The 'List: Donna Summer

Hello one and all.

So, after a brief hiatus, my buddy Calvin "Oates" Cherry are back with our new list and with many more lists to come.

This one's a special 'list. It's from the first artist I was exposed to as a kid living in Brooklyn in the late 1970s. LaDonna Adrian Gaines from Boston, MA who would go with her stage name: Donna Summer.

She was my first introduction to popular music. I was fascinated by her. She was beautiful, sexy, charming, and had a killer voice to boot! Being only six years old in 1977, I was only learning about music and of course, the most popular genre at the time, was disco music. I loved the pulse-pounding backbeat; thumping bass-line and sexy melodic hooks. The first record I had heard of hers and even of disco, was the 1976 disco lovefest: "Love to Love You Baby." By the way, ALL 16-plus minutes of it! Right down to the "oohs-and-ahhs" that came with it! I, of course, being a child, wasn't clued into the fact that she was getting orgasmic throughout the song. I just knew I loved it!

My idol, like many stars, was raised on church music and gospel. In her early 20s, She relocated to Munich, Germany where she began a career as a stage actress appearing in Godspell, Hair, and Jesus Christ Superstar. Her aspirations were to become the first black rock singer and music producer-impresario Giorgio Moroder was her first connection to said goal. He would singlehandedly guide her early musical output which was the burgeoning European discotheque scene. As her career blossomed during the disco era, she was billed: "The First Lady of Love" as her early hits all had the word "love" in them. Her acting debut was in the 1978 musical/comedy Thank God Its Friday as (what else?) a disco singer. Her biggest hit followup to "I Feel Love" was the Oscar-winning smash "Last Dance" while her live album Live and More would generate the smash disco cover of Richard Harris' 1968 pop-psychedelia hit: "Mac Arthur Park" which would give her her first number one smash. . In 1979, her smash album Bad Girls would also give her two number one smash hits: "Hot Stuff" and the title track. "Dim All The Lights" would be a number two smash and was rumored to have been written by Summer for rocker Rod Stewart. Her hits into the 1980s were still disco-tinged, "On The Radio," but her first rock/new wave hit, "The Wanderer" would prove she could crossover into other genres.

Hits rolled as "She Works Hard For the Money" and "Love Is in Control" were massive hits, but her new label Geffen Records didn't generate the kind of success her previous label Casablanca Records put out. She was embroiled also in some controversy regarding alleged statements made about the LGBT community during the AIDS crisis; statements she had denied ever saying.

Still, despite this, she was a pioneer in pop music crossing over into genres while still maintaining her reputation as one of the leading dance music artists to be respected by rock artists. Her passing at 63 years of age in 2012, from lung cancer, hit me hard. Her music will still be heard by me for years to come and the joy hearing that she was posthumously voted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was also a triumph that I'm sure she would've savored. Without further adieu, put on your platforms and bellbottoms, your Brut cologne and strike that disco pose. Here's my idol's essential 'list.

Cherry Picks:

Her third Top-40 chart hit did better on the Disco/Dance charts than the actual 40, but it still has a memorable, faster hook than her previous "love" outings: "Love To Love You Baby" and "I Feel Love."

My buddy Oates' favorite of hers. Her last official 1980s chart hit was a smash that hearkened back to her retro-disco days. She didn't chart after that in the 1990s.

Her concept album, I Remember Yesterday, was a disco trip through swing music from the early 1940s through the 50s and even 60s. This was the last track and was meant to delineate the music of the future. Techno/Trance/Electronica. The song was a futuristic synth-only pumped-up disco track that became her signature song; actually, one of many. Read on.

Her last number one smash was a duet with superstar Barbra Streisand and written by the same writer of her smash hit, "Last Dance," Paul Jabara. It would put Streisand into the disco/pop stratosphere and away from her patented "strong ballads" comfort zone.

Her biggest smash hit spent six weeks at number one, and caused some minor controversy over its lyrical content — prostitution. It was however based loosely on an incident that happened to her on the L.A. Sunset Strip when a policeman nearly arrested her for suspicion of being one herself!

She requested a harder sound for her Bad Girls record, hoping to break free from her "Queen of Disco" moniker. A compromise was made by Casablanca Records CEO Neil Bogart and she was given her first "rock" sounding record. It would still bring folks to the dance floor in the summer of '79.

A mix of classical and jazz adds sweetness to this disco gem — and then the thumping beat kicks in and it's a disco party! It would be the only known disco record to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The movie? Thank God Its Friday.

Part of a hot dance medley from her live album Live and More, the last side to her double LP. This is a sexier, souped-up cover of the Jimmy Webb song that Richard Harris popularized in 1968. His version went all the way to number two, but her version went all the way to the top! It was her first number one pop smash!

A rare mid-tempo disco ballad that was actually written for rock superstar Rod Stewart, but her own recording would go to number two on the charts and be the final top 3 hit of the 1970s. Rod incidentally would score a number one smash himself with a disco record: "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy."

A 1969 erotic French hit: "Je t'aime... moi non plus" was the actual inspiration for Donna's breakout signature hit. Producer Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte had an idea to make a sexy Americanized version of that song with her. It was rumored the original demo was much shorter. When it was brought to Casablanca CEO Neil Bogart, he requested a longer mix of the song. They would re-record the song with Summer channeling Marilyn Monroe in the recording sessions. To elongate the song, she would start "faking" orgasm. Somehow, it worked and would become her first hit and earn her the name "The First Lady of Love." After becoming a Born-Again Christian, she refused to perform the song live ever again.

Personal note. Whether she had regret for recording the song and its success, it will always be the song that introduced me to popular music. I thank you, wherever you are. R.I.P. My Disco Queen.

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