Gaynor, in her new book entitled “We Will Survive,” takes on her disco hit’s female anthem in a very new way by including survival stories of females. Gaynor, along with her co-author Sue Carswell, have put the book together to include remarkable stories that reveal survival of persons from all walks of life – many of whom have been touched by the inspirational song made popular by Gaynor in 1978.
There are persons who have individually triumphed over illness, overcome the painful loss of a loved one, and overcome national tragedy who have claimed “I Will Survive” has become an emotional anthem, of sorts, for their lives. The book contains some 40 stories of such survivals that were inspired by Gaynor’s song.
Personally, I have fond memories of Gaynor's legendary recording as I was a part-time disco disc jockey way back in the day at a Chicago area club called the Charlie Club. In my box of new records for the week, I found the 12" disco recording of "I Will Survive" by Gaynor. I remembered she had a big dance hit a few years earlier with "Never Can Say Goodbye." So, early in the night, before the dance floor was very crowded, I played the new Gaynor record.
I was kind of disappointed at first because the song started out slow - not danceable - as the weekend crowd would have wanted. Of course, the recording soon took off with an extremely danceable disco beat and I was much more pleased. I really wasn't paying attention to the lyric of the song the first time I played it - but I certainly paid attention to the lyric after that first playing of the song. From the very first hearing of the song, it spoke loudly and strongly to the young club-attending females of the day.
Female-after-female-after-female walked up to the dj booth and asked me "Who is the singer of that song and what's the name of it?" Then they'd assertively say: "Play it again!" I never had a reaction to a newly-played record like that in my entire dj career - which lasted several years throughout the disco era in the 1970s.
Gloria Gaynor - what a singer! "I Will Survive - what a song!
The song was written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris. Gaynor’s rendition of the song was certified double platinum by the RIAA. Gaynor is also a Grammy award winner.
Gaynor's new book is published by Brilliance Audio and was released on Dec. 1, 2013.
