“I said, ‘Well, if it is up to me, it won't stay on the B-side, because everyone is going to be able to relate to this song. “The A-side was a song called ‘Substitute.’ Isn't that ironic?” she chuckles. I said, ‘I like songs that are meaningful, that touch people's hearts, that have really good lyrics and good melodies.’ They said, ‘We think you're the one we've been waiting for to record this song that we wrote two years ago.’ … So we worked really hard to get it played, because when we took it back to the record company, they wouldn't even listen to it.”Īs it turns out, Gaynor’s label, Polydor, wanted to release another song as “I Will Survive’s” A-side. “When I asked the producers what the B-side would be, they said they weren't sure and asked me what kind of songs I liked. “I went out to record a song that the record company president had chosen,” she recalls. Gaynor knew right then in the studio that she had been given a special song - though, bizarrely, executives at her above-mentioned problematic record label were less convinced. (Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) And it turns out Gaynor was in behind-the-scenes survival mode herself during its recording, which made the lyrics resonate so deeply with both herself and listeners.
While Gaynor didn’t write “I Will Survive” (that credit goes to Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris), it was her passionate delivery that no doubt made it an anthem for the ages, with hers forever being the definitive version.
It was adopted as a rallying crying by the LGBTQ community during the 1980s’ AIDS crisis alt-rockers Cake recorded a snarky, grizzled remake in the ‘90s (though Gaynor disapproves of that version’s profanity) cancer survivor Tommy Chong sang it while wearing a pineapple headdress on The Masked Singer and Gaynor even released a book, We Will Survive: True Stories of Encouragement, Inspiration, and the Power of Song, compiling 40 real-life tales of everyday people inspired by the single. It was 40 years ago that diva Gloria Gaynor won her first (and, surprisingly, only) Grammy Award for her classic empowerment anthem, “I Will Survive.” The smash single received the Grammy for Best Disco Recording in 1980 - the only year, unsurprisingly, when that specific award was handed out.īut while disco had fallen out of favor by the time the ‘80s arrived, “I Will Survive,” which was recorded in 1978, has not only survived but thrived, taking on different meanings for multiple generations.
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