Your favorite Donna Summer song

So many to choose from but I still love Last Dance.

Yes, so many, but like On the Radio and This Time.

I really like this Donna Summer song from her album Cats Without Claws - "Eyes"

Sunset People

I Feel Love still sounds like it could've been recorded yesterday. It's so trippy, I never get tired of it.

The record Four Seasons of Love, obviously.

"I Feel Love" is one of my favorite songs of all time.

The sound of Giorgio Moroder's electronics was like the aural equivalent of flashing lights in a dance club.

It practically doesn't matter what Summer's singing.

Ring My Bell

Working the Midnight Shift, Wasted & Try Me, I Know We Can Make It

Donna Summer is one of the only artists whose album tracks were just as good as her singles, especially during the Casablanca years. Listening to her Casablanca stuff, there isn't one dud on any album.

"Dinner With Gershwin" was a last minute decision because her label didn't think there was a viable lead single from her collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer, who arranged and played keyboard/synthesizer on her late 70s albums, also cowrote some of the hits like "Hot Stuff," which was all his idea. It was a good idea to reunite with her old collaborators, but Giorgio was the only one she really needed to get with again, and Giorgio didn't want to work with her anymore because he said she turned down any sexy song and only wanted to sing about Jesus. This was in the 80s, the first album The Wanderer pleased the critics but the fans were bored. Their last album in 1981 wasn't even released, until 15 yrs later. Faltermeyer had no track record as a solo producer for producing commercial pop, just that one fluke instrumental hit, Axel F, from the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack. So again Donna saddled herself with a producer unlikely to make her competitive. But she didn't really care, already had enough money. Too bad she couldn't have combined Madonna's ambition with her own immense vocal talent.

r11, Harold Faltermeyer had a good track record as a producer during the late 80's. He wasn't 'unproven' or a novice record producer when he linked up with Donna Summer. He produced albums by Laura Branigan, Jennifer Rush and Billy Idol prior to All Systems Go.

I think she has great success with Billy Strayhorn's Lush Life. It has some extremely eighties flourishes from Quincy Jones, but she hits the lyrics with the right tone of edgy bitterness and resigned sadness. Far superior to the belting versions we've been subjected to from other pop singers.

She should have done a straight-up standards album or even a gospel record. Her post-mid-80s stuff is mostly bland and uninspired. She would have been better off eschewing the commercial or current trends and going with what moved her.

*Wasn't there talk of a Nashville album for several years?

Feel free to name the Top 40 singles he produced. Faltermeyer might have been good enough for Branigan, but not Donna, as a solo producer.

It's a shame that Donna had to get all Jesusy in the early80s, because her creativity really suffered. I don't believe she ever said any anti-gay stuff, but she definitely turned down several songs for being "too sexy," and those songs went on to become big hits for other artists. I think I read somewhere that Donna turned down "Gloria," which of course became a massive hit for Laura Branigan and one of the signature songs of the 80s.

He was good enough for Donna. He had solo success two years prior to working with Donna. He did lack top 10 success in the USA for other artists though. He had top 40 success as a producer for Laura Branigan "Spanish Eddie" and "Flames of Paradise" for Jennifer Rush.

It was David Geffen who nixed the I'm a Rainbow album and paired her with Quincy Jones. I think Giorgio would have kept working with her but it was obvious things had changed since the fall of disco and Donna becoming born-again. Giorgio's productions were still huge up until the mid-80s. A song like Romeo could have been another top ten hit for Donna.

And Donna did start recording sexy songs again. She recorded "When Love Cries" in 1991.

agreed, r17! I really liked her Mistaken Identity album from 1991. "When Love Cries" is a great track!

Harold called Giorgio before working with Donna, wanted to get his permission first, and Giorgio said "I'm through with her. But we're still friends." And added "Do a good job." In the last 5 yrs or so, Giorgio explained why he didn't want to work with her anymore, turning down hits they wrote for her and only wanting to sing about Jesus. That's what he said. And disco dying didn't have anything to do with it, Giorgio remained highly commercial into the mid-80s.

[quote] He had top 40 success as a producer for Laura Branigan "Spanish Eddie" and "Flames of Paradise" for Jennifer Rush.

Both marginal, "Spanish Eddie" #40, "Flames of Paradise" #36.

r19 Quote??

because I haven't seen it here yet I'm putting, "love is in control"

"State of Independence" is amazing. Even Brian Eno praised its brilliance.

Eno loved her, I think he's said she's his favorite singer. Lots of praise from the electronic community for her, Moby and the Pet Shop Boys also worshiped her, and on and on.

She could elevate bad material as well. She released two versions of Down, Deep Inside (one slow, one disco) from the movie The Deep.

It wasn't really a good song but she made both versions enjoyable.

The MacArthur Park suite.

Love is in Control (Finger on the Trigger) is a good one. I also liked Sheena Easton's cover version from 2001.

My favorite is "Bad Reputation".

