Customer Reviews

I Remember Yesterday

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One of Summer's better and more consistently and conceptually themed albums for 1978. Songs range in this order of styles/genres:I Remember Yesterday (Roaring 20's,30's,40's nostalgic Cole Porter,Gershwin Brothers), Love's Unkind (50's American Bandstand Rock N'Roll),Back In Love Again(60's Motown-esque Supremes sound),Black Lady(70's funky-soul sound a la Superfly,Shaft,Foxy Brown,Police Woman, t.v. and movie themes), Take Me (the pinnacle of the disco sound with Saturday Night Fever musings for the late 70's),Can't We Just Sit Down (a mellow late 70's love ballad to give the listener a breather after the extensive time travel), I Feel Love (a futuristic new wave pre-techno blueprint for the 80's and 90's club music scene and beyond)...

Despite the different eras covered, the entire album is cloaked in the distinct Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte disco synthesized sound. However, this does not mar or tarnish the overall effect and idea behind this Summer tribute to the different decades of American pop-cultured music. The styles were popular for their respective heydays.This was also one of the first albums to demonstrate just how flexible and chameleon-like Donna could be in taking on the roles of the different vocal styles involved for each era ! I Remember Yesterday is very memorable...

OK, first things, first, "I Feel Love" is contained on this album, and yes it was a mega hit, and light years ahead of it's time. However with so much aclaim lauded on this one song, it is easy to overlook the rest of this release.

The I Remember Yesterday suite from side 1 payed homage to many of the musical styles that Donna enjoyed, from the swing sound of the title track, to the Beer Garden sway of Love's Unkind, and the Supreme's tribute on Back In Love Again. This was Donna's first release to feature full song compositions on both sides, and her real voice (as opposed to the high falsetto) was showcased on many of the songs.

Side 2 besides showcasing the aforementioned I Feel Love, also contains the sensual Take Me, and the heartfelt ballad Can't We Just Sit Down (and talk about it).

This album pointed the way to what would become Donna's biggest blockbusters.

......and I DO Remember Yesterday!

I was away at college for my first year in the Fall of '77. My folks played my cassette of this album to death every time they would take me back to school after visiting them for the weekend. This made the hour and fifteen minute ride between LA and Riverside a lot of fun.

I bought the cassette because I loved "I Feel Love." I was pleasantly surprised by the whole project. Donna sets up the theme of remembering different eras of song and delivered some of the best music of the late '70's.

The flow of the music is perfect on the first four songs. The title track is bouncy and moves smoothly into the next jam, "Love's Unkind." Donna does a "supreme" job on the next jam, "Back in Love Again," and finishes things with a reprise of the title track.

To me Donna brings things up to date with the next three songs. "Black Lady" is rockish/funk, with "Take Me" exhibiting more of a disco feel. "Can't We Just Sit Down" is a plea for making things better and allows Donna the opportunity to show off her vocal skills and get "emotional."

Then Donna takes it to another level with the help of her producers, Giorgio and Pete. "I Feel Love" is disco at it's best; driving/pulsating dance music. The melding of production and voice is perfect and different from what Donna had done to this point. The kind of jam that as soon as you hear the opening note, you knew that was your song and you proceeded to the dance floor.

Donna was (and is still) one of the most versatile singers to ever grace a recording studio. She definitely was the QUEEN OF DISCO, but she was also AN ARTIST. A singer not wanting to limit herself to just one thing, but capable of so much because of the talent she possesses. A talent that allowed her to reinvent herself and move along as the musical tastes of the country changed. She made several classic albums during the late '70's and early '80's. This is one of them.

This was Donna Summer's fourth international album release and fifth in Europe. Here Donna and producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte are experimenting in a variety of styles all of which are designed to showcase Ms Summer's stunning range and vocals.Of course the groundbreaking single was the futuristic (for the time) I Feel Love; but other standout tracks include Loves Unkind and Back in Love Again. It's incredible to think that this album is almost 30 years old, it still sounds fresh and exciting today.

`I remember yesterday' is the album Donna Summer released in 1977, showcasing a variety of musical and vocal stylings. A concept album which was both retro, including the sleeve photos, and forward looking at the same time.

Opening track `I remember yesterday' is 40s big band jazz meets disco, complete with some scat. A UK top 20 hit.

This segues into `Love's unkind', the tale of a school girl's unrequited crush, and is a girl group stomp. A UK no.3 hit.

This also segues into `Back in love again', an excellent Motown/Supremes pastiche with excellent harmonies. A UK top 30 hit.

Closing out the medley is a reprise of `I remember yesterday'.

`Black lady' has Donna belting out to a horn laden blaxploitation/Shaft sounding number. It's an energetic, funky number with fiery vocals. Great!

Next comes the synthesizer driven dance number `Take me' with yearning, sensual lyrics sung in falsetto. A standout.

`Can't we just sit down and talk it over is the only ballad on the album, and the only non Summer/Moroder/Bellotte composition. A tender ballad about the sad end of a romance, it has Donna belting out. This was originally the A side of the last track...

...'I feel love'. The song that was (and still is) years ahead of it's time. The grandmother of techno/trance/electronica/whatever you call it.

This simple, yet intricately layered song was the first hit comprised entirely of Moog synthesizers. The song that had John Lennon say `This is the future' when he heard it.

Featuring Donna singing in an ethereal falsetto to a synthesized wall of sound which rises and falls, and which featured a break where we hear nothing but synth and drums, before other effects start filtering in, a technique she would use on other songs like `Now I need you', `Working the midnight shift', `Lucky', and `She works hard for the money'. A UK no.1 for 4 weeks, and a US no.6 which sold a million copies.

