Let’s start with me putting something out there – IMHO, Donna Summer is possibly the most under-appreciated artists of all time. The winner of 5 Grammys & 6 American Music Awards, with 3 consecutive No. 1 Platinum Double Albums (she’s the first artist, male or female, ever to accomplish this), 11 gold albums, four No. 1 singles, 2 platinum singles,12 gold singles, 14 Top 10 singles, 32 top 100 singles with a Top 40 single every year from 1976 – 1984 and the first female artist to have two singles “Hot Stuff” & “Bad Girls” in the top 3 at the same time – and even today, 50 years after she burst onto the music scene, the first thing most people associate with her is “Love To Love You Baby” ! (which wasn’t even her bestselling single). 

I first heard “I Feel Love” late one summer night on one of five TDK C60 cassettes with “Casey Kasum’s Top 100” that my friend Sujata lent me. At No.96 was this song with a heavy, hypnotic bassline, loads of synthesisers, gorgeous melody and Donna Summer’s incredible voice floating on top of it all. Sadly, I completely missed the impact of possibly the most influential song of the decade. Don’t get me wrong – we danced to it for sure at all our parties! But Dire-Straits-addled me, didn’t realise that what I was listening to was quite literally going to be ground zero for EDM (electronic dance music) genres like House, Techno, NRG, Synth-Pop and Trance and would influence generations of artists from David Bowie, Kylie Minogue, The Human League & Blondie to Simple Minds, Blue Man Group, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sam Smith – even Beyonce ( who sampled it in 2022, almost 40 years later). Doh! 

I Feel Love – to quote DJ Harsh – is a banger! It is currently ranked No.1 on Rolling Stone’s list of Top 200 Dance Songs Of All Time. It was the first ever song with the entire backing track – every instrument, from the bass line to the guitars, the drums – even the high hat – was played on a synthesiser! Try as they might though, they just couldn’t produce the right kick drum – and so, drummer Keith Forsey (who later produced Billy Idol and wrote the Simple Minds smash hit “Don’t You Forget About Me”) laid down an incredibly tight machine perfect bass drum beat on his analog drum. In an entirely electronic track, Keith literally is the “ghost in the machine” ! 🙃. Incidentally, another one Donna Summer’s songs, “Last Dance” from the soundtrack of Thank God It’s Friday, and one of Nidhi’s favourite Donna Summer songs, is at No.200 on the Rolling Stone list of Top 200 Dance Songs Of All Time – Donna, is quite literally, the first and last word on the best dance tracks of all time! 💃🏼🕺🏼

“I Feel Love” was the final song on the Platinum selling “I Remember Yesterday” album. A trademark Summer-Moroder-Bellotte concept album, Bellotte conceived it as charting the evolution of musical eras from 1940s to 1970s, mixing electronic disco beats with period music to update them without losing their soul. They recorded an album full of great songs, including the title track “I Remember Yesterday” (complete with swinging horns of a ’40s dance bands like Duke Ellington and Glen Miller ), and “Love’s Unkind” ( ’50s & ’60s girl-bands like The Supremes ). The trio then decided, almost as a footnote, to close the album with a song to presage the sound of the future and Moroder , who was already experimenting big time with a Moog synthesiser ( man, I remember his From Here To Eternity album from the same year) , brought his musical genius to “I Feel Love”. The song, with its metronomic beat, synth sounds overlaid with Donna’s ethereal singing became the album’s biggest seller! And, even today, 47 years later, it sounds futuristic – job done! 

20-year-old LaDonna Adrian Gaines moved to Munich in 1968 when her Psychedelic Rock band Crow broke up, and she ended up joining the German cast of the musical, Hair. Quickly becoming fluent in German, she sang backup for multiple Euro-pop bands, starred in German versions of Godspell & Show Boat and even sang in the Austrian Folk Opera. She also was briefly married to one of her Austrian co-stars, Helmuth Sommer. And then, one fateful day in 1974 (drum roll please!), she was called in to sing backup at a Munich recording session for Three Dog Night. 

At the session Donna met a pair of young producers & songwriters – Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. The three of them immediately underwent a Vulcan Mind-Meld that resulted in an incredible 14-year collaboration, producing some of the most iconic music of the 70s and 80s. The first single they released together was “The Hostage” (don’t bother, it’s a terrible song) released under the name Donna Sommer. Well……not exactly! There was a mistake at the pressing plant and the vinyl came out with the artist’s name misspelt as Donna Summer. And the rest, as they say, is history!

