How Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' Changed Pop Music Forever - Episode Artwork
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How Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' Changed Pop Music Forever

In this episode of the 500 Greatest Songs podcast, hosts Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield delve into Donna Summer's iconic track 'I Feel Love.' They explore its groundbreaking influenc...

How Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' Changed Pop Music Forever
How Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' Changed Pop Music Forever
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spk_0 This is an I Heart Podcast.
spk_0 The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky,
spk_0 went unsolved for years. Until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls
spk_0 came forward with a story.
spk_0 Merger, y'all better work the hell up.
spk_0 Bad things happens to good people in small towns.
spk_0 Listen to Graves County on the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
spk_0 And to binge the entire season, add free, subscribe to Laval for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
spk_0 I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of Heavyweight, and so I pointed the gun at him and
spk_0 said this isn't a joke. A man who robbed a bank when he was 14 years old, and a centenarian
spk_0 rediscoveres a love lost 80 years ago.
spk_0 How can a 101-year-old woman fall in love again?
spk_0 Listen to Heavyweight on the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
spk_0 Introducing IVF Disrupted, the Kind Body Story, a podcast about a company that promised to
spk_0 revolutionize fertility care. It grew like a tech startup. While Kind Body did help women start
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spk_0 Listen to IVF Disrupted, the Kind Body Story, on the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts,
spk_0 or wherever you get your podcasts.
spk_0 Hey, I'm Jay Chetty, host of the On Purpose Podcast. I had the incredible opportunity to sit
spk_0 down with the one, the only Cardi B.
spk_0 My marriage, I felt the love dying. I was crying every day. I felt in the deepest depression
spk_0 that I had ever had. This **** was not given to me. I worked my ass off for me.
spk_0 Listen to On Purpose with Jay Chetty on the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
spk_0 your podcasts. Sacred Scandal is back. The Hit True Crime Podcast that uncovers hidden truths
spk_0 and shattered faith. For 19 years, Elena Sada was a nun for the Legion of Christ.
spk_0 This season, she's telling her story. When I first joined the Legion of Christ, I felt chosen.
spk_0 I was 19 years old when Marcia Almasia, the leader of the Legionaries,
spk_0 took me in the eye and told me I had a calling.
spk_0 Surviving, meant hiding, escaping took courage, risking everything to tell her truth.
spk_0 Listen to Sacred Scandal, the many secrets of Marciaal Masio, on the I Heart radio app,
spk_0 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
spk_0 Welcome to 500 Greatest Songs, a podcast based on Rolling Stones,
spk_0 hugely popular, influential, and sometimes controversial list. I'm Brittany Spanos.
spk_0 And I'm Rob Sheffield. We're here to shed light on the greatest songs ever made and discover
spk_0 what makes them so great. This week, we're diving into Donna Summer, I Feel Love.
spk_0 Absolute classic, a perfect song. The song that's hard to turn off. It's like, it should be
spk_0 a 30-minute song actually. The song can always go longer. It can always go longer.
spk_0 And the way it feels like it's been going ever since it came out.
spk_0 So I feel love ranked at number 52 on the 2021 list and it jumped from number 411 on the 2004 list.
spk_0 And it is, I mean, just like my absolute favorite. I love Donna Summer's entire catalog.
spk_0 We could have listed basically all of her singles on the list. And I would have been like,
spk_0 that's not even enough. But I mean, I think this one obviously takes the cake.
spk_0 Totally. A transformative song. It's amazing that it never sounds dated.
spk_0 Yeah. Always sounds alien. It always sounds futuristic.
spk_0 Yeah. I mean, it pretty much invented dance music as we know it.
spk_0 You know, it invented so much of house and techno. And I mean, just the way that,
spk_0 of course, like George Emmeroder produced this song. I mean, using the music synthesizer and kind
spk_0 of doing that repetitive synth hook on there that really just was the foundation of so much of
spk_0 club music until now. Yeah. It was number one on Rolling Stones list of the 200 greatest dance
spk_0 songs ever. It's a song that definitely cuts history in half. There's before and after I feel
spk_0 love in terms of dance music. Yeah. I mean, very appropriately, it was the last song on Donna's
spk_0 album. I remember yesterday. And the theme of that album was each song represented a different
spk_0 decade. And of course, the song represented the future and what better song to represent that.
