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Gloria Gaynor | |
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Gaynor performing in 2003 |
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Background information | |
Also known as | Queen of Disco |
Born | September 7, 1949 |
Origin | Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
Genres | Dance-pop, disco, R&B |
Occupations | Singer-songwriter, actress |
Instruments | Vocals |
Years active | 1965–present |
Labels | MGM (1965–76) Polydor (1976–83) Chrysalis (1984–85) Stylus (1986–88) Hot Productions (1996–97) Logic (2000–04) Radikal (2005–Present) |
Associated acts | Soul Satisfiers, Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross |
Website | www.gloriagaynor.com |
Gloria Gaynor (born Gloria Fowles; September 7, 1949) is an American singer, best known for the disco era hits; "I Will Survive" (Hot 100 number 1, 1979), "Never Can Say Goodbye" (Hot 100 number 9, 1974), "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)" (Hot 100 number 42, 1980) and "I Am What I Am" (R&B number 82, 1983).
Contents |
Gaynor was a singer with the Soul Satisfiers, a jazz/pop band, in the 1960s. Her first solo single was "She'll Be Sorry/Let Me Go Baby" (1965).
Her first real success came in 1975 with the release of her album Never Can Say Goodbye, which established her as a disco artist. The first side of this album consisted of three disco songs ("Honey Bee", "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Reach Out, I'll Be There"), with no breaks in between the songs. This 19-minute dance marathon proved to be enormously popular, especially at dance clubs. All three songs were released as singles via radio edits, and all of them became hits. The album was instrumental in introducing disco music to the public, "Never Can Say Goodbye" becoming the first song to top Billboard magazine's dance chart. Capitalizing on the success of her first album, Gloria Gaynor quickly released her second album, Experience Gloria Gaynor, later that same year. While this album was also successful, it was not quite as popular as her previous album in the mainstream.
Some of her lesser-known singles, due to lack of recurrent airplay — including "Honey Bee" (1974), "Casanova Brown" (1975), and "Let's Make A Deal" (1976) — became hits in the clubs and reached the Top 5 on Billboard's disco charts. After her 1976 album, I've Got You, Gaynor shifted from her hit production team, to work with other productions. While it seemed like a good move, her subsequent producers did not seem to match Gaynor's vocal approach and style as well.
In the next few years, Gloria Gaynor released the albums Glorious and Park Avenue Sound, but would only enjoy a few moderate hits. However, in late 1978, with the release of her album Love Tracks, she climbed the pop charts again because of 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 lover that she can cope without him and does not want anything more to do with him. The song has become something of an anthem of female emancipation, and is still a staple of office parties and karaoke nights.
Interestingly, "I Will Survive" was originally the B-side when Polydor Records released it in late 1978. The A-side, a song called "Substitute", then a recent worldwide hit for South African girl-group Clout, was considered more "radio friendly". 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 massive 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. King was honored at New York's "Disco Masters Awards Show" for 3 consecutive years (1979–1981) in recognition of his relentless push of the song. The song was awarded the only Grammy Award ever for Best Disco Recording in 1980.
As a disco number, the song was unique for its time by virtue of Gaynor's having no background singers. And, unlike her first disco hits, the track was not pitched up to make it faster and to render Gaynor's recorded voice in a higher register than that in which she actually sang. Most disco hits at the time were heavily produced, with multiple voices, overdubs, and adjustments to pitch and speed. "I Will Survive" had a much more spare and "clean" sound. Had it been originally planned and released as an A-side, it would almost certainly have undergone a substantially more heavy-handed remix. In late 1979, she released the album I Have a Right which contained her next disco hit, "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)", which featured Doc Severinsen of The Tonight Show fame, on trumpet solo. Gaynor also recorded a disco song called "Love Is Just a Heartbeat Away" in 1979 for the vampire movie Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula which featured a number of disco songs.
In 1980 and again in 1981, Gaynor released two disco albums which were virtually ignored in the United States due to the backlash against disco, which began late in 1979. The album's singles barely registered on Urban contemporary radio, where disco music remained popular. In 1982, having looked into a wide variety of faiths and religious movements,[1][2] she became a Christian and began to distance herself from a past she considered to be sinful. She would not release an album in 1982. In 1983, she released an album entitled Gloria Gaynor, in which she rejected disco for mid-tempo R&B and Pop style songs. The album contained a patriotic song called "America" as well as 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". The album was not a success in the Pop, Dance or Urban markets. This move proved to be a turn off to all other than her devoted fans.
