"I Will Survive": (not just another) Classic Or Dud? (thread)

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Gloria Gaynor's stomping disco anthem - timeless masterpiece or shrieking party nightmare?

And a more general qn - what happens to songs when they become as famous and ubiquitous as this (or "Dancing Queen" or "Yesterday" or....). How does it affect how you hear them? How you like them?

― Tom, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They become meaningless and then they become football chants (or even more evil, they become the songs they play in the hour preceding a footie match, because everybody knows them and "likes" them, so there is a hope everybody will start to sing along, so when the match begins with the enevitable 'We Will Rock You' or 'We Are The Champions' there will be something of an atmosphere. I observed this last summer at Euro2000 with some horror, although also with some irony since everybody was singing along to gay anthems like 'I Will Survive' and 'YMCA';)

I Will Survive though is particulary irritating, why anybody, anywhere would nowadays get something out of this song is for me quite a mystery.

― Omar, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

When a song attains that degree of notoriety it tends to become "compilation material". I bet that most people don't even know who the singer is. This is to say that "I will survive" is a classic song because it transcends its author's identity... the kind of music you alway hear at parties but nobody (except the dj maybe) can name the artist...

― Simone, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I thought everyone knew that Gloria Gaynor sang it. Whatever, it is fairly annoying. Dancing Queen, however, is an absolute bona-fide classic, and always will be. You can't make a great song bad simply by playing it too much. This could almost be a tangent to the 'Can you be talked out of anything?' thread. Can you be listened out of anything?

― Ally C, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

One reason I ask this is that I know people - well, Isabel for one - who still get something out of the song. Quite a lot, in fact- it works her up into a kind of non-specific frenzy of sisterhood and righteous ire. Whereas I'm with Ally C - there are songs which for me are marvellous no matter how often they're played, and "Dancing Queen" is one of them, and "I Will Survive" isn't. You can listen something to death, but that's not really a reflection on the song's quality - it was there for you when you needed it, after all.

― Tom, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

As a student, i can tell you that the majority of Student Union run events appear to be legally obliged to play this fucking song along with the rest of them. Why young people love these songs is a total mystery and i report with horror that i have seen many a drunken rugby player singing along without irony to "Raining Men", "Dancing Queen", "I Will Survive" etc...etc...

― Charlie, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i'd have to agree that 'dancing queen' is class regardless of overplay, while 'i will survive' isn't. i think i'd have to add, though, that dancing queen's ubiquity itself actually somehow seems to add to its brilliance. perhaps thats because it has that distanced glossy sheen...

― gareth, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, this is true. It's kind of the ultimate pop song in a way. It also reveals me as a complete classicist - every time I read fountains of praise for the Beatles, Stones etc. and find myself getting annoyed, if I substitute "Dancing Queen", "SOS" etc. for the song titles I can think, ah, now I see what they're getting at.

An Abba:c-o-d thread is surely inevitable but I'll start it next week because, as Aerosmith so rightly said, I don't want to miss a thing.

― Tom, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree with you all about 'Dancing Queen' and well, most of ABBA's hits. What is the difference though? The only ABBA song I really can't hear anymore is 'The Winner Takes It All' (maybe also a bit of a footie-anthem? ;)

― Omar, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can just about imagine the twisted universe where the heartbreaking, peerless "Winner Takes It All" becomes a footie anthem, but I certainly wouldn't want to visit it. Jesus.

― Tom, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Alright, so I'm now the only person on FT who likes I Will Survive. That's fantastic. I like being different and I didn't reckon I would be on this one ;)

I can't play out the song, it's wonderful. It's not the greatest dance song of all time (thanks, VH1), but it's just timeless. It's a little overlong sometimes, though. And I would like to go on record saying that Dancing Queen is ONLY alright.

As for famous ubiquitous songs...it depends on the song. If the song wasn't that great to begin with, then yeah, I'm going to tire of it. But if it's a really great song, you just can't play it to death. Getting tired of something isn't necessarily a mark on its worth, but it does indicate it's just not timeless. I'm not someone who puts a lot of worth on timelessness though.

― Ally, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hmm...maybe it's a girl thing? Because I happen to like it too, and don't really get sick of it. Gloria Gaynor's version, that is -- if it happens to be someone drunkenly singing it on the way out of a club in a parking lot, then I *am* kind of sick of it.

― Nicole, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

total classic.

depends on the song, yeah.