spk_0 I mean, it's a song that sounds just as fresh today as it did when it came out. You know, it's still
spk_0 sounds like there are so many songs and mixes and remixes of songs that are just trying to emulate
spk_0 what Meroder was doing with that beat. What Donna was doing with her vocals. I mean, it was such a
spk_0 kind of unique vocal for her in terms of sort of that euphoric kind of like head voice that she
spk_0 was going for instead of that like chesty deep R&B sound that comes with so much of disco prior to
spk_0 I feel love coming out. Yes. But just that it was so mechanical, it was so filled with synthesizer
spk_0 and just totally dependent on the synthesizer. There's a human drummer. Everything else is synthesizer.
spk_0 And it was so bold in terms of just using that as the basis of the music. Yeah. I love a story that
spk_0 David Bowie had told about Brian Enoe hearing the song when they were working in Berlin together.
spk_0 And Brian running in and playing and saying this is the sound of the future and predicting that
spk_0 this would be the sound of what we would hear in the clubs for decades to come. And it absolutely
spk_0 is. I mean, it's a song that every time I go out I hear it. It's constantly playing. It's
spk_0 always in the mix. It's hard to not play it and see everyone absolutely lose their minds on the
spk_0 dance floor. And it is very much the sound of what the platonic ideal of a club music is.
spk_0 Totally. Just that sort of synthesized pulse. So many different types of international music come
spk_0 together in this song. Donna Summer such an eclectic kind of singer with so many different kinds
spk_0 of tastes. And she winds up in Germany making this futuristic robot disco record. Yeah. I think
spk_0 she's obviously becoming more and more of that sort of legend and icon in terms of people really
spk_0 giving respect to her music. Obviously her songs have always been a part of popular music.
spk_0 Canon constantly used in movies and TV shows. I mean, like on drag race. I think they've used
spk_0 like every single Donna Summer song possible for a lip sync for your life challenge. You know,
spk_0 but I think Donna has a figure and Donna has like a true pop diva is getting more and more recognition
spk_0 with every year because I mean, she is so foundational to so much of pop music and so much of what
spk_0 makes a great a great hit a great song. She was so innovative in terms of just all the different
spk_0 things that she did. She didn't think of herself as a soul singer or an R&B singer. She was really
spk_0 into Broadway tunes. She was trained on operetta. She was combining that with the sort of gospel
spk_0 Belter tradition. Yeah, she had moved to Munich to star in hair, right? That was the the musical
spk_0 she had moved for. Yeah, I mean, there was so much. I mean, even just in the songs that of course
spk_0 are kind of more classically disco than give like bad girl and sound like MacArthur's Park. Like
spk_0 there's so much of like a rock vocalist in there too. Like there's all these kind of meeting points
spk_0 of genre in the way that she presented herself. Yeah, her first hit. Love to love you, baby. Yeah,
spk_0 that's a classic. That vocal on that. I mean, just her as a singer is just like completely insane.
spk_0 I mean, her range is incredible. I mean, that performance is just like unique, especially for that
spk_0 time of just like what a female singer could do on a song like that. Obviously, it was like very
spk_0 shocking to a lot of listeners to kind of have this like super erotic performance on a disco song
spk_0 and I mean, just like an absolute banger. Yeah, it wasn't the first like orgasm vocal record,
spk_0 but it was definitely took it to an extreme. Yeah. And just with that Euro disco aesthetic that was
spk_0 so new, it just seemed to stretch out forever. Yeah, what was your relationship with like disco
spk_0 in the 70s? Because I feel like there's such a generational difference for how people view disco
spk_0 now versus, you know, obviously there's like the disco demolition and all that stuff. But like,
spk_0 what was that kind of, I guess the coolness range of disco when you were growing up for you and
spk_0 for your peers? Disco is always massive. It was always hit music that had started out as,
spk_0 you know, a cult sort of dance style. It was always in the air. And with something like I feel
spk_0 love, there's a real advance from the sort of live band disco. I mean, the 70s were just full
spk_0 of disco hits. Yeah. I'm casing the sunshine band to disco texts and the sexilettes. Yeah.
