A 1975 single of breathy moans over a Munich groove, banned by the BBC and issued in a seventeen-minute version (1975)
"Love to Love You Baby" — the record that made the extended dance mix a commercial format.
Popular music · Electronic
Donna Summer
1948–2012 · American
Disco and electronic dance — the Munich Machine, Casablanca Records
Donna Summer was the Queen of Disco, an American singer who made her defining records in Munich with the producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. Their 1977 single "I Feel Love", built entirely on a Moog synthesizer with no conventional instruments, is one of the pivotal recordings of the twentieth century: Brian Eno reportedly ran into a studio to tell David Bowie it would change club music for fifteen years. She dominated the American charts between 1975 and 1980 and died of lung cancer in 2012.
How to spot them
- ▸The Queen of Disco; the Munich sound of Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte
- ▸Casablanca Records and Neil Bogart; extended twelve-inch mixes as a new commercial form
- ▸A gospel-trained voice put to orgasmic moans on one record and rock belting on the next
- ▸Born in Boston, made famous in Germany
Songs & albums
A 1977 single whose entirely synthesised backing Brian Eno told David Bowie was the future of club music (1977)
"I Feel Love", produced by Giorgio Moroder on a Moog modular synthesizer.
A 1978 American number one remade from a Jimmy Webb song about a cake left out in the rain (1978)
"MacArthur Park".
A 1978 film theme that won the Academy Award for Best Original Song (1978)
"Last Dance", from Thank God It's Friday; the Oscar went to its writer, Paul Jabara.
A 1979 double album about streetwalkers on the boulevard, with a toot-toot, beep-beep chorus (1979)
Bad Girls, which also produced "Hot Stuff".
A 1979 duet with a Brooklyn-born film star that topped the American chart (1979)
"No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)", with Barbra Streisand.
A 1983 single in praise of manual labour, its video set in a diner and a factory (1983)
"She Works Hard for the Money".
A 1977 concept double album loosely retelling the Cinderella story (1977)
Once Upon a Time…
Quick-fire facts
- •Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines on 31 December 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts
- •She moved to Munich in the late 1960s in the German cast of the musical Hair
- •Her Munich records were produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte and released on Neil Bogart's Casablanca label
- •"I Feel Love" (1977) used a Moog modular synthesizer for every part except the vocal and the bass drum
- •She was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one in the United States
- •She won the first ever Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female, for "Hot Stuff" in 1980
- •She won five Grammy Awards in four different genre categories — dance, rock, R&B and inspirational
- •She died on 17 May 2012 in Naples, Florida, of lung cancer, aged 63
- •She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, the year after her death, by Kelly Rowland
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — Donna Summer — Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee
- Peter Shapiro — Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco