Born to Be Alive - The Original

"Born to be Alive" was truly an international affair from the start. Patrick Hernandez, born in France to a Spanish father and Austrian/Italian mother, wrote the song in 1978, but had no success finding a producer who would take the song, until he met the Belgian producer Jean Vanloo. Hernandez and Vanloo recorded the track in a studio in Belgium and released it under the French record label Aquarius in 1978. The song quickly spread to dance clubs throughout Europe and was picked up by the UK record label Gem Records in 1979. Also in 1979, a Spanish version of the song "Nacido Para Vivir" was released. All the hype finally reached American shores later that year, when the track was remixed and issued by US record label A-Tom-Mik, a label headed by dance promoter Tom Hayden and music publisher Mike Stewart.

Hernandez was in his late 20s when this song was released, and had already spent a good portion of his life struggling to make it in the music industry. His father was a big-band guitar player and his mother was a singer, so music was in his blood. He moved to Paris in the late '60s and toiled in bar bands for most of the '70s before releasing his big hit. The song explains his lifestyle - refuse to settle down and keep chasing your dreams. It turned out to be his only hit, and the album was his only one released in America. Surprisingly little is known about what became of Patrick Hernandez, but if he kept his publishing rights, it's safe to say he makes a nice income from this song.

This song hit it big near the end of the disco era. The album version runs 7:26 and is the one most often played in clubs. For radio play, the single version was cut down to 3:22.