Damn. I feel like I'm posting only when an artist dies. Is this what it's like to get old?
Donna Summer died today. She was the first lady of disco and one of the most successful artists of all time. She won 5 Grammys. She was the first artist to score three consecutive #1 double albums. Many of her albums were doubles due to the 12 to 17 minute extended disco mixes included on them. Her first hit was 1976's 'Love to Love you Baby' which was banned by some radio stations including the BBC for its 'sexual explicitness'.
Summer's musical partnership with Italian producer Giorgio Moroder advanced the sound of music into the electronic age. Her biggest song "I Feel Love" is probably one of the earliest "techno" songs in it's structure and sound.
Her biggest album was her last true disco album before she moved into new wave and soul, 1979's Bad Girls, a concept album about working girls, featuring the #1 singles "Bad Girls", "Hot Stuff", "No More Tears (Enough is enough) with Barbara Streisand", and the #2 charting make-out single "Dim All the Lights".
I think I have nearly all of Summer's tracks on Extended 12" disco singles. My favorite Summer track will always be "Spring Affair", featuring a classic Moroder sound. Here is Summer singing it back on TV in 1976 at the height of her power:
Donna Summer became a born-again Christian later in life and disowned her sexy disco music days. It's unfortunate because that is what she is remembered for today, and she brought people joy through her music. How could that not be God's will?
