Donna Summer, I Feel Love | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 105th edition of Throwback Vibez (2024), we recollect and reflect on “I Feel Love” by the late, great Donna Summer.   

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 105^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2024), we recollect and reflect on “I Feel Love” performed by Donna Summer.

“Ooh, it’s so good, it’s so good / It’s so good, it’s so good, it’s so good.” Agreed, Donna Summer! “I Feel Love”, the closing track on I Remember Yesterday, is SO GOOD.  The late Queen of Disco was an icon, and “I Feel Love” is a prime example of why. Even so, before Summer sings one “ooh,” the instrumental is iconic too.  Summer penned this top-10 hit alongside producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte.  Moroder and Bellotte outdo themselves. “I Feel Love” begins enigmatically and softly. It crescendos into an ultra-groovy, electronic-driven disco cut. The rhythmic synths are insane. Reflecting on the music, it sounds ‘ahead of its time.’ Would  “I Feel Love” sound anachronistic in the 2020s? I don’t believe so.

Backed by such a scintillating instrumental, Donna Summer shines.  The lyrics are few. She keeps it simple, but the execution – the way she sings – is brilliant.  Continuing to “feel love” in the second verse, she sings, “Ooh, fallin’ free, fallin’ free /… Ooh, you and me, you and me…” The third verse is similar, all experiencing love.  To reiterate, “I Feel Love” was a top-10 hit – one of 14 top-10 hits by Summer.  It peaked at no. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the RIAA.  The word ‘vibe’ is used to characterize modern songs, many of which use less of a conventional form and fewer lyrics. “I Feel Love” is a prime example of a ‘vibe’ from the 1970s that remains fresh approaching 50 years later.

Donna Summer // I Remember Yesterday // The Island Def Jam Music Group // 1977

Donna Summer, I Feel Love: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 105 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; OpenClipart-Vectors, Speedy McVroom from Pixabay]