![]() The live set is totally awesome, containing the Jimmy Webb “MacArthur Park” suite and all her hits with an increased level of jazz vocalese to broaden her mass appeal. Summer’s next work was even more lavish: the double albums Once Upon a Time, the essential tour document Live and More and Bad Girls maintained an incredible standard. They cited it as the sound of the future and the song that would fundamentally change club dance music for decades. Here is where you will find the original “I Feel Love”, the very track that Brian Eno and David Bowie salivated over while they were in the midst of their Berlin Trilogy. This album is also where the Munich Machine, an ensemble used by Moroder, came into their own with strings, click tracks and super slick R&B breakdowns that sounded a world away from the down-home soul of previous decades.įour Seasons of Love (1976) is a concept piece that hasn’t always been appreciated as it should be and is now ripe for rediscovery thanks to the sweetly nuanced “Spring Affair” and “Winter Melody”.Īn ability to fuse nostalgic references to old school standards to the molten solder of contemporary disco makes I Remember Yesterday (1977) a vital listen. Summer’s next excursion, A Love Trilogy, followed suit with another full side epic – “Try Me, I Know We Can Make It” – and a souped-up take on “Could It Be Magic”. While the single version of the title track was a worldwide hit it would actually continue to sell even better as the years went by. Thanks to the risqué connotations of Donna’s vocal bliss she soon became known as The First Lady of Love and vied with Barry White, The O’Jays and MFSB for supreme iconic status in the beats and boudoir department. The title track was Donna’s idea and Moroder adapted her lyric into a groove-laden disco delight set across a 17-minute mix, a revolutionary move that took up the first side of this important release. Her career simply exploded with 1975’s Love to Love You Baby. A European hit that spawned the single “The Hostage”, this was no false start. The trio clicked and she was soon recording her debut album Lady of the Night. ![]() After making ends meet with modelling and backing singing, Summer met Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte at a Three Dog Night session. Just beaten to the punch in Hair (Melba Moore won the role), Donna took part in the Munich production and became immersed in German culture. In 1967 she joined the acid rock crowd and, now based in New York, adapted her talents to Broadway musicals. A delightful and gifted woman who also happened to suffer from depression, Donna Summer’s absence makes one appreciate her accomplishments all the more.īorn in Boston, LaDonna Adrian Gaines, her birth name, was raised in a church-going family who encouraged a precocious talent. Summer’s concert tours were almost as legendary as her recorded output and she smashed box office records between 1977 and her Greatest Hits tour, winning standing ovations in whatever part of the globe she happened to be in. The breadth of her appeal means that country stars like Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris have covered her straight and Laura Branigan and Beyoncé Knowles have assumed some of Donna’s hooks without ever usurping her. Blondie, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Bette Midler, Kylie Minogue, Diana Ross, Britney Spears, Moloko and Robbie Williams – its ability to induce a Pavlovian murmur of satisfied recognition singles the track and her out for classic status. ![]() “I Feel Love” itself has been sampled by Moby. In that instance, she is widely sampled and revered for her timing and tone. In many ways, her sound provides the bridge between psychedelic soul and Motown pop and the move into studio based techno rhythms. ![]() Without Summer the disco boom of the 1970s would have looked like a vastly different country and she managed to appeal to clubbers, suburban dancers and hard-core electronic enthusiasts, casting an influential shadow on the followers of new dance and across the development of modern soul music. She has sold over 130 million discs, which puts her in the most exalted company of commercially viable artists. A five-time Grammy Award winner she also became the first artist to have three consecutive double albums top the Billboard charts and also enjoyed a string of number-one singles. Though she died far too young in 2012, Summer’s lifetime achievements are emphatic. Her most famous collaborator Giorgio Moroder described Donna Summer’s legendary hit “I Feel Love” as “the birth of electronic dance music” and there is no doubt that she retains the title of the undisputed queen of disco divadom.
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