Looking for some hot stuff?
Happy… Summer!
As the recent Memorial Day weekend marked the unofficial start of the hottest season, it’s an appropriate time to shine a spotlight on an artist who is both highly regarded yet underappreciated:
Donna Summer.
How can someone be highly regarded yet underappreciated?
She’s known by lots of listeners to ’70s music (and those who listen to genre-specific playlists) as the Queen of Disco.
And that’s rightly so.
With a string of Number 1 disco/dance tracks as far back as “Love to Love You Baby” in 1975-76, Summer dominated dance floors in the latter half of the ‘70s.
With her 1978 and 1979 releases “Live and More,” “Bad Girls” and “Greatest Hits,” she became the first artist to have three successive multi-disc sets go to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and earn platinum status.
But what casual listeners might not know is the extent to which Summer’s discography went way beyond the confines of disco.
Her 1979 classic “Hot Stuff” (a 10, no matter what Tom Breihan says) earned her a Grammy for Best Female Rock Performance.
The next year, she was nominated for best inspirational performance for “I Believe in Jesus,” a track from her album “The Wanderer.”
A dozen years before Whitney Houston turned a Dolly Parton composition into a pop and R&B smash, Dolly herself had a No. 1 country hit with “Starting Over Again:”
A ballad that Summer co-wrote with her husband-to-be, Bruce Sudano.
Her 1982 eponymous release, a collaboration with producer Quincy Jones, not only yielded the Top 10 hit “Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger),”
…But also the Bruce Springsteen-penned rocker “Protection…”
…And her cover of Jon and Vangelis’ “State of Independence.”
Its Jones-amassed all-star backup choir features many artists who would reunite a few years later as USA for Africa.
In addition to “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough),” her chart-topping duet with Barbra Streisand, Summer teamed up on pop, adult contemporary and dance tracks with artists as diverse as:
James Ingram (“Mystery of Love”)
Starship’s Mickey Thomas (“Only the Fools Survive”)
Giorgio Moroder (“Carry On”)
Ziggy Marley (“Crayons”)
and Liza Minnelli (“Does He Love You?”)
Her final Top 10 hit, 1989’s “This Time I Know It’s for Real,” came from the Stock/Aitken/Waterman-produced “Another Place and Time.”
Several other dance pop nuggets, such as “I Don’t Wanna Get Hurt” and “When Love Takes Over You,” ought to have been U.S. Top 40 hits and are well worth a listen.
Also worth checking out is her final studio album, 2008’s “Crayons.”
In addition to the powerful No. 1 dance track “Stamp Your Feet,” it boasts a swamp rock track, “Slide Over Backwards.”
It could credibly be mistaken for a lost Tina Turner track.
The final Summer track, released after her death, attested again to the strength and beauty of her voice and the range of her tastes.
Her cover of Dan Fogelberg’s “Nether Lands,” sung to the original backing tracks, was for a tribute album to the late singer-songwriter.
Its release fittingly also became a tribute to Summer.
Ready for a Summer of sizzle and surprise?
Check out this Donna Summer Spotify playlist that goes from the beat to the sweet (…and even a suite:)
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Great “summer” topic!
I was in junior high for the bulk of Donna’s biggest hits. “I Feel Love” felt like a revelation to my sister and I, and it turns out it wasn’t just us, being that it basically gave birth to what the 80s were going to sound like. “Last Dance” was always the last dance at our junior high dances. Her hits after that appealed to me less and less. Unlike Tom and most folks in the comment section, I was not a fan of her #1s “Hot Stuff” and “Bad Girls” and felt like those songs helped score the end of disco, which in retrospect is a rather harsh judgment. Then again, this was filtered through the mind of a 14-year-old. It was only through that same comment section that I began to discover some of Donna’s music that nailed me.
After so many people raved about side 4 of Bad Girls, I listened to it for the first time and was blown away. While the biggest hits on that album were not my thing, that side 4 was a continuation of everything I loved about the spacey, synth-based sound of “I Feel Love”. I was also encouraged through the comment section to check out Four Seasons of Love, an earlier release I had not heard, and dug it. “Spring Reprise” in particular really grabbed me and is still in rotation.
I will be checking out the songs I don’t know that are on this playlist, as I have come to learn that as someone that never dug too deep, there is buried treasure to be found in Donna’s expansive catalog.
I’m sure I was one of those encouraging folks to listen to Bad Girls‘ side 4. It is so good.
You definitely were one of them. There were several others, including Bix and Maadlus, I believe.
I didn’t think anyone covered Jon and Vangelis. I’ll have to check it out, as well as the other unfamiliar songs you’ve listed. Good stuff, Chuck!
Thanks for this insight Chuck. Donna’s achievements deserve to be better known.
I Feel Love and Love To Love You Baby are all time classics, huge in the development of dance / electronic music.
The perfect partnership of her voice and Giorgio Moroder / Pete Bellotte’s writing / production.
For me State Of Independence and Dinner With Gershwin are also standouts. DWG was probably the first time I came across her, a #13 UK hit in 1987.
There’s lots more here to dig into that I don’t know.
I remember folks at the mothership commenting on their love for “Dinner with Gershwin”, but I still had never hear it (only went to #48 in the US). I just listened and it’s pretty likeable!
I grew up loving Elvis. His was the music that calmed my toddler soul. But the first contemporary pop artist that I really liked (and my mom let me get her music) was Donna Summer. I’m glad you feature the full MacArthur Park Suite on your playlist. I know that 17 minutes by heart, and it will always be a 10/10 for me. I also grew up with Bad Girls, Once Upon a Time, and She Works Hard for the Money.
I learned a few things today, Chuck. I listened to the Dolly Parton song (which I had never heard). That “Slide over Backwards” song really does sound like Tina! That’s a good one. I was REALLY impressed with “Nether Lands”. Fogelberg’s original arrangement is gorgeous. I’m glad Donna kept it. I don’t know the original, and now I’m not sure I want to hear it. That’s the song I’m going to keep from today.
I’ve shared this song before over at The Number Ones, but one of my all time favorites from Donna is from her Once Upon a Time album (her first of 4 charting double albums…I remember the Rolling Stone Record Guide questioning whether she was trying to be Chicago or something). “Rumour Has It” was a minor hit (there were no major hits from that album), reaching #53 in the US (#1 disco). With a little more polish it has just enough of a rock feel that it could have fit on side 1 of Bad Girls. And some very tasty basslines. The last 45 seconds of the song are the best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi-QzaZnGjo
“Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)” is an excellent slice of early electro.
I hadn’t heard it before and was really knocked out by it.
I had the privilege of meeting Donna backstage at one of her concerts nearly 30 years ago. Just a great show (was able to still hit all but the highest of notes) and a down-to-earth artist as well. So sad that we lost her at age 62 but glad for all the great music and fantastic times she gave me and millions of others on this planet.