Remarks:
Donna Summer’s singing + Giorgio Moroder’s Moog synthesizer. Despite what you see in the video, there is no band playing the music – just a machine (pictured below). We take that sort of thing for granted now, but it was the first time it was pulled off successfully. When Brian Eno first heard this song he said it would change the sound of club music for the next 15 years. He was not far wrong.
Giorgio Moroder at his Moog Modular in the 1970s
This was the only Donna Summer song ever to reach #1 on the British charts. Surprisingly it did less well on the American charts: it only got to #6 on the pop charts and #9 on the R&B charts. That was in 1977. Donna Summer was not yet the big name she was about to become.
The lyrics use only 17 different words: and, do, fallin’, feel, free, get, good, heaven, i’ll, it’s, knows, love, me, so, what, you and ooh.
Lyrics:
Ooh
it’s so good, it’s so good
it’s so good, it’s so good
it’s so good
Ooh
heaven knows, heaven knows
heaven knows, heaven knows
heaven knows
Ooh
I feel love, I feel love
I feel love, I feel love
I feel love
I feel love, I feel love, I feel love
Ooh
fallin’ free, fallin’ free
fallin’ free, fallin’ free
fallin’ free
Ooh
you and me, you and me
you and me, you and me
you and me
Ooh
I feel love, I feel love
I feel love, I feel love
I feel love
I feel love, I feel love, I feel love
Ooh
I’ll get you, I’ll get you
I’ll get you, I’ll get you
I’ll get you
Ooh
what you do, what you do
what you do, what you do
what you do
Ooh
I feel love, I feel love
I feel love, I feel love
I feel love
I feel love, I feel love, I feel love
#1 on the British charts with less success in the U.S. does not surprise me. The song sounds akin to Kraftwerk, the yet to be formed New Order, and the yet to be formed Yazoo. The kinship is in the music not the vocal style.
Whenever I hear the Moog I always think of Walter/Wendy Carlos.
Do you mean the machine with the moustache and shades?
Seriously though, if you don’t know anything about music, composition and the technical aspects you’ll not get anything that makes sense out of those machines. Synthezisers and computers are just tools.
I am a huge Donna Summer fan and this song makes me feel pretty hot when it comes on.
That and ‘Love To Love You, Baby.’
I love this recording by Donna Summer. I am also a fan. I am a fitness instructor and play this record sometimes in my cycling classes. It is really a good song to cycle with.
I love this song.