Hi and welcome to ‘a handful of history’, my fortnightly sharing of real-life stories from around the world. All the narratives I pick are rooted in history one way or another, yet I feel that most of them carry themes and happenings that seem very present day-like. I create this blog out of love and curiosity for the field of human history and culture, and I’m happy that you find it interesting too. My blog and newsletters are free; if you want to help me keep it going, please join my newsletter. THANK YOU. Thanks for being here - let's dive in. Enjoy! Majken xx
I Will Survive
I bet some of you have been dancing to the all-time disco hit “I Will Survive” back in the days. I certainly have. On the dance floor, in my living room…The song was released in October 1978, and Gloria Gaynor performed it. When I was looking into the background history of the song, I discovered that it had had a long journey from the B-side of a record to receiving a Grammy Award a couple of years later. It is, you might say, itself an example of a true survivor. Here’s a walk-through of its story for you.
The Writers
The very beginning of “I Will Survive”’s journey started with the principal writer of the song, Dino Fekaris, getting fired by Motown Records in the mid-1970s. He’d been working there as a staff writer for seven years, but that was now all in the past. One day, as he was sitting - jobless - in his room, he turned on the TV, the story goes, and a theme song he had written for a film happened to be playing. Fekaris took this as a good omen, and he got so excited that he started jumping up and down in his bed while shouting out, “I’m going to make it. I’m going to be a songwriter. I will survive.” Immediately after, he started creating “I Will Survive”, which he ended up finishing together with another member of the Motown production team, Freddie Perren.
Unfortunately, the two writers couldn’t find a singer, and the song remained in the drawer for the next two years. But in 1978, there was an opening. Polydor asked Perrin to produce the piece "Substitute" for Gloria Gaynor, to which he agreed on the understanding that he could also make the B side. “Substitute” had already been a disco hit in Europe, and Gaynor was to create an American version.
The Singer
When Gaynor heard the two songs, she instantly knew that “I Will Survive” was the stronger track. Still, during the three-hour recording session, it was “Substitute” the musicians spent most of their time recording. As a result, they only had 35 minutes to record “I Will Survive”. Starting out, they didn’t even know the song title or the melody, but as it only was the B side, they were pretty relaxed. Who would listen to it anyway?!
At the recording time, Gaynor was at a low point in her life. That same year she had had an accident during a performance, and she had suffered a spinal injury that nearly had left her paralysed from the waist down. Only after surgery and intensely painful physical therapy was she able to recover her ability to walk, and she recorded the vocals from a wheelchair and a back brace.
The injury and all the hurt it had caused made Gaynor identify with the sentiment of "I Will Survive"; she said: "That's why I was able to sing the song with so much conviction”.
The Success
As mentioned, Gaynor was convinced that “I Will Survive” would be a hit. She tried to persuade the label to release it as the A-side, but they refused. This made Gaynor's husband take matters into his own hands. He delivered the song to the DJ in Studio 54 - a famous disco nightclub located in midtown Manhattan NYC - who loved it and immediately started playing it. Other disc jockeys in discos and radio stations soon followed, and the popularity of "I Will Survive" with the DJs finally led to the label releasing the song as an A-side.
"I Will Survive" entered the Billboard Hot 100 in December the year it was released and reached No. 1 on the chart in March 1979. The song received the Grammy Award for Best Disco Recording in 1980, the only year the award was given.
The Lyrics
The lyrics of "I Will Survive" describe the narrator's discovery of personal strength following an initially devastating breakup (see full song text below). However, the music is not only about the wrongs others have done to us, as an article analysing it remarks, it’s also an honest appraisal of how we have let them do these things to us. We have, in other words, been insufficiently on our side. “At first, I was afraid, I was petrified - Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side”, Gaynor sings. It is, the analysis suggests, the insight and honesty about our own weakness combined with the deep encouragement to say a resolute ‘fuck off’ to the world that makes the song resonate deeply with so many people.
I Will Survive At first I was afraid, I was petrified Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong And I grew strong And I learned how to get along And so you're back From outer space I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face I should have changed that stupid lock, I should have made you leave your key If I'd known for just one second you'd be back to bother me Go on now, go, walk out the door Just turn around now 'Cause you're not welcome anymore Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye? You think I'd crumble? You think I'd lay down and die? Oh no, not I, I will survive Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive I've got all my life to live And I've got all my love to give and I'll survive I will survive, hey, hey It took all the strength I had not to fall apart Kept trying hard to mend the pieces of my broken heart And I spent oh-so many nights just feeling sorry for myself I used to cry But now I hold my head up high and you see me Somebody new I'm not that chained-up little person still in love with you And so you felt like dropping in and just expect me to be free Well, now I'm saving all my lovin' for someone who's loving me Go on now, go, walk out the door Just turn around now 'Cause you're not welcome anymore Weren't you the one who tried to break me with goodbye? You think I'd crumble? You think I'd lay down and die? Oh no, not I, I will survive Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive I've got all my life to live And I've got all my love to give and I'll survive I will survive Oh Go on now, go, walk out the door Just turn around now 'Cause you're not welcome anymore Weren't you the one who tried to break me with goodbye? You think I'd crumble? You think I'd lay down and die? Oh no, not I, I will survive Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive I've got all my life to live And I've got all my love to give and I'll survive I will survive I will survive
Photo: Dino Fekaris, Gloria Gaynor and Freddie Perren in the studio.
Art Book Covers
Cool 'n beautiful. Until the beginning of the 1800s, books were largely hand-made leather-bound objects. However, from the 1820s the mechanical bookbinding took over, and the leather covers had to give way to new cloth coverings that were cheaper to produce and printable. This changed the book situation a whole lot. Now book covers not only had a practical function protecting the pages, they also became an important platform to communicate and sell the book. A new artistic space opened up, and illustrators and designers flourished. Just look at these, amazing, right!
Book covers: Charles Kingsley: "The Water Babies", 1886. Frances Trego Montgomery: "On a Lark to the Planets", 1904. "The Yellow Book", Volume III. October, 1894. London: John Lane.
The Peace Pilgrim
New Year’s morning in 1953, the American woman Mildred Norman started walking. And she didn’t stop. For 28 years she travelled the length and breadth of the US - seven times all in all. She set foot in 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces, and she walked across part of Mexico. She was a pilgrim, a wanderer and she wanted to remain a wanderer until “mankind has learned the way of peace”, as she put it. I’d never heard of the Peace Pilgrim before I stumbled upon this article. Definitely worth a read.
Photo: Mildred Norman.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments I'd love to hear from you! Just go here and send me your message. Thank you - Majken xx
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