spk_0 Yet there was something about I feel love. It was so stark and so cold. It doesn't sound like
spk_0 a band playing because it isn't a band playing. It's a surprising way that there's a human drummer on
spk_0 it. It was definitely something that the first time you hear it, you know it's something different.
spk_0 Yeah. And hearing it, I couldn't believe my ears at how alien it sounded. It didn't sound like
spk_0 any other pop music I'd ever heard. Yeah. There's something about it. I mean, even in terms of how
spk_0 there's so much like house and techno that emulates it and is so inspired by it. There's still
spk_0 nothing that kind of captures exactly what Donna and and and Georgio kind of where we're creating
spk_0 on this type of song. I mean, so unique in so many ways. There's kind of, there's still this
spk_0 like absolute warmness to it too. Like I find in her vocals, like even with all that cultness of
spk_0 the synths and just kind of the way that all that combines and builds up over the course of the song.
spk_0 Like there's something really beautiful about what that brings to a any sort of like communal setting
spk_0 where it's being played. Like it really is just kind of that perfect communal song to experience.
spk_0 It's really communal, I guess, is the word. And yet it so she sounds like she's floating in space
spk_0 in a way. Yeah. I've been fascinated so much by kind of like the last decade of this Donna
spk_0 Renaissance and sort of the I feel love Renaissance and disco Renaissance has been happening where there
spk_0 are so many like people really gravitating to basically all of Donna's discography. Any sort of big
spk_0 disco hit from that era and any song that kind of comes from this like family of what Donna and
spk_0 Georgio were creating during this era because there's so many like disco parties and so many disco
spk_0 nights that are happening and is really fascinating how much that's become so repopularized and so
spk_0 important to people lately. And I mean like I love it. Every time I see like there's a you know
spk_0 Donna Summerana party flyer. I'm like see you there. You can hear it's influenced just everywhere
spk_0 in pop music. Yeah. It's wild how many hits that she packed into her run in the late 70s. Yeah.
spk_0 Especially in 78, 79. She was really evolving musically really fast. Like you said she was going
spk_0 for more of a rock sound with something like bad girls. Yeah. I mean, and I mean she has a great
spk_0 duet with Barba Strider too. I mean like she's like kind of was she was doing so much of this disco
spk_0 and kind of showing off her that vocal range and kind of doing these like and we're standard kind of
spk_0 soulful duets and standards and things like that. But there was so much that she was kind of exploring
spk_0 in her music and a pretty like now seemingly short time of kind of that major hit period that she
spk_0 had in her career. Yeah. What's your favorite Donna Summer hit? I feel love is definitely this it was
spk_0 on my my ballot for the 500 greatest songs but I'm a huge fan of MacArthur Park like I love her
spk_0 cover of that song. Wow. I love it. I mean I think just like the the scream the like howl that she
spk_0 does is so I absolutely adore that like I think that that howl is like one of my favorite moments
spk_0 in like in a song ever. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I just like also that song is just so lyrically silly and I
spk_0 love it. Yeah. I think that that one's like a big one and bad girl probably would be another.
spk_0 Yes. The elemental tutu. Yeah. It's hard to step to that one. Dim all the lights. Yeah.
spk_0 It's a huge favorite of mine. I like the Donna Summer song so she begins with the ballot and then
spk_0 sort of kicks it in. I mean you mentioned MacArthur Park. Oh I love that one. Yeah. I just I love
spk_0 her vocals on that song. It's great. She is definitely going for that sort of witchy power. Yeah
spk_0 kind of that's you know sort of the vibe that I go for. Yeah. Yeah. And then all music is what's
spk_0 the most witchy a song that they have and that one for sure is the top one. Well I feel love
spk_0 teaming up with Georgioma Rotor and people lot. What was their influence on dance music? Yeah I mean
spk_0 so much of what we consider to be kind of great dance music Georgioma Rotor is so much a foundation
spk_0 of that and you know especially his partnerships with Donna like they kind of reinvented everything
spk_0 about the genre. I mean he was just like has like kind of that perfect sort of like Europop,
spk_0 Euro dance brain. Like so much of that is kind of what we would hear for the next several decades
spk_0 of of dance music like leading up especially kind of to the big boom of house music in the 90s.
