I Will Survive
Disco anthem of personal strength and gay empowerment.
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In October 1978, Polydor Records released "I Will Survive" as the second single from Gloria Gaynor's sixth album, Love Tracks. The song was penned by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris. Its lyrics follow a narrator who, after a painful breakup, realizes their own inner strength. It is widely considered both a disco classic and an anthem for gay empowerment.
The idea for the song came to Fekaris after he was let go from Motown Records in the mid-1970s. While unemployed, he saw a theme song he had written for the film Generation playing on TV, took it as a good sign, and began jumping on his bed, declaring he would survive. He and Perren wrote the track, but it sat unrecorded for two years because no suitable singer was found. In 1978, Polydor asked Perren to produce the A-side "Substitute" for Gaynor.
He agreed only if he could also produce the B-side. When Gaynor said she wanted songs that were meaningful and touched people's hearts, the producers handed her the lyrics for "I Will Survive" scrawled on brown paper. She knew immediately it was a hit.
The recording session lasted three hours, but most of that time went to "Substitute." The musicians had just 35 minutes left for the B-side. They didn't know the song's title or melody, and relaxed because they assumed the B-side would never get played. Working only from chord changes and a few notes, they improvised the backing track, with guitarist Robert "Boogie" Bowles adding jazzy blues licks.
Because the intro and main body of the tune were hard to blend smoothly, the track was recorded in two parts and spliced together. Gaynor sang while wearing a back brace, having recently undergone surgery after a fall at a concert. That injury, plus a recent loss, helped her connect deeply with the song's message.
Releases
Gaynor believed "I Will Survive" would be a hit and urged the label to make it the A-side, but they refused. It was released as the B-side to "Substitute." Gaynor's husband gave a copy to Studio 54 DJ Richie Kaczor, who loved it. Gaynor handed him a stack of records to share with friends.
Soon, other DJs and radio stations were playing that side instead. The song's popularity forced the label to reissue it as the A-side. A promotional video was shot at Xenon Discotheque in New York, featuring roller skater Sheila Reid-Pender from the group The Village Wizards.
From B-Side to Global Number One
Gaynor was certain "I Will Survive" would be a hit and lobbied Polydor to release it as the A-side, but the label refused. The song shipped as the B-side to "Substitute" in October 1978. The intended A-side peaked at just number 78 on the Hot Soul Singles chart, while "I Will Survive" entered the Hot 100 in December 1978 and climbed to number one in March 1979, holding the top spot for three non-consecutive weeks. It also topped the UK Singles Chart and the Irish Singles Chart.
The flip happened through a simple act of faith. Gaynor's husband took a copy to Studio 54 DJ Richie Kaczor, who loved it and passed a stack of records to his friends. Other disco and radio DJs followed suit, spinning the B-side instead of the A-side.
The label finally relented and issued "I Will Survive" as the lead single. The record was certified Platinum by the RIAA and has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. At the 22nd Grammy Awards it won Best Disco Recording and earned nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
A Sound That Outlived Its Era
"I Will Survive" is frequently regarded as an anthem of gay empowerment and a defining disco staple, and its cultural footprint has only deepened over the decades. In 2016, the Library of Congress deemed Gaynor's original recording "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry. In 2012, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Billboard magazine included it in its lists of the best pop and dance songs of all time in both 2023 and 2025.
The track has also proven remarkably adaptable. Following the 1993 UK remix success of Sister Sledge, "I Will Survive" was remixed that summer, reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart and number three on the UK Dance Singles Chart, with additional peaks in Ireland and Portugal.
A 1999 remix charted in France, another in 2000 reached number six in Spain, and a 2018 remix climbed to number 12 in France. In November 2013, Gaynor released the gospel album We Will Survive, which featured a new remix by DJ Shpank in both extended and radio-edit formats. Each new generation of listeners has found its own reason to press play.
The Xenon Video and a Long-Lost Reunion
A promotional video for "I Will Survive" was filmed in 1979 at the Xenon Discotheque in New York. It features Gaynor singing, intercut with roller-skating dance sequences performed by Sheila Reid-Pender of Harlem, a member of a local skating group called The Village Wizards.
Three videos were shot that day, but the "I Will Survive" video was the only one to survive. Gaynor was not present during the taping of the skating segment, and she did not meet Reid-Pender until July 7, 2014, at the 92nd Street YMCA in New York, after Gaynor gave a lecture and signed copies of her book We Will Survive. In that book, Gaynor wrote, "I wanted everybody—including myself—to believe that we could survive."
The two women's brief, accidental collaboration on a Manhattan dance floor thus became a 35-year story of missed connection and eventual reunion. In 2022, the original video was remastered in high definition and officially uploaded to Gaynor's YouTube channel, introducing the Xenon footage to new audiences. The image of a roller skater gliding across a disco floor, set to Gloria Gaynor's defiant vocal, endures as a defining visual of the era.
Did You Know?
- In 1998, the France men's national football team made it their unofficial anthem, focusing on the instrumental sub-theme to sing "la la la la la".
Frequently Asked Questions
How high did I Will Survive chart?
The single hit number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, the UK Singles Chart, and the Irish Singles Chart. Its #1 placements across multiple major markets cemented it as a global disco hit.
What inspired Dino Fekaris to write I Will Survive?
After being let go from Motown Records in the mid-1970s, Fekaris was unemployed and watching TV when a theme song he had previously written for the film Generation came on. He took that moment as a positive sign, began jumping around his living room, and the energy of that experience helped spark the song's driving, uplifting feel.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: I Will Survive (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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