Donna Summer (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012) – Queen for a Day (1977)
This epic dancefloor journey was the masterpiece from the Queen of Disco's most ambitious album, the disco opera Once Upon a Time, but never released as a single.
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Donna Summer, the great Queen of Disco would have turned 75 years old today.
See our earlier post on Donna Summer for more on her legendary musical career.
In 1977, Summer released her fifth studio album I Remember Yesterday. Propelled by its hit single “I Feel Love,” it was her highest-charting LP since her 1975 U.S. debut Love to Love You Baby, peaking at #11 R&B, #19 on the Billboard 200, and #3 in the UK.
“I Feel Love” was co-written by Summer and her producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, and went to #1 in much of Europe and the UK, landing at #3 in Germany and #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its futuristic, synthesizer-driven sound was highly influential, creating the template for much of the Hi-NRG and synth-pop dance music that followed during the eighties and laying the foundation for today’s EDM.
To follow up I Remember Yesterday, Summer recorded her first double album, which was also the first double album released by a disco artist. Once Upon a Time was a concept album, a disco opera that told a modern day Cinderella tale through its songs. It was recorded in September, 1977 and released soon afterwards on Halloween. All tracks were written by Summer, Moroder, and Bellotte, and produced by Moroder and Bellotte.
Neither of its two singles matched the success of “I Feel Love.” Its first was “I Love You,” issued in December, 1977, with the title track on the flip, which only reached #37 on the Hot 100 and #10 in the UK. She memorably performed it during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
The single’s B-side was the album’s title track, which would later be released as an A-side but only in Japan. A promo video was also filmed.
The LP’s second U.S. single “Rumour Has It” came out on March 28, 1978 and was disco-funk flavored with a super funky bassline. It topped out at #53 on the Hot 100 and #19 in the UK. Its B-side was the magnificently re-worked, classical piano version of the title track, “(Theme) Once Upon a Time” (with different cuts included on the B-sides of international releases, like “Say Something Nice” in Germany).
Arguably the masterpiece track on an album that many consider to have been Summer’s greatest project was the closing cut on the first of its two discs, the epic dancefloor journey “Queen for a Day.” It effortlessly merged Donna’s heartfelt vocals with Moroder and Bellotte’s driving synthesizer sound, and the result was a disco anthem for the ages. It was never issued on any single.
Summers’ next album was her true commercial breakthrough. Live and More was another double LP, released on August 31, 1978. Its first three sides were recorded at a concert in Los Angeles, but the fourth contained a new studio recording, the 18-minute epic “Macarthur Park Suite.” Released as an edited single version the following month, it became Summer’s first #1 single on the Hot 100. The album reached #1 on the Billboard 200, #4 on the R&B album charts, and #16 in the UK. It went platinum and was the sixth-best selling album of the year.
On the heels of this success, her seventh studio LP Bad Girls blew up even bigger, becoming Summer’s best-selling and most critically lauded studio album of all time. Recorded from December, 1978 though March, 1979 and released on April 25, 1979, it was her second double album to top the Billboard 200 and also reached #1 R&B on its way to going double platinum. A total of six singles were released over the next year and a half, of which its title track “Bad Girls” and “Hot Stuff” both hit #1 on the Hot 100, and “Dim All The Lights” peaked at #2.
Its finest single “Sunset People” was never released in the U.S. because Summer parted ways with her label Casablanca Records in 1980 and filed a $10 million lawsuit against them. She wanted to broaden her material beyond disco, but Casablanca president Neil Bogart refused. So she signed with Geffen Records and set about recording her next album The Wanderer, still working with Moroder and Bellotte but free to pursue a rock and new wave-oriented sound. When the lawsuit was eventually settled, Summer won the rights to her song publishing.
Before the split, Summer taped The Donna Summer Special, an hour-long prime time TV special that aired on the ABC network on January 27, 1980. Among the segments filmed for it was a promo video for “Sunset People.” Casablanca later released the track in Europe on July 14, 1980, with the superb jam “Our Love” on the B-side. It went to #14 in the Netherlands and #46 on the UK singles charts.
The Wanderer was released on October 20, 1980 and went gold, selling more than 600,000 copies in the U.S., but it was a letdown from the mega-success of Bad Girls. When Geffen stopped by the studio to preview her next album I'm a Rainbow, recorded during 1981 with Moroder and Bellotte, they made the mistake of telling him it was almost done, when actually only a few songs had been completed and most were still demos. He didn’t like what he heard, and shelved the album. It would remain unreleased until 1996.
Geffen hired superstar producer Quincy Jones instead, who worked with Summer from December, 1981 until April, 1982 recording her self-titled tenth studio album. Its advance single “Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)” dropped in early June, 1982, co-written by Jones, Merria Ross, and former Heatwave keyboardist/songwriter Rod Temperton. It hit #3 on dance charts, #4 R&B, and #10 on the Hot 100. The album itself reached #6 on the R&B album charts, #20 on the Billboard 200 and went gold, her eighth record in a row to go gold or platinum.
Happy Heavenly 75th Birthday to the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer.
Further info:
“Donna Summer, Queen of Disco, Dies at 63,” The New York Times, May 17, 2012.
“Why Donna Summer was 'one of the original rock stars',” BBC, December 5, 2021.
“Love to Love You documentary tells the harrowing story of Disco Queen Donna Summer,” The Independent (UK), May 19, 2023.
“How Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' Changed Music,” by Jim Allen, UDiscoverMusic, July 2, 2023.
#soul #disco #Donna Summer