spk_0 Like all that is so so much leaning on what Georgioma Rotor was was creating in the 70s.
spk_0 Yes such a sleek sound. Yeah. He worked with so many different types of artists. He made so
spk_0 many different kinds of records. One of my favorites is his David Bowie record Cat People from 1982
spk_0 version which is not as sleek and synthesized as Georgioma Rotor really usually comes off as but
spk_0 it's just a fantastic meeting of minds. Yeah I really love he did a version of Tom's Diner with
spk_0 Britney Spears like six or seven years ago. Great song. That sounds like a perfect storm of like
spk_0 stuff that you love. Yeah it's a it's a real fun one. But yeah it's a great combination. Yeah I
spk_0 think just kind of everything that I love about dance music that really slick melody and really
spk_0 really good sense of groove that Georgioma Rotor is so known for like that is everything that I
spk_0 I love about dance music and about kind of really great kind of club music and he's kind of he's
spk_0 very foundational to that. Absolutely. I love his blondie record so much. Yeah. Call me is such a
spk_0 banger. Yeah I mean I even think he'm just like how much he did on I feel love and how much
spk_0 I inspired so many artists like blondie and I know for this song like Kylie Manogue this is a big
spk_0 foundational song for musically. I mean there's so many artists that you kind of can pinpoint
spk_0 this particular song in this particular turning point musically for him and for Donna as a turning
spk_0 point for all these like artists who came after them. And just the idea of the synthesizer has not
spk_0 imitating another instrument but just the synthesizer in itself. It's well that this came out
spk_0 around the same time that craft work we're making. Yeah phenomenally innovative records in Germany.
spk_0 Yeah. I mean just kind of that I know there's like that sort of hypnotic nature of the song. It's
spk_0 just that kind of repetitiveness that doesn't grow tiring with it and it's kind of the way it builds
spk_0 up and keeps going and is again sort of that ideal of what you want from a really great kind of
spk_0 dance hit moment of creating that euphoria, creating that kind of like hypnotic moment of a kind
spk_0 of like really new and and I just like love the way that builds up and that's why I love like I
spk_0 the eight minute version of the song. It's just like really like I like it's really hard for me to
spk_0 listen to the like three or five minute versions because I really need the eight minute version is
spk_0 exactly as long as it's to me. That's what I guess that's part of the reason it works so well
spk_0 always on the radio or on the floor that you can fade it in, fade it out because it is so repetitive
spk_0 and because it is structured like a classical song. Yeah it's really it's kind of hard to turn off
spk_0 the song out only one time. It's like it's a real like I got a played on loop for a good couple
spk_0 hours and never want to be cut short when you hear it at like the club or something. Yeah it's
spk_0 impact on the Detroit techno sound. Yeah especially free filming. I feel love went everywhere and
spk_0 traveled everywhere in pop music. It's wild how much the sound of Detroit techno which is my favorite
spk_0 style of house. It was built so much on just that little I feel love synthesizer rhythm. Even just
spk_0 like yeah like everything that would come for the next day especially like specifically two decades
spk_0 after this song like leading in from like the Detroit techno into like Chicago House scene like
spk_0 just hearing this song be sort of replicated so much over the course of those two decades is like
spk_0 pretty insane how how much it kind of shifted like everything of what yeah people thought you could
spk_0 make from from a synthesizer and what could sound like. Yes all the English new wave groups like
spk_0 wanted to do it Durandoran began their career with the single planet earth which basically begins with
spk_0 that I feel love beat they worked with him on their last album it's still a fruitful partnership
spk_0 after all these years. Yeah I was also like I was shocked to I read a quote from the inventor of the
spk_0 MOOC synthesizer whose name I believe is Robert MOOG. MOOG. MOOG. Yes and he was very critical of the
spk_0 repetitive nature of that synth hook that Marauder uses on it like he was really he didn't like it
spk_0 which I'm really shocked that he wouldn't he wouldn't like the way this came out which is you know
spk_0 kind of this like really intoxicating song that exists and completely reinvented the use of it.
