Donna Summer

Released: July 19, 1982

Songwriter: Billy Strayhorn

Producer: Quincy Jones

I used to visit the very gay places
Those come what may places
Where one relaxes on the axis
Of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life
From jazz and cocktails

All the men I knew had sad and
Sullen gray faces
With distingue traces
That used to be there
You could see where
They'd been washed away
By too many through the day
Twelve o'clock tales

Then you came along with your
Siren song
To tempt me to madness
I knew all the while
That your poignant smile
Was tinged with the sadness of a
Great love for me
Oh, yes I was wrong
Again I was wrong

Now life is lonely again
And only last year everything
Seemed so sure
Now life is awful again
A troughful of hearts would only
Be a bore
A week in Paris will ease the bite
Of it
But all I really care
Is to smile in spite of it
I'll forget you
I will and yet you are still
Burning inside my brain

Romance is mush, stifling those
Who strive
I'll live a lush life in some
Small dive
And there I'll be
While I rot with the rest
Of those whose lives are
Lonely too

As the unquestioned queen of disco, the one and only Donna Summer lit up the late 70s and 80s with flashy, exuberant vocals and automatic earworms. Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines on Dec. 31, 1948, Summer moved to Germany after being cast in a Munich production of Hair. There, she happened to meet Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, and the trio conglomerated to form a dynamic music team. With Moroder, Summer forged together her first album, The Hostage, which reached moderate success in Northern Europe. Summer’s big break, however, would come later with the release of 1975’s sexual “Love to Love You Baby”, which became one of disco’s first mainstream hits and reached #2 on the Billboard Charts.

1977 came around with the concept album I Remember Yesterday, which featured the Top 10 single “I Feel Love”. The next year, Summer hit the silver screen with the movie Thank God It’s Friday, whose soundtrack featured one of her own the iconic “Last Dance.” This would later become one of the disco legends' signature songs. “Dance” would take home an Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Grammy, and a Golden Globe, and it jumped to a peak of #3 on the charts.

Yet Summer’s illustrious career was far from finished – Summer’s first live album Live and More featured the single “MacArthur Park”, a melting ballad that was a cover of the Jimmy Webb ballad of the same name. “Park” became Summer’s first – and perhaps most memorable – No. 1 hit, and cemented her status as a vocalist as well as a performer. With the track, she became the first female in modern rock history to hold the top spot in both the Hot 100 and the Billboard 200. 1979, though, would really be the peak of her career.

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Donna Summer

From the album

Donna Summer (1982)

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Donna Summer