"You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" is a song by American

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

/ R&B singer

Sylvester Sylvester or Silvester is a name derived from the Latin adjective ''silvestris'' meaning "wooded" or "wild", which derives from the noun ''silva'' meaning "woodland". Classical Latin spells this with ''i''. In Classical Latin, ''y'' represented a ...

. It was written by James Wirrick and Sylvester, produced by

Harvey Fuqua Harvey Fuqua ( ; July 27, 1929 – July 6, 2010) was an American R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, and record label executive. Fuqua founded the seminal R&B/doo-wop group the Moonglows in the 1950s. He is notable as one of the k ...

and Sylvester, and released by

Fantasy Records Fantasy Records is an American independent record label company founded by brothers Max and Sol Stanley Weiss in 1949. The early years of the company were dedicated to issuing recordings by jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, who was also one of its inves ...

as the second single from the singer's fourth album, '' Step II'' (1978). The song was already a largely popular dance club hit in 1977, as the B-side of his previous single " Dance (Disco Heat)", before it was officially being released in December. It rose to the number one position on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Dance Club Songs The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...

chart. Music critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

has said the song is "one of those surges of sustained, stylized energy that is disco's great gift to

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

". In 2003, ''

Q Magazine ''Q'' was a British popular music magazine. It was founded in 1986 by broadcast journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were presenters of the BBC television music series ''The Old Grey Whistle Test''. ''Q'' was published in print in the ...

'' included "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" in their list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever". In 2019, the song was selected by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

for preservation in the

National Recording Registry The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation ...

for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2023 and 2025, ''

'' magazine ranked it among the "500 Best Pop Songs of All Time" and "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time".

Origins

The song was originally recorded as a mid-tempo piano-driven

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

song; however, after producer Patrick Cowley saw a rehearsal of the song at San Francisco's City Club, he offered to remix the song. The result was one of the pioneering

records using some electronic instrumentation and effects, following closely on "

I Feel Love "I Feel Love" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Donna Summer. Produced and co-written by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, it was recorded for Summer's fifth studio album, '' I Remember Yesterday'' (1977). The album concept was to ha ...

" by

Donna Summer Donna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music ...

which heavily used electronic instrumentation ahead of its time. These 1970s songs using electronic instrumentation would have an influence on 1980s and 1990s

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

, which in turn, would have an influence on dance music in the next century.

Chart performance

The song was Sylvester's first top 10 hit in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart in October 1978. In Sylvester's home country, the single was his second

top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

hit, peaking at No. 36 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in February 1979. Whitburn, Joel (2004). ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits'', 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 619. The song also reached No. 20 on the ''

'' Hot Soul Singles chart. A 12" single was released in 1978, with " Dance (Disco Heat)" as the A-side and "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" as the B-side, and these two extended dance mixes proved to be very popular in dance clubs at the time. The two songs held down the top spot on the ''Billboard'' Dance/Disco chart for six weeks in August and September 1978. These two songs helped to establish Sylvester's career as a noted disco and dance music performer, both in the US and abroad.

Impact and legacy

In 1994, French DJ

Laurent Garnier Laurent Garnier (born 1 February 1966), also known as Choice, is a French electronic music producer and DJ. Garnier began DJing in Manchester during the late 1980s. He became a producer in the early 1990s and recorded several albums. Early influe ...

named "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" one of his favourites of all time, saying, "Amazing powerful

hi-NRG Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a music genre, typified by its fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the four-on-the-flo ...

. He's got a wicked voice — the vocals are beautiful, more than anything else he's done. I heard first in Italy around the time of

's '

'." In October 2000,

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

ranked it No. 14 in their list of "100 Greatest Dance Songs". In 2003, ''

'' ranked it No. 677 in their list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever". In 2018, ''

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

'' featured the song in their list of "50 Songs That Define the Last 50 Years of LGBTQ+ Pride". In 2019, the song was selected by the

for preservation in the

for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2020, ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

'' ranked "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" No. 13 in their "Top 50 Happiest Songs Ever" list. In 2021, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' included it in their list of " 500 Best Songs of All Time" at No. 399. In 2022, they ranked it No. 39 in their list of "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time". The same year, '' Time Out'' ranked it No. 8 in their list of "The 50 Best Gay Songs to Celebrate Pride All Year Long". In October 2023, ''Billboard'' ranked "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" No. 428 in their "Best Pop Songs of All Time". The magazine praised its "magic moment"; "In the song‘s intro, as the song’s main hook starts to gather steam, a laser synth sound rises from out of nowhere, as if the song’s about to zoom off into outer space. And then it does." In 2024, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' ranked it No. 13 in their list of "The 30 Greatest Disco Songs of All Time". In March 2025, ''Billboard'' ranked it No. 17 in their list of "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time".

