ( Popol Vuh ). Wedel, a sound engineer, programmer and assistant to Eberhard Schoener , had used the same sequencer technology for Giorgio Moroder's album From Here to Eternity, also released in 1977 . Since Moroder did not have the appropriate technology, he was dependent on the Moog 3p synthesizer , which Schoener brought to Germany in 1969. Moroder later stated that he had no idea about the Moog 3p . Even if he had this, “he would not have been able to elicit a sound from the device.” He hired Wedel for this.

Eberhard Schoener explained that he and Wedel invented the type of sequencer and first used it on the 1977 Krautrock album Trance-formation . Schoener himself called the technology the "Black & Decker principle".

“We called it that after the advertisement in which the company name was pronounced at a breakneck, choppy rhythm. A sequencer was included with the Moog synthesizer. This sequencer made it possible to repeat very specific sequences of notes and thus create the Black & Decker effect. It took many tries before the computer sounds produced this rattle. We were nominated for the German Record Award because the Black & Decker principle was something completely new. "

- Eberhard Schoener

Annoyed that Wedel passed this concept on to Moroder, Schoener then led a legal battle against Moroder - but lost it due to his "inexperience".

Cover versions and remixes

There have been various remixes and cover versions of the title . Patrick Cowley had a club hit with a 15-minute remix in 1982, and in 1984 Bronski Beat released a version of the piece on their album The Age of Consent . The released single was recorded as a medley with Marc Almond in 1985 , consisting of the Donna Summer titles I Feel Love and Love to Love You Baby as well as John Leyton's Johnny Remember Me . She was in third place in the UK singles charts.

A single release with new remixes and new vocals by Donna Summer reached the English top 10 again in 1995.

The Blue Man Group covered the song together with the US-American synth pop band Venus Hum , the vocal part was done by their singer Annette Strean. This percussion and guitar heavy version appeared on the albums The Complex (2003) and How to be a Megastar (2008) and was also played live with the band on the accompanying tours .

The Red Hot Chili Peppers also played the song live several times during their By the Way World Tour (vocals by John Frusciante ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ US catalog number Casablanca 7056; the album reached number 18 in the album charts in the USA, cf. Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Albums 1955-1996 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1996, p. 757; in Great Britain the album reached number 2, cf. Ehnert, Günter (Ed.): Hit Records. British Chart LPs 1962-1986 . Hamburg: Taurus Press, 1987, p. 123
  2. ↑ For an assessment of the album cf. Robert Christgau in Rock Albums Of The 70s. A critical guide . New York City, New York: Da Capo Press Inc., 1981, p. 380
  3. ↑ a b c Bill Brewster: I feel love: Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder created the template for dance music as we know it. In: Mixmag . June 22, 2017, accessed May 1, 2020 .
  4. ^ Mirko Hecktor, Moritz von Uslar, Patti Smith, Andreas Neumeister: Mjunik Disco - from 1949 until today . Blumenbar Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-936738-47-6 .
  5. ^ Baumgärtel, Tilman: grinding. On the history and aesthetics of the loop . Kulturverlag Kadmos, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86599-271-0 , p. 315-328 .
  6. ^ Note in the booklet of the David Bowie CD "Sound and Vision", 1996
  7. ↑ Baumgärtel, Tilman: Education does not replace rhythm . In: the daily newspaper of July 12, 2002
  8. ^ Rüdiger Esch: Electri_City. Electronic music from Düsseldorf. Suhrkamp , Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-51846464-9 , p. 186.
  9. ↑ Charts and release dates on chartsurfer.de
  10. ^ Benjamin Genocchio: Exploring the Effects of Disco's Beat . In: New York Times, February 19, 2006
  11. ↑ Rice, Jo / Rice, Tim / Gambacini, Paul / Read, Mike: The Guinness Book Of The Hits Of The 70s . London: Guinness Superlatives Ltd., 1980, p. 164
  12. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1994, p. 581 - US Catalog Number: 884; the B-side of the single Can't We Just Sit Down was at number 20 in the R&B charts
  13. ^ White, Adam: The Billboard Book Of Gold And Platinum Records . 2nd revised edition, London: Omnibus Press, 1990, p. 226
  14. ↑ Ehnert, Günter (Ed.): Hit balance sheet. German chart singles 1956-1980 . Hamburg: Taurus Press, 1990, p. 199
  15. ↑ Ulrich Adelt: Krautrock. German Music in the Seventies. , University of Michigan Press, 2016, ISBN 0-472-05319-1 , p. 135.
    “Moroder first experimented with krautrock-oriented synthesizer sounds on his solo album 'Einzelgänger' (1975), an artistic and commercial failure. It is remarkable that he not only felt the necessity to experiment with synthesizer sounds reminiscent of Berlin School artists like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze but that these experiments would help him to develop a unique German Disco sound with Summer's 1977 hit 'I Feel Love'. "
  16. ↑ Tibor Kneif, Christian Kneisel: Where the herb grows. Rock in the Federal Republic. In: Rock in the 70s. Rowohlt, 1980, ISBN 3-499-17385-9 , p. 201.
  17. ↑ Rediscover SWR culture: Eberhard Schoener's Moog 3p synthesizer comes to the Deutsches Museum , May 17, 2019,
  18. ↑ a b Stefanie Schoener: Eberhard Schoener - There are no limits , Langen Müller Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 3-784-43237-9 , online excerpts .