Sylvester James grew up singing in Pentecostal churches in Watts, Los Angeles, left home as a teenager, and eventually found his people in San Francisco’s gay community in the early 1970s. By 1978 he had built a local following and signed to Fantasy Records. You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) was recorded with producer Harvey Fuqua and co-written with guitarist James Wirrick: a six-minute sustained gospel-disco surge built on a synthesiser pulse that sounded unlike anything on American radio. It went to number one on the dance chart. In an era that publicly pretended gay life didn’t exist, Sylvester performed as himself, dressed as he wished, and sang about desire without metaphor. He died of AIDS-related complications in 1988, aged 41.
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