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Jimmy Somerville version

British singer

Jimmy Somerville James William Somerville (born 22 June 1961) is a singer from Glasgow, Scotland who rose to prominence in the 1980s with the synth-pop groups Bronski Beat and the Communards. With Bronski Beat, Somerville achieved commercial success with the 1 ...

, formerly of the bands Bronski Beat and

Communards The Communards () were members and supporters of the short-lived 1871 Paris Commune formed in the wake of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. After the suppression of the Commune by the French Army in May 1871, 43,000 Communards we ...

, released a cover of "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" in 1989. His version of the song also received substantial club play, and it peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart in January 1990. To date, this is the highest-charting version of the song in the UK. Somerville's cover of this song appears on his first solo album, '' Read My Lips'' (1989). Steve McLean directed the song's music video.

Background

Somerville told in a 1990 interview with ''

'', that the track "was originally released during a period of time when the gay community was successful in creating positive visibility." He noted further, "And then

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

created a political backlash. I wanted to bring this song forward as a means of picking up these pieces of history and contributing to bringing out a positive image of gay men." Having already covered two other '70s classics; " Don't Leave Me This Way" and " Never Can Say Goodbye", Somerville said he was trying to "reclaim what originally belonged to the gay community." He added, "During the '70s, we had all of these gay men expressing their emotions by writing music, and then using women vocalists as a front. We can now front these songs ourselves. It's an important thing to do. The problem is that so few people are willing to jeopardize record sales in order to be the honest and true people they really are."

Critical reception

Bill Coleman from ''Billboard'' described the song as a "unashamedly

/ pop cover", noting that it marked Somerville's debut as a solo singer. Pan-European magazine ''

Music & Media ''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later m ...

'' wrote that the song is "an obvious choice for Somerville" and added further that he performs it with "such raw enthusiasm that his version is easily as good as the original. The basic difference is that the backing is tighter and cleaner-a punchy brass riff has been added and there is a video (that mixes fun and gay politics to good effect)." In his review of the song, David Giles from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' stated that the singer "makes a very fine job at it." To

Tim Southwell Tim Southwell is the co-founder of '' loaded'' magazine, launched in April 1994. Biography Along with James Brown and Mick Bunnage, Southwell helped create the men's magazine phenomenon of the 1990s. Previously to ''loaded'', Southwell founded ...

of ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after ''New Musical Express'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK Album ...

'', this song was "more

disco-pop Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describes ...

Europa-style", but considered it "somewhat tepid compared to Somerville's duet with June Miles-Kingston " Comment te dire adieu".

Music video

A music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Steve McLean. It features Somerville, backed by dancers, performing the song at a planet in front of

volcanic crater A volcanic crater is an approximately circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity. It is typically a bowl-shaped feature containing one or more vents. During volcanic eruptions, molten magma and volcanic gases rise from an ...

s. The video also features archive footage of

Harvey Milk Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised i ...

and Sylvester, as well as

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

s. The video was later made available on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

in 2017 and had generated more than 6.6 million views as of August 2023.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

In France, the single reportedly sold at least 100,000 copies.

Byron Stingily version

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-born

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

singer Byron Stingily, formerly of the band

Ten City Ten City (derived from ''intensity'') is an American, Chicago, Illinois-based R&B and house music act, that enjoyed a number of club hits and Urban radio hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was one of the first exponents of deep house. ...

, recorded a cover of "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" in 1997. Like Sylvester's original recording, Stingily's cover version of "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" (produced by UK music producer Damien Mendis) went to number-one on the American ''Billboard'' dance chart, where it spent one week atop the chart in March 1998. Although there have been instances where the same song, recorded by two different artists, has reached #1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Dance Club Play chart ("Don't Leave Me This Way" first by

Thelma Houston Thelma Houston ( Jackson; born May 7, 1943) is an American singer and actress. Beginning her recording career in the late 1960s, Houston scored a number-one hit in 1977 with her recording of " Don't Leave Me This Way", which won the Grammy for ...

in 1976 and then

the Communards The Communards were a British synth-pop duo formed in London in 1985. They consisted of Scottish singer Jimmy Somerville and English musician Richard Coles. They are best known for their cover versions of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes fe ...

with Sarah Jane Morris in 1986 is one example), it is still a fairly rare occurrence. This version also reached number 13 in the UK and number 25 in Italy. In 1998, it was featured on Stingily's debut album, ''The Purist''.

