Don't let the title cut put you off. "I Remember Yesterday" appears to be a plagiarism of the sound and mannerisms of Dr. Buzzard's Original "Savannah" Band, but the steal is so complete that all those woozy clarinets and disco-ized big-band riffs become Summer's own. The rest of the album, however, is the luxurious stretching out of a performer just beginning to realize her strengths and possibilities.

Summer's achievement on I Remember Yesterday is a unique use of Sixties soul moods sewn to trenchant Seventies dance rhythms. "Love's Unkind" is the best example, featuring Summer as a one-woman Martha and the Vandellas and a drum hook that is nearly profound. This slides into "Back in Love Again," the sort of song the original Supremes might be recording now.

Summer's sexual breathiness has evolved into a sensual croon that exudes both power and vulnerability. The thrill of the final song, "I Feel Love," is as much in its arrangement as in Summer's soaring vocal, the entire production built as it is upon a frenetic Moog bass line punctuated by what sounds like a whip cracking against concrete.

I Remember Yesterday is clearly meant to be the album to move Summer as both singer and songwriter beyond disco classification. It succeeds with ease. (RS 245)

KEN TUCKER