Someone should pin a medal on Giorgio Moroder, for this song alone.
How many… special moments have been enhanced, furthered, , accentuated or even made possible by “I Feel Love?” Gulping down some water in front of the fridge this afternoon, I realized that… the most exciting of exciting times have coincided with the 1978 Moroder/Summer classic thump-thump-thumping on the player twice, recently.
There’s an awful lot of songs on my MP3 player.
“I Feel Love” was a huge hit for Donna Summer, singer of another bedtime lullaby, 1975’s “Love To Love You Baby.” But apart from delivering perfect, iconic vocals in one take, Summer had nothing to do with the song. The music and arrangement was created by disco impresarios Moroder (“Love To Love You Baby”) and Pete Bellotte. The latter came up with the rather limited number of words in the lyrics. Instead of using an orchestra, guitar, bass, etc., Moroder learned to operate a borrowed Moog and basically wrote the music on the synthesizer, with the only organic instrument being a kick drum performed by Keith Forsey – who later had great success as a producer (most notably, Billy Idol) and songwriter (“What A Feeling,” “Don’t You (Forget About Me”).
As for Giorgio Moroder… the man’s list of highly influential and iconic works is incredible. “I Feel Love,” however, has to be my pick for “Most Notable.” A key inspiration for synth-pop, electronica, rave music, etc etc etc.
And damn, if “I Feel Love” doesn’t have the perfect BPM. Sure, it’s a huge club hit, a gym workout standard… but you know that these Italian guys were thinking of something else entirely as they were putting it together. And profuse thanks to the late, great producer Patrick Crowley and his 15-minute-plus remix, which is a must-have. Crowley turned one extraordinary moment into two or three; a force multiplier, if you will.