― sundar subramanian, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Classic. If I were to hear it (or "Dancing Queen", or "YMCA") at some kind of office party or family get-together, I'd probably yawn at the predictability of it all, but they genuinely are great songs, and I'm not tired of hearing them. I often get fed up with songs, though, but I couldn't tell you why it happens with one song and not with another.

On the opposite end, there are the songs I'd initially dismissed and that I finally started to enjoy after 5000 listens : Counting Crows' "Mr Jones", Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn", Sixpence None The Richer's "Kiss Me"...

― Patrick, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I Will Survive: dud. Dancing Queen: classic. And 'twas so from the moment they came out.

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What is abysmal is the 'hilarious' 'punk' version a band I knew used to play of 'I Will Survive'...oh dear.

― DG, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Or Cake's version. Cake, right? That was their name? Ugh. Awful.

― Ally, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I remember being very irritated by "I Will Survive" when it stayed at no. 1 (in the UK) for about five weeks. I actually don't mind it now, although it's not a particular favourite. I think its special appeal lies in the sense of human optimism it fosters in the (preferably drunken) listener.

― David, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And don't get me started on Chantay Savage's tedious slow-jam version.

― Robin Carmody, Saturday, 24 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sort've the "Stairway to Heaven" of classic disco tracks, I'm sure it parted seas when it was first released, but let's face it: In 2001, it's but a cliche....a very dead horse that has been beaten beyond all recognition. Some songs can stand the test of time (Chic's "Le Freak", if we're talking classic disco, comes to mind), whereas others seem now only to torment the listener. Gloria Gaynor went on to find Christ, wouldn't you know.

― alex in nyc, Tuesday, 27 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I loved this song when I was a kid. Had the 45 and listened to it all the time. But after that much-publicized story about the woman who was jilted at the altar by her superwealthy boyfriend and had the reception anyway and sang "I Will Survive," it took on cheesy anthem status. Now it's a staple at karaoke nights everywhere, always sung by the same weepy drunk girls (or, sometimes, in an oddball kitschy genderbending twist, guys) who have just been dumped.

Needless to say, I don't like it any more. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece by any means--even when I was younger, I don't think I would have attributed that level of quality to this song--but it's endured. There's better "fuck off, I can do better without you, I don't need you" songs out there. But none of them are more popular than "I Will Survive." Not by a mile.

― Nanette, Wednesday, 28 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one month passes...

It just might be a girl thing because I love "I Will Survive" and I'm in a healthy relationship. I just like the beat and the song. I couldn't really tell you why. Maybe because I've had so many bad relationships? But I love this song and don't get sick of it. I have it sung by several different artists.

― Shelle, Saturday, 12 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three years pass...

I'll have to disagree with the concensus here and say that at the moment Dancing Queen is kind of tired out for me, but I Will Survive still sounds great. Sure it's overplayed, but that's doesn't mean the song itself isn't great. We all still love James Brown even though EVERYONE has heard the select famous ones (and many, many times over at that). Maybe we could all just say dud to the application of I Will Survive?

― Laszlo Kovacs (Laszlo Kovacs), Monday, 7 February 2005 07:40 (twenty years ago)

ten months pass...

i really can't believe what i'm reading here. Lazlokovaks and Ally (not C) OTM. "I Will Survive" is a total classic. heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. beautiful lyrics and a gorgeous, sad, goddamn beautiful arrangement. those strings! the voice!

this song stomps all over Dancing Queen, which i doubt i would ever choose to listen to ever again.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 24 December 2005 02:34 (nineteen years ago)

It's no "Never Can Say Goodbye", boy.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Saturday, 24 December 2005 06:07 (nineteen years ago)

four years pass...

anybody who does not respond emotionally to "I'm not that chained up little person still in love with you" is broken inside imo

― les yeux sans aerosmith (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Sunday, 11 July 2010 12:40 (fourteen years ago)

yeah. a lot of hit songs lose their luster -- and any sense of excitement or energy -- from being overplayed and overexposed. not this one.

classic.

― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 11 July 2010 12:42 (fourteen years ago)

seven years pass...

came here to say what daniel said seven years ago. i also agree with aerosmith.

― treeship 2, Wednesday, 15 November 2017 12:45 (seven years ago)

read this thread with incredulity again. dancing queen, my arse.

this is magnificent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTRIx2yJInM

― Susan Stranglehands (jed_), Wednesday, 15 November 2017 12:57 (seven years ago)

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