Classic Tracks: Donna Summer ‘I Feel Love’ (2025)

Giorgio Moroder with his Moog modular system.

The pioneering electronica of 'I Feel Love' didn't just revolutionise disco, it changed dance music forever. This is the story of how it was made...

"This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next 15 years.” So said Brian Eno in 1977, and he wasn't at all far off the mark. Indeed, Eno was quick to recognise the ingenuity and potential of 'I Feel Love', with its clinical, pulsating bass line, hypnotically sensual lead vocal, and entirely synthesized rhythm that dispensed with the lush orchestral backing which, until then, had been an integral part of the disco sound. Performed by Donna Summer, who co‑wrote the song with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, the slick, sequencer‑driven recording followed closely in the footsteps of Kraftwerk's Trans‑Europe Express as apioneer of electronic music, while also paving the way for both house and techno.

Background Check

"It didn't feel at all revolutionary at the time,” admits Pete Bellotte, whose production and songwriting credits also include Elton John, Janet Jackson and Cliff Richard. "We just thought it was adecent track.”

Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder, 1977.Photo: Redferns

Having played guitar in anumber of schoolbands, Bellotte joined an outfit named Linda Laine & The Sinners at age 18 in 1965, and acquired his first studio experience recording at the EMI facility on Abbey Road under the auspices of producer Norrie Paramor. This subsequently came into play at the end of the decade when, after having toured the UK and Germany with his fellow Sinners, Bellotte decided that "the guy behind the glass had the best job... If aparticular act didn't work, he would have something else, whereas in aband, if you didn't work out, then that was it.”

Fluent in German, Bellotte initially visited both Hamburg and Munich to try to find some gigs as aproducer, and it was in the latter city that he landed ajob as assistant to one Giorgio Moroder.

"The first day Imet Giorgio, he gave me his briefcase to carry, whereupon Itold him Iwould perform all the other duties, but there was no way Icould do that,” Bellotte recalls. "Fortunately, Giorgio accepted this, and Iworked as his assistant for ayear, year‑and‑a‑half, before Ariola Records offered me ajob as ahouse producer.”

It was while at Ariola that, in 1972, Bellotte co‑wrote 'Son Of My Father' with Moroder. However, although also recorded by Moroder, the song became achart‑topper in Britain as covered by Chicory Tip.

"Inever really liked that song,” remarks Bellotte, who wrote the lyrics. "It was so lightweight.” Nevertheless, Giorgio Moroder's recording of the song was also his first to feature asynthesizer; the instrument whose sound he would later become irrevocably associated with.

"In 1970, an engineer Iknew, called Robbie [Wedel], introduced me to aclassical composer in Munich [Eberhard Schöner] who had this incredible new instrument,” Moroder recalled when Ispoke with him in 1998. "It was ahumongous machine with cords everywhere, and he played me this composition which just consisted of abass tone that kept changing every half minute. That was his composition! He was using this huge machine to create what was known as 'musique concrete'. There were no rhythms, no effects, and it wasn't too interesting, but then, when he wasn't around, Robbie took me aside and said, 'Look, with this synthesizer you can create more than just alow note.' He showed me afew things and Ithought, 'Wow, this is great!'

"Iwas immediately fascinated by the possibilities and the different kinds of sounds it could produce. It was two or three weeks later that 'Son Of My Father' became the first of my records to feature asynthesizer, but, although Ihad several small hits in Europe with other records that used it, Ieventually began to lose interest. You see, it was quite apain in the butt to use, because the Moog in question was the only one around and the classical composer who owned it wasn't too happy about people using it as apopular instrument. He guarded it jealously, so we kind of had to sneak in when he was away. That's how it was for acouple of years, before synthesizers became more widely available.”

In the meantime, following ayear at Ariola, Bellotte again teamed up with Moroder. "Now Iwas his partner,” Bellotte explains. "We both produced equally together, each giving our own input, and back then, in terms of the songs, Giorgio principally wrote the music while Iwrote the lyrics. In terms of the productions, we overlapped all the time — there was no defined area, and Ithink that's why we got on so well. Neither of us contributed more than the other, and we also never argued. Ihave to say, Giorgio and Iwere astrange team, because we never, ever smoked, drank or did drugs; we were just there for the music and working all the time. Idon't recall us ever disagreeing vehemently over anything whatsoever — we always had similar visions of where we were heading.”