spk_0 Yeah but like it listened to something like that next to something like James Brown and it's clear
spk_0 that this is a real break with that sort of funk sound. The fact that it was with the human
spk_0 drummers always a little weird because it sounds so much like a drum machine it's key forci who
spk_0 is the producer did all those Billy Eidel hits in the 80s his most famous production is don't you
spk_0 forget about me. Oh wow. Simple man's but it's wild to even think that he was sort of the ghost
spk_0 in the machine for this song. Yeah I mean it's like I think especially with thinking about how
spk_0 like the longevity of the song and sort of the way that it's continued into this era of pop music.
spk_0 I feel love it's still really the standard of that sort of obsessive hypnotic as you said
spk_0 sort of sound that dance music still aspires to. Yeah so like I feel like I'm thinking so much
spk_0 with that sort of disco comeback of like 2020 2021 and hearing like Doja Cat on say so and
spk_0 like hallucinate by Deweleepa and songs from that kind of resurgence of disco like hearing
spk_0 artists emulate so much of like Donna Samar and so much of those like great disco vocalists and
spk_0 also that hypnotic nature of really great disco music in a song like I feel love I love kind of
spk_0 hear that hearing that come back and inspire so much. Yeah and a couple years later just two years
spk_0 after I feel love she's got bad girls which is a totally different kind of sound. I feel love
spk_0 such an innovative record. Yeah. I mean love to love you baby is one thing because there's a
spk_0 great tradition of dance records where it's just people moaning and groaning and ecstasy that's
spk_0 that goes way back before disco and for Donna Samar to make that her debut hit seemingly would
spk_0 have stereotyped her in that sort of direction but I feel love it's not a very difficult kind of record.
spk_0 Nobody's moaning or groaning she's sounding really kind of robotic. Yeah I mean it's just like
spk_0 so completely out of I think what anyone sort of anticipated she would follow that type of song with.
spk_0 They're so kind of continue with what she would do with her career and I mean I think allowed so
spk_0 much of what she's able to explore on her albums after that and be able to try new things and explore
spk_0 kind of that go back to that theater side try the rock side kind of do the the standards and things
spk_0 like that that she would continue doing for for the rest of her singing career. What do you sort of
spk_0 see happening with sort of Donna Samar's legacy and I feel love in the coming years like well the
spk_0 song shoot up in the next like version of this of this list will it kind of maybe crack the top
spk_0 10 15 or 20 well it's well that it never sounds dated it never has a quaint sort of quality I guess
spk_0 because it's so cold and sleek and hard and metallic it's very strange how it never does sound
spk_0 dusty or outdated in a way that so many records from that period have a very much a time capsule
spk_0 quality that's part of what's great about them but I feel love at the time and now very much
spk_0 almost disconnected from well it's not disconnected from disco but it's it's a record that stands
spk_0 out and just sort of stands out as beyond time. Yeah I feel like with each growing obviously this
spk_0 it jumped up a lot from the original list like I can very much see this song because it is so
spk_0 foundational to so much of dance music and so many genres that continue to kind of grow with
spk_0 popularity and kind of remain popular over over the years like I feel like I could see the song
spk_0 kind of jumping up on the next vote because it seems still so so relevant to everything that people
spk_0 love about really great pop music and dance music and just a really great song.
spk_0 All I know is what I've been told and that's a half truth is a whole lie.
spk_0 For almost a decade the murder of an 18 year old girl from a small town in Graves County,
spk_0 Kentucky went unsolved until a local homemaker, a journalist and a handful of girls came forward
spk_0 with a story. I'm telling you we know Quincy, know that we know. A story that law enforcement used
spk_0 to convict six people and that got the citizen investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence
spk_0 and nerve this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Kerr. My name is Maggie Freeling.
spk_0 I'm a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, producer and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy
spk_0 to find. I did not know her and I did not kill her or rape or burn or any of that other stuff that
spk_0 y'all said. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made
spk_0 me say that I poured gas on her. From Lava for Good, this is Graves County. A show about just how far
spk_0 our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame. Merger, y'all better work the hell up.
