Donna Summer, the uncontested Queen of Disco, was born to be in show business. Today, as Summer celebrates her 20 years in the music business, she can look back at a stunning 14 Top 10 hits, four No. 1 smash singles, and album sales in the tens of millions worldwide.
At the age of 18, the Boston native (born LaDonna Andre Gaines on New Year's Eve, 1949) moved to New York City. Here, she landed a job replacing Melba Moore in the Broadway smash "Hair," which placed her in a German production of the hit show. After a year, she moved over to the Viennese cast of "Hair," eventually joining the Vienna Folk Opera.
Upon returning to Germany, Summer performed in productions of "Godspell" and "The Me Nobody Knows" and began doing studio work, singing background on records and cutting demos. She met producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte during a demo session for a Three Dog Night. Her first single with them, "Hostage," became a hit in Holland, France and Belgium. Several other European hits followed, though none were ever released in the U.S. In 1975, Bellotte, Moroder and Summer created the epic song "Love To Love You Baby." After stirring up the club scene in France, American executive Neil Bogart spotted the track and signed it to his fledgling Casablanca Records. The track rose to No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 100.
The success of "Love To Love You Baby" triggered a catalog of albums that would brilliantly blend the primal groove urgency of disco and funk with symphonic strings and vocals that soar with drama. Hardcore club DJs took delight in expansive epics like "Spring Affair," "Try Me (I Know We Can Make It)," and "Could It Be Magic," while pop radio programmers indulged in briefer but equally compelling odes like "Y Love You," "McArthur Park" and "Hot Stuff." A shining moment of her career was, and remains, "Last Dance," the Oscar-winning theme to the film Thank God It's Friday.
A string of No. 1 singles and albums for Casablanca ended with On The Radio. Summer was the first artist signed to David Geffen's new record company, stomping into a new phase in her career with The Wanderer. That set was followed by I'm A Rainbow, which remained unreleased for over a decade.
In the years that followed, Summer collaborated with an illustrious lineup of writers and producers that included Quincy Jones, Michael Omartian, Stock Aitken and Waterman. And of course, the stream of hits never stopped: "State Of Independence" was richly uplifting, "She Works Hard For The Money" became a feminist anthem and "This Time I Know It's For Real" was wildly romantic.
In 1994, Summer released Endless Summer, which served as more than simply a greatest hits retrospective but also an invaluable primer for anyone interested in examining an important era in musical history.
In 1997, Summer teamed up with her husband, producer Giorgio Moroder, to create the single "Carry On," which appeared on the NRG Unlimited 1 compilation and received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording.
