Donna Summer
b. Ladonna Gaines, 31 December 1948, Boston,
Massachusetts, USA, Summer’s ‘Love To Love You Baby’ made her the
best-known of all 70s disco divas. Having sung with rock bands in Boston,
Summer moved to Europe in 1968 and appeared in German versions of Hair and Porgy And Bess and
married Austrian actor Helmut Sommer, from whom she took her stage name.
Summer’s first records were ‘Hostage’ and ‘Lady Of The Night’ for
Giorgio Moroder’s Oasis label in Munich. They were local hits but it was ‘Love To Love You Baby’ (1975) which made her an international
star. The track featured Summer’s erotic sighs and moans above Moroder’s
hypnotic disco beats and it sold a million copies in the US on Neil Bogart’s
Casablanca label. In 1977, a similar formula took ‘I Feel Love’ to the top
of the UK chart and Down Deep Inside’, Summer’s theme song for the film The Deep was a big international success. Her own film
debut came the next year in Thank God It’s
Friday in which she sang a million-seller ‘Last Dance’. This was the
peak period of Summer’s career as she scored three more US number 1s in
1978-79 with a revival of Jim Webb’s ‘MacArthur Park’, ‘Hot stuf f ,Bad
Girls , and ‘No More tears
(Enough is Enough)’ a duet with Barbra Streisand. The
demise of disco coincided with a legal dispute between Summer and
Bogart and in 1980 she signed to David Geffen’s new company. Her work now
took on a more pronounced soul and gospel flavour- -
she had become a born--again Christian. Her only big hit during early 80s
was ‘Love Is In Control (Finger on The Trigger)’ in 1982, produced by
Quincy Jones.. After a three year absence from music Summer returned in 1987
with a US and European tour. Her best-selling 1989 album for Warner Brothers
was written and produced by Stock Aitken And Waterman while Clivilles &
Cole worked on Love Is Gonna Change. ALBUMSs:
Love To Love You Baby (1975), A
Love Trilogy (1976), Four Seasons Of
Love (1976), I
remember Yesterday (1977), Once Upon
A Time(1977), Live And More (1978),
Bad Girls (1979)The Wanderer (1980), Donna
Summer (1982), She Works Hard For
The Money (1983), Cats Without Claws
(1984), All Systems Go (1987), Another
Place And Time (1989), Love Is Gonna
Change (1990), Mistaken Identity (1991),
This Time I Know It’s For Real (1993).
Compilations: On The Radio - Greatest
Hits, Volumes 1 And 2 (1979),Walk Away - Collector’s Edition (The
Best Of 1977-1980) (1980), The Best Of Donna Summer(1990).