Gloria Gaynor Calling Card

Gloria Gaynor has been called the Queen of Disco, and if hit songs a queen make, then queen she is, declareth Shmoop.

Disco has had a broad influence on pop music, but it has not yielded an abundance of big stars. There's Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, the Village People, Gloria Gaynor, and…that’s about it, actually. 

So, it is probably also fair to argue that Gaynor has been called the Queen of Disco mainly because, with the release of "I Will Survive," she had the biggest hit of any disco tune ever. Though the singer has consistently released albums over the years, little that she's done since "I Will Survive" can be considered original; great singer she is, but musical miracle she is not.

That doesn't mean it's not a great song. We're just saying "queen" might be a bold title for a woman whose career wasn't necessarily the most revolutionary moment in disco history. "I Will Survive" broke into the mainstream, and with it, so did all of disco. 

That magic moment is Gloria Gaynor's calling card—and as far as we can tell, it always will be.