spk_0 Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley
spk_0 Feed on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge
spk_0 the entire season at free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
spk_0 I'm Jonathan Goldstein and on the new season of Heavyweight, I help a centenarian mend a broken heart.
spk_0 How can a 101 year old woman fall in love again? And I help a man atone for an armed robbery he
spk_0 committed at 14 years old. And so I pointed the gun at him and said this isn't a joke. And he
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spk_0 Not always hide behind a microphone. Listen to Heavyweight on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts
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spk_0 Listen to IVF disrupted the Kind Body story. Starting September 19th on the I Heart Radio
spk_0 app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey I'm Jay Chetty host of the on-purpose
spk_0 podcast. I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with the one the only Cardi B.
spk_0 My marriage, I felt the love dying. I was crying every day. I felt in the deepest depression
spk_0 that I had ever had. How do you think you misunderstood? I'm not this evil mean person that people
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spk_0 Put so much heart and soul into your work. What's the hardest part for you to take that criticism?
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spk_0 I'm gonna beat the best pole dancer in here. When was the moment you felt? I did it.
spk_0 I still took this day. Don't feel comfortable. I fight every day to keep this level of success
spk_0 because people want it. Take it from you. So bad. Listen to on purpose with Jay Chetty on the I Heart
spk_0 Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. At 19, Elena Sada believed she
spk_0 had found her calling. In the new season of Sacred Scandal, we pull back the curtain on a live
spk_0 built on devotion and deception. Amen of God, Martial Masiel, Luke the Lena in the eye and promise her
spk_0 a life of purpose within the Legion of Christ. My name is Elena Sada and this is my story.
spk_0 Is a story of how I learned to hide, to cry, to survive and eventually how I got out?
spk_0 This season on Sacred Scandal, hear the full story from the woman who lived it.
spk_0 Witness the journey from the vowed follower to the terming survivor as Elena exposes the man
spk_0 behind the cloth and the system that protected him. Even the darkest secrets eventually find their
spk_0 way to the light. Listen to Sacred Scandal, the mini secrets of Martial Masiel as part of the
spk_0 story. We are joined now by singer songwriter Bruce Udonno who is also the husband of the late
spk_0 great Donna Summer. Thank you so so much for joining us today. Hey Rob, hey Brittany, nice to be here.
spk_0 We really appreciate you joining us and I mean especially talking about this really great song
spk_0 that's on our five greatest songs list but also to talk to someone who I've read is the inspiration
spk_0 behind I Feel Love and I'm curious if you remember a little bit about hearing about those songwriting
spk_0 sessions that Donna had and kind of what led to to the song. I don't know about the validity of it
spk_0 being a song inspired by me but it did happen at a time when Donna and I had just met. We met in March
spk_0 of 1977 in Los Angeles. That was right around the time that she was recording the I remember yesterday
spk_0 album. I was in a group called Brooklyn Dreams and we had recently got signed through a label in
spk_0 New York called Millennium Records and we were recording our first album out in Irvine,
spk_0 California. On that first album Donna came out and sang on our album. We conversely sang on the
spk_0 I Remember Yesterday and this was the same album that I Feel Love was on and the I Remember yesterday
spk_0 album was kind of like you know Georgi O'Peat and Donna liked to do conceptual albums and I
spk_0 remember yesterday was kind of recollection of music through time and when they got to the future
spk_0 it was like what was the future going to be and this was at the beginning of synthesizers 1977
spk_0 and Georgi O'Peat together this track which was at the time was like what's that how cool
spk_0 but Pete and Donna got together and started working on the lyric for I Feel Love which was the
spk_0 song of to be of the future. You know I remember Donna telling me that you know they kept writing all
spk_0 these lyrics and at some point she just was like no this song has to be really really simple. It
spk_0 has to float over the track and it can't be a lot of words and so basically wrote the very beautiful
spk_0 but simple lines that became I Feel Love. It was exactly the right call because the way the melody
spk_0 and the simplicity of it but the potency of the message at the same time so it was both modern
spk_0 and forwards thinking and it had a sensuality to it and it became the godmother of EDM you know so.
