I Have a Right

by Alex Henderson When Dino Fekaris produced Love Tracks in early 1979, he helped Gloria Gaynor deliver one of the best and most successful albums of her career. And most of the time, the producer/songwriter is an asset on Gaynor's next album, I Have a Right. The LP gets off to a very weak and contrived start with the opener "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)," which is nothing more than a poor person's "I Will Survive." There can only be one "I Will Survive," and Gaynor and Fekaris should have known better than to offer such a pale imitation. But the rest of the material is excellent. Fekaris serves Gaynor nicely on up-tempo disco-soul numbers like "Midnight Rocker" and "Don't Stop Us," as well as the slower, more 1960s-flavored Northern soul pearl "Say Somethin'." In the 1970s, Gaynor always included at least one cover on her albums, and on I Have A Right, the cover is the Stephen Sondheim/Leonard Bernstein classic "Tonight," which she transforms into a glossy disco barnburner. From both a disco standpoint and a Northern soul standpoint, I Have a Right is a welcome addition to Gaynor's catalog.