The woman in Me

Our Love

Dinner with Gershwin

Try me, I know we can make it

Hot Stuff

Last Dance

Don't cry for me Argentina (far superior to Madonna's rendition or any other rendition that I've heard)

Eyes

Lucky from Bad Girls

MacArthur Park Suite all the way!! I have great memories of dancing to that in the early 90's towards the end of the night (which was like 10am) at Sound Factory and watching Kevin Aviance turning it the fuck out! WORK BITCH!

"I Feel Love" is how you knew you were gay in the 70s. It still sounds amazing.

"Lucky" is indeed amazing too. That entire 2 disc album was, in fact.

[quote] I think I read somewhere that Donna turned down "Gloria," which of course became a massive hit for Laura Branigan and one of the signature songs of the 80s.

It took me a few weeks to realize that "Gloria" was NOT Donna Summer. Laura Branigan straight ripped-off Donna's vocal style for that one.

Laura Branigan didn't rip off anyone's vocal for "Gloria". That's just how she sings. She was influenced by Donna but didn't rip off anybody.

[quote] Laura Branigan didn't rip off anyone's vocal for "Gloria". That's just how she sings. She was influenced by Donna but didn't rip off anybody.

If you say so, Felicia.

Now I Need You & Working the Midnight Shift (together)

Hot Stuff & Bad Girls (together)

With Your Love (from 'TGIF')

Our Love

Romeo

I love her PWL period.

Say Something Nice

....

Happily Ever After from the Once Upon A Time album.

i dont wanna get hurt

Enough is Enough was the best because she was paired with La Streisand!!

Another vote for "I Feel Love."

"I Feel Love" still sounds modern, a fantastic song.

Dinner With Gershwin

Too many, but my fave is still the underrated "Dim All The Lights." I feel like that song has a little bit of everything.

She works hard for the money

I like her "Gays Deserves Aids! dance mix.

SAW's Love's about to change my heart

The original mix of "Love On and On" with the ballad intro is very nice. Her vocal was killer.

r52 I love that one too. Donna recorded it for the Studio 54 movie with Ryan Phillippe, but when she saw a rough cut she thought the movie was shit (it was) and refused to let them use it. Curiously, she never released it as a single which is a shame because IMHO it's as good as her 70s songs. I think it would've been a pretty big hit.

R53 a Hex Hector remix was released as a b-side to "I Will Go With You." But the original/demo was the best, she slayed it with the vocal ab-libs -- her vocals became fuller and more soulful as she matured. Unfortunately, in her latter years she didn't have killer songs and arrangements like in her heyday.

Elder Gays have such a wealth of cultural knowledge.

Our Love. Great percussion.

Can I pick Dim All the Lights as a second? It’s hard to pick one favorite.

In my mind, "I Feel Love" involves filth, and sex, and sweat, and fashion, and glamour, and drugs. It continues to be THE BEST disco track ever released. It's incredibly innovative. A mark of the zeitgeist. And its throbbing bass is HIGHLY erotic.

The MacArthur Park Suite off of her Live and More album is a remarkable recording and my favourite.

Of her classic run, I loved them all but I'd have to say Dim All The Lights was my favorite, showing versatility in her voice.

Of her 80's stuff, and possibly overall, Love Is In Control (Finger on the Trigger).

I was also the MARY! who wept over her version of Dan Fogelberg's Nether Lands, recorded not long before Donna's death. If you ever need a good cry, put this bitch on.

[quote] I like her "Gays Deserves Aids! dance mix.

I much prefer the zippier "Not Adam and Steve!" re-mix.

She never said those things.

It was Geffen getting even.

R59, you just beat me! I’m posting anyway.

Runner-up for me is Nether Lands, her entry to the Dan Fogelberg tribute album put together by his widow not long after he died. Donna Summer approached her about singing the song because she used to listen to it all the time when her life was at a crossroads.

His widow apologized for not being able to pay for new orchestration to get the song into Donna Summer’s key. Summer told her it was no problem.

It isn’t my favorite Donna Summer song, but it is my favorite vocal performance from her. She is fucking majestic here.

I discovered this song through Datalounge just a couple of years ago.

Disco is awful. Sorry sis.

Last Dance is a classic and a great musical composition.

"Hot Stuff" is the best, but I also love her version of "Could It Be Magic?" For a guilty pleasure, track down the live performance where Donna joins Barry Manilow on stage to duet with him on it.

[quote[ She is fucking majestic here.

There may be a day that I can hear that song and not weep profusely by the first verse.....but that day has not yet happened.

The end truly is majestic.

The red dress is fabulous.

Another MARY! here. Majestic is the perfect word for Donna's rendition of Nether Lands. I CAN NOT get through that song without crying. I think it's for a few reasons; - certainly her performance, but the fact that both she and Dan Fogleberg have died. Donna takes a song that you would think was totally out of her wheel house, and just slays it. Such incredible talent. I love Dan Fogleberg and loved the song when he sang it, but she just takes it to another level entirely.

Back on earth, I vote for 'Heaven Knows',. If we're talking albums rather than specific songs, I vote for the 'Donna Summer' album that Quincy Jones produced (and which she found difficult to do), or all the SAW tracks.

Just hope there's a studio version of this in her unreleased vault. Nights In White Satin.