spk_0 What do you recall of the song blowing up and kind of hearing that song begin to spread and you
spk_0 know sort of seeing it become popular at that time. You know at the time you know Donna kept having
spk_0 these songs that were started as ballads and then kick off into a dance song. I know that
spk_0 she and the record company wanted to have a song that was a ballad as a hit. So there was this
spk_0 song called can't we just sit down and talk it over which was also on the I remember yesterday
spk_0 record and that went out as the single and in those days there was an A side and a B side and
spk_0 I Feel Love was on the B side. So the stations went out the the the ball was the was the one that
spk_0 was supposed to play and a couple of weeks went by and the ballad was doing okay but it was kind
spk_0 of like just like lumbering along and then all of a sudden you know it got slipped over and I feel
spk_0 love just took on a life of its own you know and cast the blanker records it was an in a moment label
spk_0 you know headed by Neil Bogart but with a lean mean staff you know who were all creative and
spk_0 from the motion department to the marketing department to the art department I mean if you look
spk_0 at all Donna's album covers you know that they were really you know special each individual in
spk_0 their own way but anyway so quickly they realized that I feel love was moving and in a moment they
spk_0 jumped on it and it started flying and what do you recall of what Donna was like behind the scenes
spk_0 especially as someone who worked with her on this album and also then was beginning a relationship
spk_0 with her you know what what was sort of motivating her and driving her at that time Donna was a super
spk_0 creative person and she had a lot of energy and she was very positive and funny and felt that she
spk_0 was called to her career and she took it seriously and respected the gifts that she was given and worked
spk_0 very hard along with a team of a lot of people to create the career that she had but she was also a
spk_0 very complete person and we got married in 1980 we were married for 32 years until she passed away
spk_0 we raised three daughters I have nine grandchildren it was like not only a successful career but more
spk_0 importantly was to have a successful life so you know we navigated the balance of being super creative
spk_0 and having a great team you know like Georgian world of Pete Belady how are Fulta Meyer
spk_0 cast a blanket new ball guard all these people there's a certain chemistry that happens when magic
spk_0 happens that you know you can you can conceptually try to put a team together that you think it's
spk_0 gonna happen but when it happens it's really magic and things take on a life of their own and
spk_0 you just basically are along for the ride and try to stay out of the way what is the innovation
spk_0 and inspiration come from well this is you know you're dealing with super talented people and like I
spk_0 said earlier I remember yesterday was dealing in different genres of music over time and and I
spk_0 feel love was essentially in a way Georgio marauders musical take on maybe what the future would be
spk_0 Donna and Georgio and Pete were always wanting to push the envelope they they were not people that
spk_0 were in complacent in in doing what they had just done it's you know Donna was always excited about
spk_0 what's next and what's a new gadget we can incorporate and this was how their minds work so synthesizers
spk_0 were coming into play for the first time 1977 you know there was craft work doing things and it's
spk_0 interesting because a very underrated member of this team in my estimation is Jorgen coppers who
spk_0 was the engineer who engineered Donna's records from love to love you baby to four seasons of love
spk_0 and once upon a time and and then I remember yesterday bad girls and those records sounded as great
spk_0 as they sounded you know because Jorgen was so great and people don't mention him but as it
spk_0 applies to I feel love he was the one that put the slapback delay on that baseline that gave it that
spk_0 did a did a bouncing deal so you know inspired of what would the future be finding a melody that would
spk_0 float in it and work and a message that has a sensuality and a meaning to it so it's combination of
spk_0 greatness you know the the ability of the record company to adapt in the moment of you know it's
spk_0 the beside let's go let's with shifting gears now boom I'll bring it home and for many years last
spk_0 dance was a Donna's biggest song then she works hard for the money was what was a big song and
spk_0 MacArthur Park and I mean there's all these big songs but I feel love is the one that as I sit
spk_0 with the catalog is the one that continues to grow and it's power and it's importance you know
spk_0 has just did an interpolation I mean there's ongoing things you know as many stories of I feel
spk_0 love but it's the one that has continued to grow exponentially over time you talk about her as