Gaynor would achieve her final success in the '80s with the release of her album I Am Gloria Gaynor in 1984. This was mainly due to the song "I Am What I Am", which became a hit at dance clubs, and then on the Club Play chart in late 1983/early 1984. "I Am What I Am" made Gaynor a gay icon. However, her career went into sharp decline following this hit. She mainly made her living outside of the US where there was never any disco backlash. Her 1986 album, The Power of Gloria Gaynor, was almost entirely composed of cover versions of other songs that were popular at the time. The album was ignored, becoming a commercial failure.
Gaynor's career received a revitalizing spark in the early and mid 1990s with the worldwide Disco revival movement. During the late 1990s, she dabbled in acting for a while, guest starring on The Wayans Bros, That '70s Show, and Ally McBeal before doing a limited engagement performance in Broadway's Smokey Joe's Cafe. In 2001 Gaynor performed "I Will Survive" at the 30th Anniversary Concert for Michael Jackson.
Gloria Gaynor returned to the recording studio in 2002, releasing her first album in over 15 years, entitled, I Wish You Love. The two singles released from the album, "Just Keep Thinking About You" and "I Never Knew", both topped Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play. Both singles also secured moderate to heavy Dance format radio airplay. The latter song also charted #30 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. In 2004, Gaynor re-released her 1997 album The Answer (also released under the title What a Life) as a follow up to her successful album I Wish You Love. The album includes her popular club hit "Oh, What a Life".
On September 19, 2005, Gaynor was honored twice when she and her music were inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame. She was inducted in the Artist Inductees category along with fellow disco legends Chic and the late Sylvester. Her classic anthem "I Will Survive" was inducted under the Records Inductees category. In January 2008, The American Diabetes Association named Gaynor the Honorary Spokesperson of the 2008 NYC Step Out To Fight Diabetes Walk.[3]
More television appearances followed in the late 2000s with 2009 appearances on The John Kerwin Show, The Wendy Williams Show, and The View to promote the 30th anniversary of "I Will Survive".[4] In 2010, she appeared on Last Comic Standing and The Tonight Show.
After almost 30 years of its release, Gaynor continues to ride the success of "I Will Survive", touring the country and the world over and performing her signature song on dozens of TV shows. A few successful remixes of the song during the 1990s and 2000s along with new versions of the song by Lonnie Gordon, Diana Ross, Chantay Savage, rock group Cake and others as well as constant recurrent airplay on nearly all Soft AC and Rhythmic format radio stations have helped to keep the song in the mainstream. Said Gaynor of her biggest hit in a 2012 interview "It feels great to have such a song like that because I get kids five and six years old telling me they like the song, and then people seventy-five and eighty. It's quite an honor."[5]
Gaynor and her husband have been residents of Green Brook, New Jersey.[6] She is recording a Contemporary Christian album with some new dance singles planned for release later in 2012.
As of early March, Gaynor announced on her official Facebook page that she will be in Warped Tour 2012. She noted, "I am honored to be playing in Warped Tour, trying to bring back classic music to this generation of kids. This is not like Warped Tour to add an old classic artist, but they said it was the right choice for who they had in mind. Gaynor included that she is playing at all 41 concerts. [5]
This section requires expansion with: album titles. |
Year | Single | Peak chart positions | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US | US R&B |
US Dance |
US AC |
UK[7] | |||||
1974 | "Honey Bee" | - | 55 | - | - | - | |||
"Never Can Say Goodbye" | 9 | 34 | 1 | - | 2 | ||||
1975 | "Reach Out I'll Be There" | 60 | - | - | - | 14 | |||
"Real Good People" | - | - | 6 | - | - | ||||
"Walk On By" | 98 | - | 8 | - | - | ||||
"All I Need Is Your Sweet Lovin'" | - | - | - | - | 44 | ||||
"Casanova Brown" | - | - | 1 | - | - | ||||
"(If You Want It) Do It Yourself" | 98 | 24 | - | - | - | ||||
"How High the Moon" | 75 | 73 | - | - | 33 | ||||
1976 | "Let's Make a Deal" | - | 95 | - | - | - | |||
1978 | "I Will Survive" | 1 | 4 | 1 | - | 1 | |||
"Substitute" | 107 | 78 | - | - | - | ||||
1979 | "Anybody Want to Party" | - | 16 | - | - | - | |||
"Let Me Know (I Have a Right)" | 42 | - | - | - | 32 | ||||
1980 | "Tonight" | - | - | - | - | - | |||