In 1974, this happened to be in the direction of Donna Summer, atrained gospel belter who had recently performed in various stage musicals, most notably the German and Austrian productions of Hair.

"There were all these refugees from Hair back then,” Bellotte confirms. "There was Marsha Hunt, Judy Cheeks, Roberta Kelly — all these black American girls who had appeared in different versions of Hair in various cities and countries. Judy, Roberta and Donna were all doing session work in Munich, performing backing vocals, and one day Ineeded to demo asong that Ihad written, 'Denver Dream', and the French record company wanted to release the demo of Donna. Well, that then became ahit in Holland, so she signed with us and we recorded 'The Hostage' and the Lady Of The Night album, both of which were also big hits in Holland [the only place where they were released], and we all thought we were doing fantastically well. They were just pop records, but then came the disco thing...”

Songs For Swingers

A core band of musicians had been used up until this time, including Keith Forsey on drums and Sylvester Levay on piano. It was while doing asound‑check warm‑up with aCrusaders jazz‑fusion instrumental for aparticular session that Forsey employed the then‑unique four‑on‑the‑floor bass drum pattern, coupled with the 'pea soup' hi‑hat rhythm that he had heard on the Hues Corporation's dance hit, 'Rock The Boat'.

Pete Bellotte, late 1970s.

"That is how the first disco beat elements came about,” says Pete Bellotte. "They simply came out of that jam.”

And what resulted from those disco beat elements was 'Love To Love You Baby', the 1975 smash‑hit breakthrough for Summer, Moroder and Bellotte that, courtesy of the singer's graphic moans and groans —amounting to arecord‑breaking 22 simulated orgasms, according to Time Magazine — stormed the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, while being banned by certain radio broadcasters, including the BBC.

Several days after 'Love To Love You Baby' was demo'd, it was placed with Dick Leahy's GTO record label during MIDEM in Cannes. Moroder persuaded Summer to re‑record the song. Released in the UK, it initially bombed, but it was adifferent story after the tape was sent to Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart in the US.

"Keith Forsey was away when we did thatrecording, so Martin Harrison filled in forhim,” Bellotte recalls. "Martin was avery nice guy, but his timing wasn't great, so after the whole thing was finished and we listenedto the breakdown in the middle, we could hear it noticeably slowing up. Wetherefore sat down trying to figure out what to do. I'd gone to alot of clubs where these peculiar Italian bands played aschmaltzy kind of music and they used to have this little drum machine where, if you just pressed abutton, it would play asamba, or if you pressed another button it would play awaltz. It was very basic and it had ahorrible sound, but of course it played in time, so we sent out for one and we laid that down as atrack. This then provided us with afour‑minute, metronomic beat that had akind of groove going on, and that really wasthe origin of drum machines, and the thing that enabled us to stretch it to a16‑minute version, kept in perfect time, when Neil Bogart requested it.”

According to Moroder, it was on aFriday that Bogart called him, at about three o'clock in the morning LA time, ecstatic over the number and insisting that it should be extended to cover the entire side of an album. Bellotte fills in the details...

"Bogart was having an orgy at his house, there was alot of coke going on and, to use his own language, they were all 'f*cking to this track' and the crowd there had him replay the song over and over again. Suddenly, a'Eureka' thought hit Bogart; he recalled 'In‑A‑Gadda‑Da‑Vida' by Iron Butterfly, which had taken up awhole side. In aflash he came up with the idea of doing the same with 'Love To Love You Baby' and he needed it within aweek. So we just proceeded to get down to it on that weekend, and since things always went very fast back then, within the week he had what he wanted.”

Having been ahit in Europe at its original length, the remixed song became adance‑clubsensation in the States, where it peaked at Number two on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album of the same name — whose entire first side comprised the extended version of the title track — was quickly certified gold. Nevertheless, despite all the controversy surrounding Donna Summer's breathy performance, when Ispoke with Moroder, he denied setting out to cause astir with 'Love To Love You Baby', or even being aware of the reaction.

"Iwasn't really in touch with what was going on in England and America,” he stated. "Igot some feedback about how the record was selling through the music papers, but Iwas never one for going to the discotheques. Imaybe visited [New York's] Studio 54 once or twice, but Ididn't follow the scene and the trends too much.”

