Memory Lane Music

Pexels, free licence “Escapade”, from Rhythm Nation 1814, is the album’s invitation to get away from it all: a joyful, up-tempo song about leaving worries behind for a day of fun. Its bright melody and its playful vocal make it one of the most immediately likeable tracks on a sometimes serious album, and it shows … Read more

Pexels, free licence Released in 1989 as the lead single from Rhythm Nation 1814, “Miss You Much” is Jackson at her most exuberant: a fast, bright dance-pop song about missing someone, with a chorus that invites a whole room to sing along. Its production, again by Jam and Lewis, is polished without losing its rhythmic … Read more

Pexels, free licence “The Pleasure Principle”, from Control, is built around a driving dance groove and a vocal that moves between pleading and decision. The song’s subject is a relationship in which pleasure has become a trap, and Jackson sings it as someone working out, in real time, that she needs to leave. Its video, … Read more

Pexels, free licence “Let’s Wait Awhile”, a ballad from Control, slows the album down for a conversation about patience in a relationship. Jackson sings about not rushing intimacy, with a tenderness and a directness that made the song stand out among mid-1980s pop ballads. Its arrangement is spare by the album’s standards, leaving space for … Read more

Pexels, free licence “Anybody Wanna Party?”, from the late-1970s period around Love Tracks, is Gaynor in party mode: a funk-inflected dance track that asks a simple question and answers it with a groove. It is a reminder that disco, at its best, was not only about heartbreak and survival, but also about a room full … Read more

Pexels, free licence Released in 1975, the same year as her debut, Experience Gloria Gaynor is often described by listeners as a stronger, more varied album than its predecessor, even though it produced no hit on the scale of “Never Can Say Goodbye”. Its first side is again a dance medley, while its second side … Read more

Pexels, free licence Love Tracks, released in 1978, is the album that contains “I Will Survive”, and it is worth hearing as a whole rather than as a single-song record. Around the famous track, Gaynor and her producers Perren and Fekaris build a set of polished disco songs about love, loss and determination, with the … Read more

Pexels, free licence From the 1975 album Experience Gloria Gaynor, “Casanova Brown” is a lighter, more playful Gaynor record: a dance track with string flourishes and a cooing, sometimes sassy backing vocal, about a charming man who cannot be trusted. It shows that Gaynor’s range in her mid-1970s prime was wider than the survival anthem … Read more

Pexels, free licence “Honey Bee”, part of the continuous suite on the first side of Never Can Say Goodbye, is early disco at its most joyful: a bright, string-led dance track built around Gaynor’s warm, flexible vocal. It is easy to overlook beside the album’s bigger title song, but it shows the other side of … Read more