Day 232 Donna Summer – I Remember Yesterday

I’ve had a little hankering for some Giorgio Moroder recently. I saw a video of David Bowie talking about how he was in Berlin with Brian Eno and Eno ran into the room yelling “I HAVE HEARD THE FUTURE!” To which Bowie responded, "Well, you better put it on then." It was Giorgio Moroder’s recording of “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer. Problem solved, I’m listening to that today.

Album cover courtesy of Casablanca Records

Donna Summer was a singer and songwriter from Boston who later got dubbed the Queen of Disco for her iconic output that helped define the genre. She got her start in music when she got cast in the musical Hair that was going to run in Munich. She learned German and stayed there, performing in various musicals and working as a backing singer when she met producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte.

Moroder signed her to his label and they released her debut, Lady of the Night, in 1974. While it was somewhat successful in Europe, it wasn’t a breakthrough for her. That happened when she and Moroder sniffed out how big disco was becoming on European dancefloors, and the pair made the now-iconic "Love to Love You Baby", which became a huge hit.

Her fifth album, I Remember Yesterday, was released as a concept album about the passage of time where most of the songs are about the past but the closing song, “I Feel Love”, was made to represent the future. The album was written by Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte and produced by Moroder and Bellotte.

The album relies less on her sex appeal than her previous work, which was apparently something she struggled with – she was a churchgoer, so becoming known for her breathy, sexy style of singing from “Love to Love You Baby” was an uneasy experience for her. She said, "I didn't want to hear it. I heard a couple of oohs and aahs once and I – black people don't get red – I was blue! I love the music, I just wished that I hadn't sung it. But it doesn't bother me anymore … I have so much more to offer.”

And that she does. Stripping away the sex appeal and going on her professional merits, she’s just as magnetic as she is on her raunchier tracks. I try not to look at what other people have said about albums or how they’ve ranked them before I rank it myself, but I was shocked to see how mid the critical response was to I Remember Yesterday. I think it’s excellent, brimming with personality and with that hypnotic quality that’s probably offered by Moroder.

Starting with the opening titular track with its jaunty sound and horns that sound simultaneously both very out of place and intoxicating, you know you’re in for something special. And the closing track, “I Feel Love”, is probably still the future. In the middle, it’s refreshingly clearly built to be listened to as an album from top to bottom, with an overarching concept and songs that bleed effortlessly together. It’s just very much a bop with a fun concept, none of the songs are cookie-cutter bog standard tunes, it’s all just a little bit unique.

I find myself wondering how much good stuff they had in 1977 for this not to be making a splash. A review at the time said  “This album lacks any real sense of direction. A fine voice is going to waste.” Critics from the pre-poptimist era can be such haters. Or maybe I’m wrong, but if loving this is wrong, I absolutely don’t want to be right. Unironically, I think maybe it was just a bit ahead of its time. 9/10.