Donna Summer

Songwriter: Paul Jabara

Producer: Pete Bellotte Giorgio Moroder

Last dance
Last chance for love
Yes, it's my last chance
For romance tonight
I need you by me
Beside me, to guide me
To hold me, to scold me
'Cause when I'm bad, I'm so, so bad

So let's dance the last dance
Let's dance the last dance
Let's dance this last dance tonight

Last dance
Last chance for love
Yes, it's my last chance
For romance tonight
Oh, I need you by me
Beside me, to guide me
To hold me, to scold me
'Cause when I'm bad, I'm so, so bad

So let's dance the last dance
Let's dance the last dance
Let's dance the last dance tonight

So let's dance the last dance
Let's dance the last dance
Let's dance the last dance tonight

Oh, I need you by me
Beside me, to guide me
To hold me and to scold me
'Cause when I'm bad, I'm so, so bad

So, come on, baby, dance that dance
Come on, baby, dance that dance
Come on, baby, let's dance tonight
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

Thank God It’s Friday

From the albums

Thank God It’s Friday (1978)
A Night At Studio 54 (1998)

Donna Summer popular songs

Last Dance (Single Version)Donna Summer

Donna Summer

Thank God It’s Friday