Donna Summer

Donna Summer is an American singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Summer is a five-time Grammy winner and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the US Billboard chart. She also charted four number-one singles in the United States within a thirteen-month period.

In 1971, while still using her birth name Donna Gaines, she released her first single, a cover of "Sally Go 'Round the Roses", though it was not a hit.

It was while singing background for the hit-making 1970s trio Three Dog Night that Summer issued her first album, Lady of the Night, in 1974. The album was not released in America, but found some limited European success on the strength of the song "The Hostage", which reached number one in Belgium and number two in the Netherlands. Summer's early material consisted of pop rock and folk rock material.

"Love To Love You Baby" would be the first extended remix of a song as it was lengthened to almost seventeen minutes. By early 1976, the song had reached #2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while the parent album of the same name sold over a million copies. The song generated controversy for Summer's moans and groans and some American radio stations, like several in Europe, refused to play it. Time magazine would report that 22 orgasms were simulated in the making of the song. Other upcoming singles included "Try Me, I Know We can Make It", "Could It Be Magic", "Spring Affair", and "Winter Melody". The subsequent albums Love Trilogy and Four Seasons of Love both went gold in the US.

In 1977, Summer released the concept album I Remember Yesterday. This album included her second top ten single, "I Feel Love", which reached number six in the US and number one in the UK. These US Hot 100 entries on the singles chart would help get Summer deemed in the press as "The First Lady of Love".

Another concept album, also released in 1977, was the double album, Once Upon a Time, which told of a modern-day Cinderella "rags to riches" story through the elements of orchestral disco and ballads. This album would also attain gold status. In 1978, Summer released her version of the Richard Harris ballad, "MacArthur Park", which became her first number one US hit. The song was featured on Summer's first live album, Live and More, which also became her first album to hit number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, and went platinum selling over a million copies. Other studio tracks included the top ten hit, "Heaven Knows", which featured the group Brooklyn Dreams accompanying her on background and Joe "Bean" Esposito singing alongside her on the verses.

Also in 1978, Summer acted in the film, Thank God It's Friday, playing a singer determined to perform at a hot disco club. The film met modest success, but a song from the film, entitled "Last Dance", reached number three on the Hot 100 and resulted in Summer winning her first Grammy Award. Its writer, Paul Jabara, won an Academy Award for the composition.

Bad Girls, was an album that had been in production for nearly two years. Summer based the concept of the album on a prostitute. The album became a success, spawning the number one hits "Hot Stuff" and Bad Girls, and the number two ballad "Dim All the Lights" With MacArthur Park, Hot Stuff, Bad Girls, and the Barbra Streisand duet "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)", Summer achieved four number-one hits within a thirteen month period. Those aforementioned songs, along with Heaven Knows, Last Dance, Dim All The Lights, and On the Radio would give her eight US Top 5 singles within a two year period.

"Hot Stuff" later won her a second Grammy in the Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, which was the first time that category was ever brought to the award's show. That year, Summer played eight sold-out nights at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. Summer released her first greatest hits set in 1979, a double-album entitled On The Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2. The album reached number one in the US, becoming her third consecutive number one album. A new song from the compilation, "On the Radio", reached the US top five.

After the release of the greatest hits album, Summer wanted to branch out with other musical styles in addition to disco. The Wanderer was released and it had more of the burgeoning new wave sound and elements of rock, such as the material being recorded at this time by Pat Benatar. The first single, the title track, became a hit and peaked at #3 in the US, subsequent singles were moderate hits. The album achieved gold status in the US, but met limited success on the UK charts.

I'm a Rainbow was shelved by Geffen Records although two of the album's songs would surface in soundtracks of the 1980s films Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Flashdance. Summer would recruit Quincy Jones to produce her next album which was the 1982 album, Donna Summer, and the album had taken a lengthy six months to record. The album's first single, the dance track "Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)", became an American top ten hit on the Hot 100, followed by more moderate hits "State of Independence" and "The Woman In Me".

Summer would release the album She Works Hard for the Money in 1983. The title song became a hit reaching number three on the US Hot 100, and would provide Summer with a Grammy nomination. The album also featured the reggae-flavored top 20 UK hit "Unconditional Love", which featured the British group Musical Youth who were riding high from the success of their single "Pass the Dutchie". The third US single, "Love Has A Mind of Its Own", reached the top forty of the Billboard R&B chart. The album was certified gold.

In late 1984, Cats Without Claws was released but it was not as successful as She Works Hard For the Money and failed to attain gold status of 500,000 copies sold in the US, becoming her first album since her 1974 debut not to do so. It did include a moderate hit in "There Goes My Baby", which peaked at #21.

