Donna Summer

Released: October 5, 1981

Songwriter: Giorgio Moroder Pete Bellotte

Producer: Giorgio Moroder Pete Bellotte

Walk on
Keep on walking and don't look back
You gotta keep on down the track
The future's yours to shape and mold
The past is past beyond control
So walk on
Walk on
Baby walk on
Walk on
Walk on

You gotta struggle up them hills
To realize the downward thrill
When night confuses where you are
Then just look up at that guiding star
So walk on
Walk on
Baby walk on

Baby baby let me walk with you (walk on)
Baby baby let me walk (walk on)

The wind may blow the sky may fall
But if you're strong you'll go through it all
And just as long as your aim is true
There'll come a day your goal's in view
So come on

Baby baby let me walk with you
Baby baby let me walk

Keep on moving
Keep on moving

And when you reach where you belong
You'll find it's where you first started from
And through it all you're still the same
You swear it's them not you who's changed

So walk on walk on walk on
Keep on moving
Just keep on moving yeah
Better keep on moving yeah

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.

more tracks from the album

I’m a Rainbow

From the album

I’m a Rainbow (1981)

Donna Summer popular songs

Walk On (Keep on Movin’)Donna Summer

Donna Summer

I’m a Rainbow