🎤 Sylvester and How ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ Birthed the San Francisco Sound and Redefined Dancefloor Freedom

The Twelve Inch 164 : You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) (Sylvester)

When Sylvester belted out “You make me feel… mighty real!” in 1978, he wasn’t just performing, he was preaching. That track didn’t just light up dancefloors; it rewired them. This wasn’t merely disco. It was liberation, pulsing at 132 beats per minute. But at the time, it wasn’t liberation for me, at least, not yet. My own coming out was still years away, and when I first saw the video for “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),” I wasn’t sure what to make of Sylvester. It didn’t make me feel mighty real. Not even close. But one thing was clear: I loved the song. Even more than “I Feel Love,” it sounded like the future.

I bought the album Step II and quickly realized it only had two disco tracks—the rest was something else entirely. At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of those other songs. But like fine wine, taste evolves. It was my first love, an aficionado of powerhouse vocalists, who nudged me to listen again, and this time, it clicked. I was hooked. I’d become a fan of the phenomenon kn…