1981 | "Let's Mend What's Been Broken" | - | 76 | - | - | - | |||
1983 | "I Am What I Am" | - | 82 | - | - | 13 | |||
1984 | "Strive" | - | - | - | - | - | |||
1985 | "My Love Is Music" | - | - | - | - | - | |||
1986 | "Don't You Dare Call It Love" | - | - | - | - | - | |||
1987 | "Be Soft with Me Tonight" | - | - | - | - | - | |||
1993 | "I Will Survive" (remix) | - | - | - | - | 5 | |||
1997 | "Mighty High" (with The Trammps) | - | - | 12 | - | - | |||
1998 | "Never Can Say Goodbye 1998" | - | - | - | - | - | |||
2000 | "Last Night" | - | - | - | - | 67 | |||
2001 | "Just Keep Thinking About You" | - | - | 1 | - | - | |||
2002 | "I Never Knew" | - | - | 1 | 30 | - | |||
2006 | "The Power of a Woman In Love" | - | - | - | - | - | |||
2008 | "Hacer Por Hacer" (with Miguel Bosé)[A] | - | - | - | - | - | |||
"—" denotes releases that did not chart |
Gloria Gaynor is the tenth studio album by Gloria Gaynor and her only to be released on Atlantic Records after her contract with Polydor Records expired. The lead single release was a cover of The Supremes' "Stop in the Name of Love", followed by the singles "America" and "Tease Me". The album failed to garner much attention in either the U.S. or in Europe. It was re-released on CD in 1996 with a previously unreleased 1982 re-recording of "I Will Survive" added as track 1 (3:35) and a 5:03 Extended Mix as track 10. A 2014 CD reissue of the album on BBR Records did not include those two bonus cuts but included 3 single versions and one 12" disco version as bonus cuts.
Side 1
Side 2
A car wash (also written as "carwash") or auto wash is a facility used to clean the exterior and, in some cases, the interior of motor vehicles. Car washes can be self-serve, fully automated, or full-service with attendants who wash the vehicle.
In 2013, there were approximately 113,000 car washes in the United States.
With the modern convenience of touchless automatic car washes, it may be difficult to remember that the industry was not always so high-tech. Though, other commercial car washes came before it, the first semi-automatic car wash in the United States made its debut in 1946, and from there, the industry has grown in both size and sophistication.
The start of the history of car washing dated back into 1914. People used manpower to push or move the cars through stages of the process. Eventually, manual car wash operations peaked at 32 drive-through facilities in the United States. Prior to this time, the evolution of car washing was just at the beginning, and that the automatic car washing was born. The first semi-automatic car wash was active for the first time in Detroit, Michigan using automatic pulley systems and manual brushing.
A car wash is a facility for cleaning automobiles. It may also refer to:
"Car Wash" is a hit R&B song performed by Rose Royce and written and produced by Norman Whitfield. It was the group's debut single and one of the most notable successes of the disco era. Written and produced by the band's main producer Norman Whitfield, "Car Wash", the theme of the 1976 film Car Wash, was Rose Royce's most successful hit single and the lead single from their first album, the Car Wash soundtrack. Reaching number one in the United States on the Billboard pop and R&B charts, "Car Wash" also peaked at number three on the disco charts and reached number nine in the UK singles chart in February 1977. The song was later covered in 2004 by Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott, who released their version as the single for the Shark Tale soundtrack.
Former Motown Records producer Norman Whitfield had been commissioned to record the soundtrack album for Car Wash by director Michael Schultz. Although Whitfield did not want to assume the project, he decided to do so, both for financial incentives as well as the chance to give Rose Royce, a disco/funk backing band that Whitfield signed to his own label in 1975, the exposure they needed to become mainstream. Unable to develop a theme song for the film, inspiration finally struck Whitfield while playing a game of basketball, and he allegedly wrote his first draft of "Car Wash" on a paper bag from a fried chicken eatery.
My God is more than enough
He can supply all my needs
He is my El Shaddai
He always looks out for me
Jehovah Jirah, He is my God
Jehovah Jirah, He is my God
All of the earth is His
And the fullness there of
He's everything that I need
You can be sure of
Jehovah Jirah, He is my God
Jehovah Jirah, He is my God
So why should I worry
'Bout the highs and the lows
The ups and the downs
And by my faith, I know
My God is more than enough
He can supply all my needs
He is my El Shaddai
He always looks out for me
Jehovah Jirah, He is my God