Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive!"

When I think of the 70’s, I have to say that one genre of music really made a huge impact on me. Yes, I’m going to say it….are you ready? DISCO! There, I said it and I’m proud of it!

Gloria Gaynor took Disco to a whole other level when she released her Album, Love Tracks in 1978 with her song "I Will Survive". The lyrics of this song are written from the point of view of a woman, recently dumped, telling her former boyfriend that she can cope without him and doesn’t want anything more to do with him. The song has become something of an anthem and is still a staple of office parties and karaoke nights.

Interestingly, "I Will Survive" was originally the B-side of a song called "Substitute", when a Boston Disco Radio DJ, Jack King, turned the record over and recalls being stunned by what he heard. "I couldn't believe they were burying this monster hit on the B-side", says King. "I played it and played it and my listeners went nuts." This audience response forced the record company to flip the songs, so that subsequent copies of the single listed the more popular song on the A-side.

By the way, this video was a promotional video filmed in 1979 at the New York discothèque called Xenon. Sheila Reid-Pender of Harlem, NY is the featured skater in this video from the skating group, The Village Wizards.

For me, here’s the most interesting thing about Gloria Gaynor.

In 1982, having looked into a wide variety of faiths and religious movements, she became a Christian and began to distance herself from a past she considered to be sinful.

In 1983, she released an album entitled Gloria Gaynor . The album contained a new version of "I Will Survive". In this new version of "I Will Survive", she changed the lyrics of the song in order to advertise her new conversion to Christianity. The words "It took all the strength I had not to fall apart" were changed to "Only the Lord could give me strength not to fall apart".

Just listening to this song, makes me want to go to the local skating rink, turn on the Disco lights with the Disco Ball and skate till I get blisters! Oh what fun!