Critical reception

Larry Flick Larry Flick is an American journalist, former dance music columnist, single reviewer, and Senior Talent Editor for ''Billboard'' magazine, where he worked for 14 years. Now he produces and hosts Sirius XM radio shows. Flick started in the musi ...

from ''Billboard'' wrote that " tingilybravely takes on Sylvester's

classic and infuses a startling combination of pulpit-pounding preaching and hip-grinding sexuality." He remarked, "His

falsetto Falsetto ( , ; Italian language, Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ...

has never sounded so limber and soulful, and the track percolates with equal parts retro reverence and modern flair. Stingily has recently burst into pop prominence in the UK and Europe with this winning effort. What a treat it would be to see him enjoy comparable success in his home territory." Pan-European magazine ''Music & Media'' felt the cover "stays close to the original (sampled here), but doesn't sound at all dated." A reviewer from ''Music Week'' gave it four out of five, concluding, "The falsetto

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

king's cover of the Sylvester disco classic hits all the right (high) notes, and could see chart success." A reviewer from ''

Vibe Vibe, alternatively '' vibes,'' is short for ''vibration''. A "vibe" is an emotional reaction to the aura or energy felt to belong to a person, place or thing. Vibe may also refer to: People * DJ Vibe (born 1968), Portuguese DJ * Lasse Vibe (b ...

'' noted that "it's deliciously ironic that the defining moment in Byron Stingily's solo debut, ''The Purist'', occurs during the climax of Sylvester's evergreen". The magazine added that Stingily "whips through a vamp that eerily duplicates the late disco belter's primal intensity."

Charts

Other notable versions

In 1991, actress-comedian Sandra Bernhard recorded her own version of the single, which is a tribute to Sylvester, on her album '' Excuses for Bad Behavior (Part One)''. A series of 12" remix singles was released in 1994 by

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

550 Music 550 Music (originally known as Sony 550 Music) was a unit of Sony Music Entertainment, which operated through Sony Music's Epic Records division while in activity. Launched in 1992, the "550" name was inspired by the address of the Sony building ...

imprint, who also signed Bernhard and picked up her album for a major push that same year. It peaked at #13 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Dance Club Play chart, and #86 on the UK Singles Chart in late 1994.

Appearances in other media

*The song was used for Danny DeVito's character's Officer Roy Goodbody's strip dance routine in the 2004 ''

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...

'' season 10 episode "The One Where The Stripper Cries". *The song was featured in a 2017 '' Candy Crush'' commercial. Beginning in June 2021, it was also used in an advertisement for the

Paco Rabanne Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo (18 February 1934 – 3 February 2023), more commonly known under the pseudonym of Paco Rabanne (; ), was a Spanish-born naturalised-French fashion designer. Rabanne rose to prominence as an ''enfant terrible'' of ...

cologne ''PHANTOM''. *The song is featured on the 2021 dance rhythm game '' Just Dance 2022.'' *The song was used during a "Lip Sync for Your Life" between

Bob the Drag Queen Christopher Delmar Caldwell (born June 22, 1986), also known by his stage name Caldwell Tidicue and better known by his drag name Bob the Drag Queen, is an American drag queen, comedian, actor, activist, musician, author, and reality television ...

and Derrick Barry in the 2016 8th season episode " RuPaul Book Ball" of ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the Drag Race (franchise), ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder (company), World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, ...

''. *The song was used as the closing theme of the 1983 pilot for the 1984

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

game show, '' Hot Potato''. *In May 2022, a remixed version was released by Solardo and Comanavago.

References

External links

"Disco Singer Sylvester Confronts AIDS Without Any Regrets"
– ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''
"Dance (Disco Heat)" / "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" 12" single info
– Discogs.com {{Authority control 1978 songs 1978 singles 1989 singles 1994 singles 1998 singles Sylvester (singer) songs Jimmy Somerville songs LGBTQ-related songs Number-one singles in Israel Song recordings produced by Harvey Fuqua Fantasy Records singles United States National Recording Registry recordings