spk_0 the godmother of EDM but in so many ways she and this record seemed like they basically invented
spk_0 modern pop it's an interesting evolution in the early days it was hard to get air play
spk_0 radio stations did not want to play disco music dance music was like not cool you know and I always
spk_0 struggled with the concept because I come out of folk music and rock music in the 60s and all that
spk_0 but I was never a snob there were corny things in dance music for sure but there was always things
spk_0 with great musicality great horn arrangements great string of main arrangements great rhythm
spk_0 arrangements all things musically working together in a very great and powerful way so
spk_0 there was great musicality in a lot of those records and that moment peaked and then it became
spk_0 I feel love and that became what dance music transitioned from because you know you had
spk_0 McArthur Park and you had last dance and these beautiful arrangements but dance music shifted
spk_0 right at that moment and you're saying pop music and you know then dance music became what radio
spk_0 was about so you know maybe it was I feel love that cracked the egg in that moment and created the
spk_0 transition from what pop radio was into what it was becoming there's been an countless number of
spk_0 albums that artists have released that are directly referencing not just I feel love but directly
spk_0 referencing Donna's discography and Donna has sort of this mother of disco and what has it been like
spk_0 for you and your family to kind of hear the longevity and influence and impact of her singing style
spk_0 of her music of her musicality of her creativity and of this very future forward thinking that she had
spk_0 with her with her songs that she released for us it's gratifying and in the sense bitter sweet
spk_0 you know because for all Donna's success there was always an underlying struggle for the recognition
spk_0 that she honestly deserved she had an amazing gift and not only is a single bit as a songwriter
spk_0 you know her sense of fashion you know there were so many pictures I've started collecting them now
spk_0 because I've forgotten you know all the different looks and all of that you know so when I see them
spk_0 online now I'm like making a file it's you know but she just influenced the culture in so many ways
spk_0 and you know these things take time because it takes a while for for history and time to go buy
spk_0 for people to look back and go like oh wow this defined the decade yeah thank you so much for
spk_0 joining us today we really really appreciate it happy to be here you are amazing thank you so much
spk_0 thanks Rob thanks for it me John thanks so much for listening to Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Songs
spk_0 this podcast is brought to you by Rolling Stone in iHeart Media Ryn and hosted by me
spk_0 Britney Spannos and Rob Sheffield executive produced by Gus Wenner Jason Fine Alex Dale and
spk_0 Christian Horde and produced by Jesse Cannon with Music Supervision by Eric Seiler
spk_0 the murder of an 18 year old girl in Graves County Kentucky went unsolved for years
spk_0 until a local housewife a journalist and a handful of girls came forward with a story
spk_0 murder y'all better work the hell up bad things happens to good people in small towns
spk_0 listen to Graves County on the iHeart Radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your
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spk_0 i'm Jonathan Goldstein and on the new season of heavyweight and so I uh pointed the gun at him and
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spk_0 iHeart Radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts introducing iVF disrupted the
spk_0 kind body story a podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility care
spk_0 it grew like a tech startup while kind body did help women start families it also left behind
spk_0 a stream of disillusioned and angry patients you think you're finally like in the right hands
spk_0 you're just not listen to iVF disrupted the kind body story on the iHeart Radio app apple podcasts
spk_0 or wherever you get your podcasts hey i'm Jay Chetty host of the on purpose podcast i had the
spk_0 incredible opportunity to sit down with the one the only caribee my marriage i felt the love dying
spk_0 i was crying every day i felt in the deepest depression that i had ever had this was not given to me
spk_0 i worked my ass off for me listen to on purpose with Jay Chetty on the iHeart Radio app apple podcast
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spk_0 uncovers hidden truths and shattered faith for 19 years alayna sada was a nun for the legion of
spk_0 christ this season she's telling her story when i first joined the legion of christ i felt chosen
spk_0 i was 19 years old when marcia and mace the leader of the legionaries
spk_0 surviving meant hiding escaping took courage risking everything to tell her truth
spk_0 listen to sacred scandal the many secrets of marcia al mace on the iHeart Radio app apple podcasts
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