If you were a teenager in the late '70s, regardless of what kind of music you liked, you could not escape Donna Summer--and you didn't want to. Beginning with the orgasmic "Love to Love You Baby" and continuing with a string of hits such as the cheesy-yet-cool "MacArthur Park, "Hot Stuff," and "Bad Girls," she made disco hot and sexy.
At one point, both "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls" were in the Top 5 at the same time, making her one of very few artists (namely, The Beatles and The Bee Gees, IIRC) to accomplish this.
Proving her talents exceeded her genre, Summer had early '80s hits such as "She Works Hard for the Money" and "Unconditional Love" (which, as I recall, didn't reach the Top 40 but should have).
I'm sorry to hear of her passing. Unlike certain other recent celebrity deaths, hers truly comes as a shock.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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'This Time I Know It's For Real' hit top 10 in 1989... and as I was hip-deep in clubbing at the time, I can say her other songs from that album 'I Don't Wanna Get Hurt' and 'Love's About to Change My Heart' also got huge club play (here, anyway) at that time. EVERYONE was glad to have Donna "back". The album all 3 were released on-- titled "Another Time and Place"-- would be my last Donna Summer purchase.
I have the single for the earlier 'Dinner With Gershwin' and still like it, but it wasn't really a huge crowd-pleasing single. It was kinda one of those songs you heard when the club was getting ready to shut it down for the night/day.
And yes, the should-have-been-bigger single 'Unconditional Love' with Musical Youth convinced me to buy her "She Works Hard For The Money" album.
"On The Radio" was definitely my first exposure to Donna, from the film FOXES starring Jodie Foster.
This 1980 song was a semi-hit and remains a fave Donna Summer song for me today, I canNOT resist that beat:
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My mom had her late 70s albums. We both loved them, even though I was in kindergaten. All the smutty stuff went over my head -- I thought "Hot Stuff" was about eating a nice hot meal. Okay, it sort of was, but not the kind of meal I imagined at the time.
"This Time I Know it's for Real" helped me get through the traumas of high school and moving to a new country in the early 90s.
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I shed a few tears when I heard this news today. Donna Summer's music played a big role in my life. I had several of her albums as a teenager, and spent many an hour dancing to them in my bedroom. I had the moves. Whenever I hear one of those old songs, each beat and each lyric is like an old friend. The double compilation album "On the Radio" remains a favorite. These are real comfort songs for me. And, oh what a pure voice.
A few years later, in my wilder days, a dear friend - who was a professional stripper - always managed to bring down the house and rake in the dough with his "She Works Hard For the Money" routine. What fun times!
Summer was also a talented painter and I was fortunate to see an exhibit of her work in LA in the mid 90s.
Thanks for the music, entertainment and images. Rest well.
-------------------- No regrets, Coyote.
From: Missouri | Registered: Oct 2003
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