In 1987, Summer returned with the album All Systems Go, which did not sell well, becoming her second consecutive album not to achieve gold status. It featured the single "Dinner with Gershwin", which was only a minor US hit, though it peaked at #13 in the UK. The album's title track, "All Systems Go", was released only in the UK where it peaked at #54.

Another Place and Time was released in Europe in March 1989 on Warner Bros. Records, which had been Summer's label in Europe since 1982. The single "This Time I Know It's For Real" had become a top ten hit in several countries in Europe, prompting the Warner Bros. subsidiary company Atlantic Records to sign Summer in the US and pick up the album for a North American release soon after. The single peaked at #7 on the Hot 100 in the US, and became her twelfth gold single there. It was also Summer's final Top 40 hit on the American pop charts, though she scored two more UK hits from the album, "I Don't Wanna Get Hurt" and "Love's About To Change My Heart".

In 1990, The Best of Donna Summer was released on Warner Bros. Records. It featured some of Summer's biggest hits from this period plus a small selection of her 1970s disco hits. In 1991, Summer released the new jack swing style album Mistaken Identity which contained the #18 R&B hit "When Love Cries". In 1993, Polygram Records released an extended greatest hits collection entitled The Donna Summer Anthology. It included 34 songs totally over two and a half hours of music.

In 1994, Summer returned with a gospel-influenced Christmas album entitled Christmas Spirit. It included classic Christmas songs such as "O Holy Night", "Joy To The World", and "O Come All Ye Faithful" as well as some original songs. Some of Summer's dance releases including "Carry On" and "Melody of Love (Wanna Be Loved)" charted on the US Dance Chart, with "Melody of Love" reaching number one on that chart and also reaching number 21 on the UK Singles Chart. Also in 1994, another Summer album was released as a collection called "Endless Summer: Greatest Hits".

In 1998, Summer received a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, being the first to do so, after a remixed version of her 1992 collaboration with Giorgio Moroder, "Carry On", was released in 1997. In 1999, Summer taped a live television special for VH1 titled Donna Summer – Live and More Encore, producing the second highest ratings that year for the network, after their annual Divas special. A CD of the event was released by Epic Records and featured two studio recordings, "I Will Go with You (Con te partirò)" and "Love Is the Healer" reached number one on the Billboard Dance Charts.

Summer scored top ten hits on Billboard's Dance Chart in the beginning of the new millennium. In 2000, she also appeared on the third annual Divas special, dedicated to Diana Ross, though Summer sang her own material for the show. In 2004, Summer was inducted to the Dance Music Hall of Fame alongside The Bee Gees and Barry Gibb as an artist. Her classic song, "I Feel Love", was also inducted that night.

In 2008, Summer released her first studio album of original music in 14 years since 1994, Crayons, which peaked at #17 on the US Top 200 Album Chart, and achieved modest international success. The songs "I'm A Fire", "Stamp Your Feet", and "Fame (The Game)" reached number one on the US Billboard Dance Chart. The ballad "Sand on My Feet" was released to adult contemporary stations and reached number thirty on that chart.

In August 2010, she released the single "To Paris With Love" which reached #1 on the US Billboard Dance Chart. Also that month, Summer appeared in the PBS Television Special Hitman Returns: David Foster and Friends.

In July 2011, Summer was working at Paramount Recording Studios in Los Angeles with her nephew, the rapper and producer O'Mega Red. Together they worked on a track entitled "Angel".

1970s

 * Autumn Changes
 * Bad Girls
 * Bridge Over Troubled Waters
 * Could It Be Magic
 * Fairy Tale High
 * Lady of the Night
 * Last Dance
 * Love to Love You Baby
 * My Man Medley
 * Spring Affair
 * Sunset People
 * Try Me, I Know We Can Make It
 * Winter Melody

1980s

 * All Systems Go
 * Dinner with Gershwin
 * I Don't Wanna Get Hurt
 * Love is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)
 * Love's About to Change My Heart
 * Romeo
 * She Works Hard for the Money
 * State of Independence
 * Supernatural Love
 * The Wanderer
 * The Woman in Me
 * There Goes My Baby
 * This Time I Know It's for Real
 * Unconditional Love

1990s

 * Carry On
 * Endless Summer Medley
 * I Feel Love (Remix)
 * I Will Go with You (Con Te Partiró)
 * Melody of Love (Wanna Be Loved)
 * My Prayer for You
 * When Love Takes Over You
 * Whenever There is Love
 * Work That Magic

2000s

 * Fame (The Game
 * Mr. Music
 * Stamp Your Feet
 * The Queen is Back