🎵 12" SotW Donna Summer: "I Feel Love", and "Theme from The Deep (Down, Deep Inside)" Casablanca Records NBD 20104

Donna Summer
"I Feel Love", "Theme from The Deep (Down, Deep Inside)"

Casablanca Records NBD 20104
Released 1977
Speed: 33⅓ RPM

A1: I Feel Love​

A2: Theme from The Deep (Down, Deep Inside)​

B: [blank]​

Giorgio Moroder: Arranger, producer [A1]
John Barry: Arranger, Orchestrator, Producer [A2]

https://www.discogs.com/master/1371551-Donna-Summer-I-Feel-Love-Theme-From-The-Deep-Down-Deep-Inside

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"I Feel Love" is one of the earliest examples of Euro disco (aka Italo disco or EDM/electronic dance music), relying on synthesizers and drum machines rather than a live rhythm section, pioneered here by Italian producer and composer Giorgio Moroder. This mix is hypnotic and trance-like, and very much unlike other records by Donna Summer and her contemporaries. This track is also one of Summers' most remixed titles, although they pale in comparison to this original version.

The record itself was typical of many Casablanca 12-inch singles of the day--it was pressed with two tracks on one side, with the flip side blank (usually pressed with a series of light grooves, not meant for playing). In later years, Casablanca's 12-inchers would utilize the more traditional a- and b-side pressings. (Discogs incorrectly calls this a "double A side.")

 

[GDBY2LV]

I counted at least 19 different versions/remixes in my music library. It’s been mixed and remade just about every way possible. Most aren’t that good. Club use only. However I do really like the Donna Summer vs. New Order “I Feel Blue Monday” version. 10:09 in length.
The longest one is the Patrick Cowley remix at 15:42. The best is the original disco mix Rudy posted above. Theme From The Deep, Down Deep Inside, was thankfully the last time she groaned on record. I wonder what the my favorite composer, the legendary John Barry thought about that, since he cowrote it?

 

[rockdoctor]

I counted at least 19 different versions/remixes in my music library. It’s been mixed and remade just about every way possible. Most aren’t that good. Club use only. However I do really like the Donna Summer vs. New Order “I Feel Blue Monday” version. 10:09 in length.
The longest one is the Patrick Cowley remix at 15:42. The best is the original disco mix Rudy posted above. Theme From The Deep, Down Deep Inside, was thankfully the last time she groaned on record. I wonder what the my favorite composer, the legendary John Barry thought about that, since he cowrote it?

I would think if John Barry did not like the way that Summer recorded the Theme, it would not have appeared on the release of the lp.
I have not listened to it in years but I still have the lp.

 

[Mark-T]

This was a pioneering record that holds up all these years later. Mesmerizing!

 

[Rudy]

This was a pioneering record that holds up all these years later. Mesmerizing!

I actually first owned this on her 12-inch single compilation CD. Hearing it in the car, perhaps a bit on the loud side, "mesmerizing" is almost too tame--"hypnotic" might be a better word to describe how I felt, especially when the mix cuts out everything but the synth and the bass drum. (I wonder how many other records sampled that section. It's classic Giorgio Moroder!)

One thing about that compilation is that by the end of it, you can see why her career started fading for that style of music--songs like "Dim All The Lights" sound a bit tired in comparison to classics like this one or the sprawling "MacArthur Park Suite" (which ranks as my favorite of all the songs she's ever done). Thankfully she bailed from this style (it had run its course) and made the self-titled album with Quincy Jones on Geffen, and did one final Casablanca record She Works Hard for the Money which was more like synth dance pop.

 

[Mark-T]

"MacArthur Park Suite" (which ranks as my favorite of all the songs she's ever done).

My favorite as well. By a large margin.

 

[Rudy]

My favorite as well. By a large margin.

And I'm fussy...it has to be the original version from the Live and More album, not the 12-inch with the remixed "Heaven Knows" dropped into the middle of it.

 

[rockdoctor]

And I'm fussy...it has to be the original version from the Live and More album, not the 12-inch with the remixed "Heaven Knows" dropped into the middle of it.

The Live And More version of the MacArthur Suite is far superior to the compilation release. I preferred the album cut of Heaven Knows over the remix in the suite. The remix was perfect for a single. In addition, One Of A Kind was slightly edited for the compilation.
One additional note- the single of MacArthur Park was the only time that Jim Webb had a song reach the number 1 slot on Billboard.