Publications
Partners
1. I Feel Love
One of the most influential club tracks, I Feel Love was released on Donna Summer's 1977 futuristic "concept album" I Remember Yesterday.
It was one of the first disco songs to use only electronically synthesized music, produced by Giorgio Moroder. I Feel Love quickly became a club and gay anthem.
2. Love to Love You Baby
The title track from her second album, released in 1975. The raunchy song became one of the first ever disco hits to also be released in an extended form, the final version lasting 16 minutes.
Summer had reservations about the sexual nature of the song, and the simulated "orgasms" (the BBC counted 23 orgasms in the final recording) so Summer imagined she was Marilyn Monroe playing the part of someone in sexual ecstacy during recording.
The song is sampled in Beyonce's Naughty Girl.
3. She Works Hard for the Money
Released as the title track from her 11th studio album in 1983, Summer wrote the song after an actual encounter she had with an exhausted bathroom attendant who was later featured on the album's back cover.
4. Hot Stuff
A 1979 Top 10 hit that featured more of Summer's rock influences, even though she has been crowned the "Disco Queen" by that point in her career.
Hot Stuff won her the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, making her not only the first African-American artist to achieve that feat, but also the first woman to ever win a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance.
5. Last Dance
From 1978, Last Dance featured on the soundtrack for the movie Thank God It's Friday, in which Summer herself played the role of an aspiring singer who brings an instrumental track of the song to a disco in hopes the disc jockey will play the track and allow her to sing to the audience.
The song features the production work of Summer's long-time associate Giorgio Moroder. Last Dance won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song in 1979.
One of the most influential club tracks, I Feel Love was released on Donna Summer's 1977 futuristic "concept album" I Remember Yesterday.
It was one of the first disco songs to use only electronically synthesized music, produced by Giorgio Moroder. I Feel Love quickly became a club and gay anthem.
2. Love to Love You Baby
The title track from her second album, released in 1975. The raunchy song became one of the first ever disco hits to also be released in an extended form, the final version lasting 16 minutes.
Summer had reservations about the sexual nature of the song, and the simulated "orgasms" (the BBC counted 23 orgasms in the final recording) so Summer imagined she was Marilyn Monroe playing the part of someone in sexual ecstacy during recording.
The song is sampled in Beyonce's Naughty Girl.
3. She Works Hard for the Money
Released as the title track from her 11th studio album in 1983, Summer wrote the song after an actual encounter she had with an exhausted bathroom attendant who was later featured on the album's back cover.
4. Hot Stuff
A 1979 Top 10 hit that featured more of Summer's rock influences, even though she has been crowned the "Disco Queen" by that point in her career.
Hot Stuff won her the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, making her not only the first African-American artist to achieve that feat, but also the first woman to ever win a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance.
5. Last Dance
From 1978, Last Dance featured on the soundtrack for the movie Thank God It's Friday, in which Summer herself played the role of an aspiring singer who brings an instrumental track of the song to a disco in hopes the disc jockey will play the track and allow her to sing to the audience.
The song features the production work of Summer's long-time associate Giorgio Moroder. Last Dance won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song in 1979.
* What are your favourite Donna Summer performances? Send us your fondest memories of partying to the sounds of Donna Summer to Music@Channel24.co.za and we will publish them!