A fitting way to close this musical journey in time, by looking into the future.

Needless to say, the album was certified gold in the US. In my opinion, one of her best albums, and the start of her including different elements in her music.

To quote the famous line from this album; `Wherever you go, take a little Summer with you'.

Back in '77 the critics were blaise about this album, saying that it was weak or lightweight. Nowadays, this album is rightfully regarded as a true classic. She, along with her sisters, Pete Bellotte, Georgio Moroder, and Brooklyn Dreams made an album for the ages that takes us through America's pop music's past, present and future(not a bad concept, eh?).

Lets get to the songs: 1. I Remember Yesterday - A good tune that harkens back to the 30's and 40's of big band music.
2. Love's Unkind - a great tune that has a 50's R&B feel, that was also a European hit.
3. Back In Love Again - Reminds us of the early to mid-60's girl group feel(Diana Ross, eat your heart out!).
4. I Remember Yesterday(reprise)- A nice ending to the first side of the album.
5. Black Lady - A great tune that reiminds us the the late 60's to early 70's soul and R&B. It should've became a hit.
6. Take Me - an earthy, and sensual tune that was in vogue at that time(mid 70's).
7. Can't we Just Sit Down(and Talk It Over)- a tune that shows that she CAN do a ballad, and do it with range(mid 70's). However, it's also her weakest song on this album.
8. I Feel Love - This song was the big hit that threw everyone into a loop. A futuristic tune that is still sounds good today as it did then. It was a sign of things to come. Georgio may have created the 1st Trance tune, and hit.

This album will stand out as possibly her 2nd or 3rd best conceptual album of her career. This album also prepares us for her next full studio album which was recorded in L.A.
Live....And More! as well as Thank God It's Friday don't really count as full albums.)

Donna starts this album, curiously, featuring an interesting title track done with a veil of the 1940's American music. Halfway toward the album's end, this track ("I Remember Yesterday") is reprised. This accentuates this album's theme - sort of paying homage to a bygone era in U.S. music. I personally don't care for these two tracks, though they do sound nice and they also set the stage for the disco songs that follow them by enhancing the pleasure one can derive from Summer's '70's disco style. I give the "1940's" tracks that much.

The futuristic hit "I Feel Love" which was back at the album's origional release date (1977) many years ahead of its time and by now has already been crowned using almost every superlative in the book, is placed at the album's end, and rightly so! This turns this song's "face" in the future's direction in every way, shape and form (I don't know whether this was intentionally done at the time or not).

I don't find interest in songs like "Can't We Just Sit Down" and "Back In Love Again". Among the disco songs, two songs come, jointly, second to "I Feel Love": "Black Lady"+"Take Me". Too bad "Black Lady" had never been done in a single and/or extended version. I strongly recommend listening to it.

Continuing with experimenting in new styles. Donna's 5th album finds her doing a salute to pop music through 4 different decades. Frotunately it all works very well! 'I Remember Yeaterday' kicks off with the title track, a salute to the big band sound of the 40's, "dancing to the sound of clarinets", and all, plus it gives us the rare opportunity to hear Donna's scat singing. We then move on the the 50's with "Love's Unkind", probably one of the best tracks on the album. On to the 60's with the Supremes-style "Back In Love Again", then, before reaching the 70's, we delve back into the 40's with "I Remember Yesterday (reprise)". Of course, as everybody knows, the big hit from tha album, and probably Donna's finest hour, is the timeless classic "I Feel Love", which even to this day is a huge dance club favorite. This is the song that established Donna as the quintessential Disco Diva.

a very good album, the concept of which was to cover the musical styles that marked the century, so it begins with the title track, harking back to the 20s and the 30s, it is a lovely, fun song; then its to the 50s with 'love's unkind', an irresistible pop song, not really disco; next is 'back in love again' and motown and the 60s, and apparently the 70s are represented with 'black lady', an awesome, energetic track, forgotten unjustly, because it rocks and shakes, it's one of my favourite summer songs; 'take me' is flowing, sensual, and well, risque ('use me, make me your own' - i quite like that :)) the ballad 'can't we just sit down' is a dud, but i have no words for the masterpiece that is 'i feel love'; just to think how visionary moroder was, this songs fits perfectly with any sound heard on radio today, it's rightfully considered a classic, AND was voted single of the year by Britain's New Musical Express!!!!!

Even by the heady standards of the form, Donna Summer is Disco Baroque. The first half of this fantastic album is a medley of songs so mind-fizzingly, heart-leapingly, soul-looseningly, foot-cripplingly brilliant, it is one of the most exhilerating experiences in popular music. 'I Remember Yesterday' sets the breathless pace, clashing discofried Vegas oompah-big-band with neon melodies, exploding 'doopdoopdoowah' backing vocals and Summer's soaring voice. 'Love's Unkind' is 60s girl-group tragi-bubblegum electrified by celebratory 70s stomp; 'Back In Love Again' is a supreme Diana Ross pastiche, scuzzing way past its inspiration; and a reprise of the title track finally explodes your addled head.

Nothing on earth or in space could possibly follow THAT, and the album's second half is only slightly anti-climactic: 'Can't We Just Sit Down' sounds like a Carole King ballad sung by Whitney Houston and isn't really to my taste. This half however, features two of Summer's most famous songs. 'Take Me' is swooning eros marshalled by robotic funk. 'I Feel Love' is a pile-driving, stratospheric, 21st century sex odyssey, desire gleaming against metal walls, a futuristic wet dream that makes even Blondie's sublime 'Atomic' unneccessary. Instead of electric sheep, androids dream of Donna Summer.