Gloria Gaynor

by

Gloria Gaynor

Edit

I have to admit, I am not a big fan of a lot of Gaynor's 70's LP's. While I enjoyed select songs from many of them, I haven't found the LP's to be terribly consistent. This 1982 set, however (originally released on Atlantic Records), is different. I can say that I enjoy seven of the eight songs thoroughly (the two versions of "I Will Survive" included here were NOT on the original LP; they were merely added by Hot Productions in order to attract more consumers to purchasing this reissue, being that the song is the one that everybody knows Gloria for!). First single, the remake of "Stop in the Name of Love" is peppy and funky, with a totally new melody to the chorus of the original Supremes recording. "America," also released as a single, is also very bright and feel-good. True, some of the lyrics are questionable in merit; but they do have a positivity about them, and Gaynor's delivery is very pleasing! And the final single from the album, "Tease Me," has the most "soulful" quality of all the uptempo numbers here, with funky-freaky synth-bass, percussion, and sultry background vocal arrangements. Also noteworthy is the catchy "Runaround Love." Fun stuff!

Having released 9 albums on Polydor of varying quality, Gloria Gaynor signed with Atlantic in 1982 and released this surprisingly enjoyable album that was all but ignored at the time, despite being one of the lady's most complete albums to date. Kool & The Gang re-worked the Supremes classic "Stop In The Name Of Love" for Gloria, this was the first single, and the result is terrifically funky, as are songs as "Runaway Love", "Tease Me" and "Love Me Real", classy R&B! Also the ballad cuts are worth listening to, the thoughtful "Mack-Side", "For You, My Love" (both co-penned by Gloria's husband) and Tom Snow-penned "Even A Fool Would Let Go". The second single, "America" isn't that bad either, that said if you can only ignore the sickly lyrics that make you wanna puke, it bears several similarities to Donna Summer's equally awful "Living In America" from her 1982 album, in that it also features a children's choir praising God's own country ... yuck! "I Will Survive" is included in both a short & long version on the CD as a bonus track, although it's kept as close as possible to the original 1978 recording, this is a re-recording (the first of many ...), produced by Yves Dessca, for what purpose is not known ... I think 4 stars are too much as the LP lacks a good hit single so it ends up a 3 stars release, it should have been 3½ stars as this is really Gloria Gaynor's best album.