1979 · Behind the Songs
A post-“Survive” single that turned self-respect into a groove.
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After “I Will Survive” made her a global icon in 1978, Gloria Gaynor faced the question every breakthrough artist faces: what next? Her answer came in 1979 with “Let Me Know (I Have a Right),” the title-adjacent single from her album I Have a Right. Where “Survive” had been about enduring, “Let Me Know” was about asserting — a disco record that insisted on respect, on the dance floor and off it.
The song arrived at a complicated moment. Disco was at its commercial peak in early 1979, but the backlash was already building — by summer, Chicago’s Disco Demolition Night would symbolize the genre’s sudden fall from favor. “Let Me Know (I Have a Right)” didn’t chase the moment; it stood its ground. Gaynor sang it with the authority she had earned, her voice carrying the message that dignity isn’t negotiable, even — especially — when the world seems to be turning against your music.
Musically, the record is classic late-70s Gaynor: a driving disco groove, lush orchestration, and that unmistakable contralto cutting through it all with clarity and force. It may not have matched the chart heights of its predecessor, but it deepened her artistic statement. The woman who had survived was now declaring her rights — and the progression felt natural, even inevitable.
Listen for the confidence — there’s no tentativeness here, no wounded first verse. This is Gaynor fully in command, and the song’s insistence on having “a right” resonates beyond the dance floor. In the arc of her career, “Let Me Know” is the bridge between the survival anthem and the self-acceptance anthem (“I Am What I Am”) that would follow: first you survive, then you demand respect, then you celebrate who you are.