SUMMER, DONNA 1949-

Singer, songwriter

Europe

Born Ladonna Gaines in the Boston area, Donna Summer got her first taste for singing in her church choir. Her idols ranged from gospel legend Mahalia Jackson to rock singer Janis Joplin, and soon Summer was singing with a local rock band. Dropping out of high school, she headed to Europe, where she appeared in the German production of Hair. Summer sang and acted in other European musicals and performed regularly with the Vienna Folk Opera. In Munich in 1975 writer-producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellote tapped Summer to record a hot new disco-based number, which was released later that year in the United States. "Love to Love You Baby" became an instant classic, most notably because of Summer's repeated orgasmic moans. The song was featured as the title track on her debut album and helped launch the disco revolution.

Range

Summer specialized in disco songs but made a point of trying to expand that range. "I was totally aware I had more going for me," she said later, and some critics agreed, noting her soulful, full-throttle vocal style. By 1977 Summer had racked up three hit albums for Casablanca Records, including I Remember Yesterday, on which she explored a wide pop range, from Tin Pan Alley to Motown. She was also proud of her songwriting, displayed in the autobiographical miniopera Once Upon a Time (1977). After scoring another hit with "I Feel Love," Summer appeared as an aspiring singer in the 1978 dance-oriented film Thank God It's Friday. The movie's theme song, "Last Dance," won an Academy Award for Best Song in early 1979, and Summer won a Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. She also nabbed three American Music Awards and a citation from Billboard magazine as the top-selling disco artist of 1978, which was partly due to her huge success with a recording of "MacArthur Park" from I Remember Yesterday.

Superstar

Well aware of her reputation as disco's first lady of lust, Summer began expanding her concert repetoire with rock songs. Her 1979 double album Bad Girls was also an attempt to show off her songwriting and her stylistic range. The record featured rock, blues, ballad, and pop styles, but it was the disco material (not surprisingly) that took off on the charts. "Hot Stuff" and the title track were both number ones in the summer of 1979, a year in which Summer seemed to be everywhere. After "Dim All the Lights" became the album's third smash, Summer teamed with rival diva Barbra Streisand on the hit "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)." By the end of the year Summer was named by Billboard as its number one singles artist and number two album artist. Her duet with Streisand seemed to clinch what she had already proved: Summer had become disco's one true superstar.

Later Career

The disco hits continued: "On the Radio" and "The Wanderer" hit the Top 5 early in 1980. But as the disco craze faded in the 1980s, Summer happily embraced other styles. Her gospel song "He's a Rebel" won her a Grammy in 1983 for Best Inspirational Performance, and she won the award again the following year for "Forgive Me." Although she had more big hits in "Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)" and "She Works Hard for the Money" in the early 1980s, Summer seemed relieved to have left Casablanca and a style she claimed "had been choking me to death for three years." But perhaps she could never outrun her 1970s reputation. She next hit the Top 10 in 1989 with "This Time I Know It's for Real," a disco song.

Sources:

Michael Bane, Who's Who in Rock (New York: Facts on File, 1981);

Irwin Stambler, The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock & Soul (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989).