Donna was the greatest actress in modern music – yes, I know that’s a weird thing to say. Given her background in musicals, she sung every song like a performance, getting into the “persona” she thought would be signing it. Donna came up with the hook for “Love To Love You Baby” herself, and encouraged by Moroder to record it, she landed on sultry  Marilyn Monroe as the perfect persona for it. And so, one night, Moroder and Bellotte darkened the studio, lit some candles and 26-year old Donna lay down on the floor and sand a soft, seductive Monroe-esque whisper that quite literally, blew up the airwaves. It became a US no.2 smash hit! It was banned by the BBC (of course!), which no doubt made helped it become a No. 4 hit in the UK. It was a Top 20 hit across the world – from Australia to Canada and it changed her career forever. It became the song that defined her. And, it was the song that she spent her entire life running away from.

First released as a minor hit in Holland, Moroder, sent a copy to Neil Bogart, the founder of Casablanca Records, hoping for a US release. Legend has it that Neil played it at a party (ahem!) he was having at his home and the guests (participants?!) kept asking him to play it over and over again. Neil called Moroder in the middle of the night, told him he loved it, but he had to make the song much much longer, – at least 20 minutes – long enough for a long dance (ahem!). (Ok that’s my quota of innuendos done for this post 😉). Moroder produced a monster extended 17-minute track that covered an entire side of an LP – incidentally, inventing the extended disco edit so beloved of DJs even today. And, everything went nuts after that! The album was certified Gold and Donna was rushed over to the US to became an overnight superstar. Obviously “Love To Love You Baby” was never played on AIR – can you imagine Philip Neelam’s face if anyone had ever requested that song? I remember first hearing it on a cassette in Pimmi’s car, us boys nervously giggling and looking at each other with raised eyebrows.

And then, in 1979, at the very peak of Donna’s imperious phase, came her bestselling, monster album “Bad Girls”. Every song – each and every song – is a 10! By ’79 Disco was waning and Rock and R&B sounds were becoming more popular and Donna’s went back to her Rock roots to her version of a rock song. “Hot Stuff” is fantastic 🔥. The song has a classic rock structure, complete with a face melting guitar solo by Jeff Baxter – one of the Doobie Brothers, no less! “Hot Stuff” earned Donna the first ever Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance against the likes of Bonny Rait & Carly Simon. 

“Bad Girls” (inspired by an incident where one of her crew was accosted by a cop thinking she was a streetwalker), “Our Love”, “Dim All The Lights” and “Sunset People” are superb as well. And today, 40 years later, since the statute of limitations has expired, I do confess I covertly bought the album – come on guys, I was listening to Pink Floyd and Deep Purple, I couldn’t be seen to be buying Donna Summers !

The hits dried up after that for about four years. And then, late one evening in ’82 at a Grammy’s after-party for Julio Iglesias, Donna went to the powder room in the restaurant. There she saw the attendant, sitting in her chair, asleep with exhaustion. The words “God, she works hard for the money” came to her mind and she was off to the races! She rushed back to her table, grabbed a napkin and wrote down some lyrics for “She Works Hard For The Money”. Next day she was in the studio and a few months later, she showed everyone that she still had it, with the song reaching No.3! I remember watching the video on the first ever Pre-Grammy’s telecast in India ( I must admit I wasn’t sure what the fuss was all about!). Fun fact – the back cover of the album has two waitresses. One is Donna Summer and the other is Onetta, the powder-room attendant who was the inspiration for the song! The album was superb and also showcased the almost endless range of Donna’s talent. The second single from the album was “Unconditional Love” a gorgeous reggae song she did with the British Reggae band Musical Youth ( remember “Pass the Duchy”.…I love that song!)

After that Donna was off the charts again for six years, until in ’89 she had her final hit “This Time I Know It’s For Real”. I didn’t quite get into it I admit, but Nidhi ranks it as one of Donna Summer’s top-3 songs. And 40 years later, I can see why! 

Donna Summer was without doubt one of the all-time greats. Unfortunately, it took the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame decades to induct her, finally doing so the year after she passed away. Sadly, “Love To Love You Baby” really did cast a very long shadow!