Donna Summer (born LaDonna Adrian Gaines December 31, 1948) [1] is an American singer and songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of music.Summer was trained as a gospel singer prior to her introduction to the music industry and has always been known for her "powerhouse" vocal delivery. Though she is most notable for her disco hits, Summer's repertoire has expanded to include contemporary R&B, Rock, Mainstream pop, and Gospel. Summer is one of the most successful recording artists of the 1970s and 1980s and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums hit #1 on the Billboard charts. She also became the first female artist to have four number-one singles in a thirteen-month period. Billboard magazine has noted that Summer's extensive career has landed her as the "Eighth" most successful career by a female. Summer's website reports an estimate that she has sold more than 130 million records worldwide.[2]
Born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, she was one of seven children raised by devout Christian parents. She sang in church, and in her teens joined a funk group called The Crow, so named because Donna was the only black member of the group. At eighteen, Gaines left home and school to audition for a role in the cast of the Broadway musical, Hair. Unsuccessful in getting the part in the Broadway show (Melba Moore got the role), she was offered the European Tour when the show moved to Germany, where Summer also performed in the German versions of several musicals including Godspell and Show Boat. She settled in Munich and also performed with the Viennese Folk Opera and the pop band Munich Machine.
In 1971, Gaines released a single in Europe titled "Sally Go 'Round The Roses", her first solo recording. The single was unsuccessful, however, and she had to wait until 1974 to launch a solo career. Gaines married Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer ("Summer" is an Anglicization of his last name) that same year and gave birth to daughter Mimi the following year. Summer did various musical jobs in studios and theaters for several years, including the pop group FamilyTree from 1974-75.
After her divorce from Sommer, she married her second husband, American musician Bruce Sudano, in 1980. They have two daughters named Brooklyn and Amanda. Sudano was a member of the '70s groups Alive N Kickin' and The Brooklyn Dreams.
While singing back-up for groups such as Three Dog Night, she met producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. With these producers, Summer signed a contract in the Netherlands and issued her first album, Lady of the Night, which included the European hit, "The Hostage". The single made #1 in France and Belgium, and #2 in the Netherlands. Its follow-up, the title track of the album, also gained some degree of European success.
In the summer of 1975, Summer approached Moroder and Bellotte with an idea for a song. She had come up with the lyric "Love to love you, baby" as the possible title for the song. Moroder was interested in developing the new disco sound that was becoming increasingly popular, and used Summer's lyric to develop the song into a disco track. He had the idea that she should moan and groan orgasmically, but Summer was reticent. Eventually she agreed to record the song as a demo. She has stated that she was not completely sure of some of the lyrics, and parts of the song were improvised during the recording. Donna later stated on a VH1 "Behind the Music" program that she pictured herself as Marilyn Monroe acting out the part of someone in sexual ecstasy. Moroder was so astounded with Summer's orgasmic vocals that he insisted she release the single herself. The song, titled "Love to Love You", was released to modest success in Europe. When it reached America to the hands of Casablanca president Neil Bogart, He was so ecstatic over the demo that he asked Moroder to produce a twenty-minute version of the song. Summer, Moroder and producer Pete Bellotte cut a seventeen-minute version, renamed it "Love to Love You Baby", and Casablanca signed Summer and issued it as a single in November 1975. Casablanca distributed Summer's work in the US while other labels distributed it in different nations during this period.
"Love to Love You Baby" was Summer's first big hit in America, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in early 1976 and becoming her first Number-One Hot Dance Club Play chart hit. The single was quickly certified Gold with 1,000,000 copies in US. The album (side one of which was completely taken up with the full-length version of the title track) was also released in late 1975 and was soon certified Gold for sales of over 500,000 US copies. The song was branded "graphic" by some music critics and was even banned by some radio stations for its explicit content. Time magazine reported that 22 orgasms were simulated in the making of the song, and some of the music press dubbed Summer "The First Lady of Love." Two successful, Gold-selling concept albums followed: A Love Trilogy which featured the single "Could It Be Magic" and Four Seasons Of Love which featured the uptempo "Spring Affair" as well as the ballad "Winter Melody" which was a top 30 hit in the UK - the first of Donna's singles to be aired on Radio 1 and a hit on the US R&B charts.
The 1977 album I Remember Yesterday, another concept album, found the Summer/Moroder/Bellotte team combining the Disco sound with musical elements of the past, present and future. The song representing the future, "I Feel Love" became a landmark recording, giving Donna another Pop and R&B hit reaching #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and number one in the UK. "I Feel Love" earned her a second US Gold Single as well. The song's use of electronic sounds was revolutionary and popularized synthesizers in dance, rock, and the burgeoning new wave.
Summer released a double album in 1977, Once Upon A Time, a concept album telling a modern-day Cinderella "Rags to Riches" story through the means of electronica. The album contained three top forty hits Fairy Tale High, Rumour Has It and I Love You.
In 1978 Summer acted in the film Thank God It's Friday and released the single "Last Dance" which became her third Gold US million-selling single. Written by the late Paul Jabara — who also co-wrote "It's Raining Men", "The Main Event (Fight)" and "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)". The song became another major hit for Summer, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and resulting in her first Grammy win. Jabara took home the Oscar after the song was nominated for Song Of The Year. Summer also recorded a side-long version of Serge Gainsbourg's "Je t'aime (moi non plus)" which was very similar in style to "Love to Love You, Baby", initially shelved and later released as a part of the Thank God It's Friday soundtrack.
