Search - Gloria Gaynor :: I Will Survive: Anthology

The definite Gloria Gaynor compilation

Søren Jensen | Copenhagen, Denmark | 03/16/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This 2CD-set is the definite Gloria Gaynor-compilation. Although Gloria Gaynor has always been referred to as "The Queen of Disco", she actually only had a limited handful of hits, and her albums were - with a few exceptions - never as memorable, magical and coherent as Donna Summer's albums, so far they haven't been released on CD either but with this set, there really is no need for it either. The full-length 8-min. recording of ... yes ... "I Will Survive" opens the ball, and it strucks me every time I hear it what an all-time classic this song really is! Next is of course Gloria's ground-breaking side-long medley of "Honey Bee", "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Reach Out I'll Be There" from her first LP, and Meco Monardo's tight production and Tom Moulton's excellent mix is still outstanding. Her two subsequent LP's "Experience Gloria Gaynor" & "I've Got You" followed the same concept, and both 18-min. medleys are also included here, and although the songs didn't make the same impact on the singles charts, "Casanova Brown", "(If You Want It) Do It Yourself", "Let's Make A Deal" and "Be Mine" are brilliant. For her fourth album, "Glorious", miss Gaynor teamed up with disco maestro Gregg Diamond, the slow jamming 9-min. dance delight "Most Of All" is included here. At this time, Gloria Gaynor was however having a hard time regaining the disco throne, and her "Park Avenue Sound" album from 1978 didn't help her much. The two tracks included: "This Love Affair" and "You're All I Need To Get By" are pleasant but forgettable, but then came "I Will Survive" from her "Love Tracks" album which is also represented here by a funky 12" mix of "Anybody Wanna Party". Following up such an enormeous success is definitely an ungrateful task, Gloria and the Dino Fekaris/Freddie Perren-team did try with "Let Me Know (I Have A Right)", a strong song in itself but too much a plagiate of "I Will Survive" and from then on it went downhill with her two last albums on Polydor, "Stories" (1980) and "I Kinda Like Me" (1981), although the title track of the latter is quite enjoyable. There's a couple of competent adult ballads on the set's second disc as well as her terrific disco version of "Walk On By" from her second album. The only thing, Polydor really didn't have to include is the 1993 remix of "I Will Survive" with Gloria sounding like Minnie Mouse, the original mix stands as strong now as it did then. Gloria's Hi-NRG version of "I Am What I Am" from 1983 (which made the UK Top 20) would have been a more essential inclusion but it wasn't released on Polydor. Still, this is a masterpiece compilation, the impeccable design + booklet with extensive liner notes and pictures and credits of all the albums."

Disco Diva For The Ages

Stephanie DePue | Carolina Beach, NC USA | 03/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gloria Gaynor was undoubtedly a creature of 1970's disco, and many would agree, a creation of her producers. She wasn't as big, or as important a star as Donna Summer, and some would call her a one-hit wonder. But she was there, she survives, as does her work, and this 2-disc CD album is a great way to get it for her most devoted fans; it gives us more of her hits, and her covers of similar material, although it unaccountably skips some of her most popular things.



However, the album's got a great, intensely danceable 8-minute track of her signature song, "I Will Survive," and that should be reason enough for some fans to buy it. That song surely is great dancing; and is an anthem as well, and that not just for women. I recall once having seen a segment on the mid-East country Lebanon, at war with itself, on CBS's "60 Minutes." That segment included a night club scene: Gloria Gaynor there, singing in person, and her beleaguered fans, male and female, dancing their hearts out. And who can forget Kevin Kline's joyous dance to this song in the movie "In and Out?" I was once lucky enough to catch her in person myself, under the stars, one muggy summer evening at New York's World Financial Center, that used to lie alongside the World Trade Center. Seemed like half New York was there, and they set up a syncopated call-and-answer: "Go Gloria, Go Gloria." Touching, unforgettable? You bet. In fact, it leads me to believe that any female, between the ages of fifteen and sixty-five, in the English-speaking world, at least, who claims to be unfamiliar with singer and song is not to be trusted on any other matter, either."

The almost-definitive collection

Pierre Declercq | France | 11/10/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Great collection ! Everything is here -including the fantastic « Anybody wanna party » in its 12" remix. Well, almost everything is here... Still missing : « Substitute » (the 8:30 version) and « Sobreviviré » (« I will survive » in spanish). And why « I kinda like me » is edited ? Anyway, this is the best Gaynor's collection available."