Gloria Gaynor does more than sing across Grand Strand

Gloria Gaynor has all her love, all her life to give, to help anyone realize that they will survive.

The singer of disco anthem “I Will Survive” from 1978-79, who lives in her native New Jersey, loves to share the inspiration that went global from that song, especially in supporting various charities, and when getting out in the community during visits to her vacation residence in Murrells Inlet.

Whether speaking to students at Socastee High School, residents at the Brightwater retirement community near Myrtle Beach, or to youngsters this summer at The Village Group’s Plantersville Summer Academy in Georgetown County, Gaynor loves to lift everyone’s spirits and hopes. She also spoke in February at Coastal Carolina University’s fifth Women’s Leadership Conference and Celebration of Inspiring Women.

Everyone who attends her concert at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Calvin Gilmore Theater in Myrtle Beach ought to see why. Two groups of special guests will join her for this performance: the Coastal Inspirational Ambassadors Gospel Choir from CCU, and the Socastee Singers from Socastee High School.

During a rehearsal earlier this summer inside CCU’s Edwards Recital Hall, Gaynor sang along behind the pianist who was accompanying the gospel choir on a Steinway, as they sang such words as “Love. Freedom. You need him. J-E-S-U-S.”

Watching from the auditorium’s seats, Stephanie Gold, Gaynor’s manager, said the number, “Talkin’ About Jesus,” was from an EP for which recording was planned this month in Nashville, Tenn.

On “Please Let Me Show You,” Gaynor led with the pianist, then the 16 students kicked in and the hall resonated with one full, rousing sound as the tunes continued for about an hour.

Sitting down to look back

On this night, her last rehearsal with the CCU group until her return later this month ahead of her concert in Myrtle Beach, Gaynor sat afterward in an audience chair and thought about the connections she makes with youth.

The members of the gospel choir who had mostly cleared out moments earlier weren’t even born when she scored her biggest hits, starting in the mid-1970s with her disco cover of Jackson 5’s “Never Can Say Goodbye.”

Staying involved with programs to motivate children and young adults, Gaynor said for instance, she wants to emphasize efforts to help teen fathers.

Having grown up without a father, and dealing with abuse and rape, Gaynor focuses on her faith.

She wrote in “We Will Survive: True Stories of Encouragement, Inspiration and the Power of Song,” written with Sue Carswall and published in 2013 by Grand Harbor Press, about rebounding from “internal scars,” even in trying to salvage her marriage: “It took a while, but I grew strong and I truly learned how to get along. My courage grew, and I began to recognize my own strength, and the power God had placed in me.”

The book became a compilation of contributions from about 40 other people who each achieved more than survival, but triumph, after climbing their own mountains.

The road to record “I Will Survive” took Gaynor on some curves as well. She said that a fall on stage left her hospitalized for a few months, and “I didn’t know what would happen with my career.”

Yet, in recovery, with thoughts of “Where do I go from here,” she recalled, “I began praying, and read the Bible.” Soon, a new record company president called, saying he had a song for her.

Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris had written “I Will Survive,” first issued by Polydor Records on a 45-rpm vinyl single as the B side to another song the team penned, “Substitute.”

“I Will Survive” – also the first song on the second side of her “Love Tracks” album – struck Gaynor instantly: “I said, ‘This is a hit song.’ ”

“I related to this song,” Gaynor said, “especially after my spinal surgery, and because my mother died recently.”

Gaynor said she’s “not at all bothered” at being identified primarily with “I Will Survive.”

“It used to bother me,” she said candidly, “but God is in control of what we need.”

Having met fellow artists with “14 other hits” of their own, Gaynor said they’ve expressed to her the wish they had one blockbuster hit on the lines of “I Will Survive,” making her only more grateful, especially with her catalog of recordings spanning jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel.

‘Honored’ among fellow artists

Recounting old times, Gaynor stayed humble. Asked about “Never Can Say Goodbye” helping herald the start of the disco era, and what that music, with its upbeat and positive nature, came to mean to her as a fan and listener, she stayed down to earth: “I felt honored to be counted among the wonderful artists I had admired for so many years.”

Gaynor said she has enjoyed catching up with such colleagues from that era, such as Thelma Houston, best known for “Don’t Leave Me This Way” on Motown Records, and Evelyn “Champagne” King, who burst out of the gate back then with “Shame.”

Groups including Village People and Kool & the Gang earned Gaynor’s praise.

She brought up Kool & the Gang’s great work in arranging and producing her take of a Supremes’ hit, “Stop! in the Name of Love,” in the early 1980s.

Diana Ross, who performed the halftime show at Super Bowl XXX in 1996 closed her 12-song Supremes and solo-hit set with “I Will Survive” and her own latest single, “Take Me Higher,” while taking off in a helicopter from Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.

Gaynor said seeing Ross in concert in a hall, closing with “I Will Survive” flattered her, especially when Ross “gave me the mic” to sing.

Enjoying getaways to her condo in northeast Georgetown County once or twice a year, Gaynor, who also earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Walden University and has performed in more than 80 countries – with a Philippines date set for Feburary – hopes to raise that frequency to four to five times annually, also giving her more time and outlets to make a difference with her message and camaraderie in turning more people’s outlooks up.

In June, Gaynor spent an afternoon at Plantersville Summer Academy, at Plantersville Elementary School, south of the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, with 235 children in attendance. Ray C. Funnye, The Village Group’s founder and executive director, said her words spoken “inspired the young people to never give up.”

Funnye, fond of hearing “I Will Survive” in his youth, said Gaynor also moved him with her encouragement to “work real hard” and how “you have to press on.”

Her visit made a “sizeable impact for our program,” Funnye said, noting The Village Group’s 10th anniversary year.

When Gaynor sang her signature song, “everybody chimed in,” Funnye said.

“All those youngsters who had never heard of her before,” he said, “picked it up really fast.”

This story was originally published August 25, 2015 at 11:07 AM with the headline "Gloria Gaynor does more than sing across Grand Strand."