Capitalising on the success of 'Love To Love You Baby', Donna Summer returned to America and was followed there by Giorgio Moroder, who would eventually base himself full‑time on the West Coast. This, in turn, would lead to the end of his partnership with Pete Bellotte who, not enamoured with the US, would return to England in the mid‑'80s. But that was still along way in the future when, after recording two more albums, 1976's Love Trilogy and Four Seasons Of Love, the trio created the following year's IRemember Yesterday, and Summer's second top 10 single, in the form of 'I Feel Love'.

Moog Manoeuvres

"With disco albums, we started using themes,” Bellotte explains. "Iwas always the ideas man, and so for Love Trilogy Icame up with the idea of having three separate songs and then afourth song consisting of those three songs linked together, all combined into one. Four Seasons Of Love was adouble album, with each side featuring aseason, and my next idea — having just read Anthony Powell's ADance To The Music Of Time, which is 12 novels inspired by the painting of that name by Nicolas Poussin — was to record an album that chronicled popular music up until the present and on into the future. So, we started out with a'50s song, 'I Remember Yesterday' — Iwas rather peeved when the album was changed to that name, because Ireally wanted it to be called ADance To The Music Of Time — and continued with abit of rock, aTamla Motown number and so on, and then brought it up to date with disco, before the final, futuristic song was 'I Feel Love'.

"That's when we got Robbie Wedel in. He came in with four cases containing the Moog and set it all up. Giorgio had the idea for how the bass should go, and we explained the concept to Robbie that the whole song had to be done with the Moog. He said this meant we would need to lock or sync the Moog to the Studer, and when we asked, 'What do you mean, sync?' Robbie replied, 'Well, whatever you play now will then play in perfect time with the first take.' We said, 'How's that possible?' and he said, 'It's something I've figured out that even Bob Moog didn't know his machine was capable of, and now I've told him how it's done... Here's how: first, we need to record areference pulse on track 16 of the tape, and from that we can then lock in the Moog so that the rest of the tracks are perfectly synchronised.'

"Once this was done and Giorgio had laid the basic track down — we'd use other Moogs later on, including the Minimoog, but nothing ever had the strength of that particular bass, which is like agiant's hammer on awall — every other synthesized sound locked in absolutely solidly with the original tempo. We had entered another world! This is how brilliantly clever Robbie Wedel was. No one had ever figured this out before — he was the true innovator, and he deserves so much credit.

"Robbie simulated ahi‑hat, snare and bass drum on there, as well as aswell pad — he was just avery ingenious programmer. It was recorded on a16‑track Studer A80 in an Eastlake room at Musicland, where we had a32/32 Harrison desk. In terms of effects on this track, there was only compression and reverb from one of the early Lexicons, while for vocals we just used Neumann U87s. The Moog was simply direct‑injected into the desk, and even now, on any system, that track sounds so massive, so future‑proof.

"Giorgio had the idea for the song, coming up with the tune while Donna and Iwrote the lyrics, but in the studio we always built things as we went along, just as with 'I Feel Love'. For others we'd also come up with basicideas, sometimes the musicians would chip in, andwith hindsight it now seems amuch, much more fluid way of recording than thatwhich takes place today. Imean, nowadays it's possible to sit in our home studios with no hourly rate clocking up, and spend days working on alittle detail that doesn't make too much difference in the end. Back then, Ithink there was more spontaneity, less navel‑gazing.”

Last-minute Edits

The last song on the album, recorded in twoto three hours and designed to transportlisteners into the future, 'I Feel Love' would quickly become agay anthem, not leastbecause of Neil Bogart's astute marketing, while topping the UK singles chartand climbing to number six on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it was considered to be nothing more than afiller when the record was finished.

"We never thought of it as astand-out track, we just thought it part of agood album,” Bellotte comments. "However, when we sent the album off to LA, Neil Bogart called back straight away and said, 'The single is 'I Feel Love', it needs three edits and these are the edits.' Doing these immediately improved the fluidity of the track no end. He was that kind of arecord man. And, of course, those edits no longer exist, because they would have been sliced from the quarter‑inch master and simply thrown on the floor. That's how it was then. If you ever did any editing, the floor was cluttered with all the stuff you didn't use. We never saved anything, it was just discarded. However, because of his uncanny feel for the music, Bogart knew exactly where the track should be edited and, of course, the improvement was fantastic.”