That same year, Summer released her first live album, another double album Live and More. This was Summer's first #1 album as well as her first to reach sales of Two million. Reaching Double Platinum Status. It included her first #1 American Pop single, a cover of the Jimmy Webb-penned "MacArthur Park" - another Gold-certified US single - originally made famous by the late actor/singer Richard Harris. The studio part of the album included the tracks "One Of A Kind" and "Heaven Knows" which also featured vocals by Joe "Bean" Esposito of the Brooklyn Dreams (group member Bruce Sudano would later become romantically involved with Summer). "Heaven Knows" became another Gold Million seller in the US and another Top 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 Reaching Number #4.
Summer was a guest artist on Kiss bassist Gene Simmons's 1978 eponymous solo album.
[edit] Bad Girls and the break from disco
In 1979, Summer released the landmark double-album which was her third at the time Bad Girls. Unusual for a disco album, it mixed Rock, Funk, Blues and Soul into electronic beats. It yielded two consecutive singles reaching Platinum status with sales of Two million each: The #1 hits "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls". The #2 hit "Dim All The Lights". would also become another Gold million seller. "Bad Girls" also became Summer's first #1 song on Billboard's R&B singles chart. With US record sales at an all-time apex in 1979, Summer had a straight run of five US Gold singles (Three of which went on to Platinum Selling status) that year alone. The Single "Hot Stuff" won Summer a second Grammy, for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for which Summer would become the first black female to accompolish this. (Interestingly, the Grammys had a Best Disco Recording Award only once, in 1980, won by Gloria Gaynor for her I Will Survive single). Bad Girls became Summer's second #1 double album and the most successful album of her entire career - eventually selling over Three million copies in the US. Summer and Bruce Sudano grew closer during the making of this album and became engaged. During this period, Summer had two songs in the top three of Billboard's Hot 100 during the same week, with "Bad Girls" and "Hot Stuff". Just a few months later, she accomplished the same feat again, with "No More Tears" and "Dim All the Lights". During the summer of 1979, she played eight sold-out nights at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles.
Summer's first compilation album, On The Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2, was a global smash and her third straight #1 US double album - also going on to sell over two million copies in the US alone. With this, Summer became the first artist to have three consecutive US number-one double-albums. The album also contained two new tracks - "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)", the Platinum-selling #1 duet with Barbra Streisand, and the Grammy-nominated Top Five US Gold hit "On the Radio", a song written for the film Foxes. The Streisand-Summer duet was her fourth and final #1 Pop hit in the U.S - and her fourth #1 single in thirteen months. Afterwards, disagreements between Summer and Casablanca Records led to her exit from the label in 1980. Summer was offered a very lucrative deal by David Geffen and became the first artist to be signed to his new Geffen label in 1980.
[edit] The 1980s
Summer's first Geffen release, 1980's The Wanderer, was something of a departure, in some ways closer to a rock/new wave affair. The title track, and accompanying singles "Cold Love" and "Who Do You Think You're Foolin'?" saw Summer attempting to reach the same audience dominated by contemporaries like Blondie and Pat Benatar. The title track was another US million-selling hit, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning her yet another Gold single in the States. The album peaked at #13 on the US album charts and earned a Gold album certification in the US. Her next album, I'm a Rainbow, a double album featuring elements of Soul, R&B, British techno-pop and even synth-based Disco, was shelved by Geffen (although two of the tracks would re-surface during the 1980s on the Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Flashdance film soundtracks). Reluctantly, Summer left Moroder after seven years of collaboration, and began work with Quincy Jones.
In 1982 Geffen released the Gold-certified, self-titled Donna Summer, and the new production from Quincy Jones was again in the Top 10 of the Pop, R&B, and Dance charts with the Grammy-nominated "Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)". A second single, "State of Independence", on which Michael Jackson sang background along with a veritable "who's who" of the music world, became a sizable international hit but a minor hit in the US, just missing the US Top 40. One more single from the album followed, "The Woman In Me", which was later recorded by Ann Wilson & Nancy Wilson of the rock group Heart. It peaked at #33 on the Hot 100 and #30 on the R&B chart.
In 1983 Summer scored her biggest triumph since Bad Girls with the release of the album, She Works Hard for the Money. The title track became one of her most played songs. The Grammy-nominated hit also became a pro-feminist anthem and was a staple on MTV, making her the first black woman to have a video air in heavy rotation on the channel. The single was also Summer's biggest-ever R&B hit (#1 for three weeks) and had frequent play on BET. It was released on PolyGram's Mercury Records to settle a legal dispute following PolyGram's absorption of Casablanca. It was Summer's 6th LP in a row to feature a Billboard Top Ten Hit. A second single from the She Works Hard For The Money album, the reggae-flavored "Unconditional Love" featured vocals by British band Musical Youth and outsold the first single in the UK, but stopped short of the US Top 40, However making it to #9 on US Billboard R&B Chart
This is one of my earliest projects which I had only had time to do just these past few days.
Mixed and recorded on the fly with 100% original vinyl.
Peace,
Dave
DBX Encoded Digital Stereo 128 kbps, 44.1 khz, 72 mb. 1:18:50
01.Love To Love You Baby
02.Try Me, I Know We Can Make It
03.Spring Affair
04.Summer Fever
05.Walk Away
06.Dim All The Lights
07.Hot Stuff (Dave Pineda Edit)
08.Bad Girls
09.I Feel Love
10.Could It Be Magic
11.Last Dance
12.I Remember Yesterday
13.I Love You
14.Heaven Knows (Dave Pineda Remix)
15.McArthur Park
16.On The Radio
17.No More Tears (Dave Pineda Edit)
18.Sunset People
16.On The Radio
17.No More Tears (Dave Pineda Edit)
18.Sunset People
19.She Works Hard For The Money
20.Love Is In Control
21.The Wanderer
22.Winter Melody (Bonus Track)
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