Love to Love You Baby
OASIS, 1975



#11 / BILLBOARD 200
#16 / UK ALBUMS

OCLP-5003

All eyes and ears are fixated on the juggernaut love romp of “Love to Love You Baby.” Inside the seventeen-minute suite of ear erotica, Donna Summer shows off a never-ending set of NSFW orgasms as chick-a-wow-wow bass struts and a bevy of strings showed off Isaac Hayes disco. Entirely too long for some; just right for the dancey type, the album version of “Love to Love You Baby” – a hefty DJ mix designed by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte of a three-and-a-half minute version – stands out as one of Eurodisco's epics. The album's flipside are expressions of another kind: “Pandora's Box” plays with Motown-peppered country-pop; “Full of Emptiness” is Summer on sleepy folk; “Need a Man Blues” feels like generic porn music. Her American debut LP is still worth seeking out, even if it's just to hear the quintessential moan heard all around the world.

TRACK LISTING : Love to Love You Baby / Full of Emptiness / Need-A-Man Blues / Whispering Waves / Pandora's Box / Full of Emptiness (Reprise)

A Love's Trilogy
OASIS, 1976



#21 / BILLBOARD 200
# 16 / BILLBOARD TOP R&B/HIP-HOP ALBUMS
#41 / UK ALBUMS

OCLP-5004

The Moroder/Bellotte team hardly knew what trilogy meant when they whipped four different songs into an mega eighteen-minute medley. “Try Me” and “I Know” are the finer moments of the disco-fied foreplay; thankfully they are patched at the top of the unbreakable set. The album's second side is just as delicious, which improves heavily over Love to Love You Baby. Her magical remake of Barry Manilow's “Could It Be Magic” is absolutely stunning, almost banishing Manilow's AC version into a pool of forgetfulness. Plus, Keith Forsey's drum work on this one is a clever rewrite of Earl Young's beating. When “Wasted” finally enters the picture, with its dangerously executed strings and Summer's luxurious Striesand sway on such lines as “I was selfish and foolish/I used and abused him/And laughed when he threatened to walk out/But now he's done it,” you've witnessed a better display of song craft on Summer and the smartness of the Munich Machine. By this time, they were in total control of rewriting the rulebooks of euphoric disco.

TRACK LISTING : Try Me, I Know We Can Make It/ Intro: Prelude to Love / Could It Be Magic / Wasted / Come With Me

Four Seasons of Love
CASABLANCA, 1976



#29 / BILLBOARD 200

NPLP-7038

For each season of the year, Summer and her writing partners constructed elaborate eight-minute tracks using a starburst of disco. Of the album's prouder moments, “Summer Fever” outsmarts the album opener, “Spring Affair,” just for being a bit more unique. The walk from the verse to the chorus is covered with a marinade of mystery. The killer guitar lines and the occasional string strikes add to the suspense. “Spring Affair” feels like “Love to Love You Baby” set to Diana Ross's “Love Hangover.” The lyrics are forgettable, particularly when the song's titles and the flurry of lyrics surrounding them lack cohesion. Only ‘Winter Melody,” slower in motion, actually sounds like it make sense, as she sings of the hallow emptiness left behind by a good love: “Winter melody/Play for me, just for me/'Cause he's not coming home and I'm here alone.” Four tracks of Eurodisco are better than two tracks – something Cerrone and Alec E. Constandinos became notorious for.

TRACK LISTING : Spring Affair / Summer Fever / Autumn Changes / Winter Melody / Spring Reprise

I Remember Yesterday
CASABLANCA, 1977



#18 / BILLBOARD 200
#11 / BILLBOARD TOP R&B/HIP-HOP ALBUMS
#3 / UK ALBUMS

NBLP-7056

Like a portal of flashbacks, I Remember Yesterday celebrates a century of pop, but things are a bit spottier this time around. Dr. Buzzard's rich debut LP makes Donna Summer's title track sound dusty, even though it works just as fine in bringing Cotton Club swagger to the dance floor. “Back in Love Again” sounds like Supremes leftovers; the title also resembled their 1965 hit “Back in My Arms Again.” And “Black Lady” feels like a waste of space. Of the album's beefier moments, “Love's Unkind” spills over with Phil Spector's sounds, even giving Prince a few valuable pointers for “Raspberry Beret.” On "Can We Just Sit Down," Summer delivers a soaring ballad using a Dionne Warwick opulence. Then there's “Take Me,” which sounds like “Spring Affair,” but whipped with a futuristic dub synth that's almost Eighties-like and the bad-ass techno rollercoaster of the album's gigantic closer, “I Feel Love.” By this point, yesterday only seems laughable. The sound of tomorrow created by Moroder and crew sounds even better.

TRACK LISTING : I Remember Yesterday / Love's Unkind / Back in Love Again / I Remember Yesterday (Reprise) / Black Lady / Take Me / Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over) / I Feel Love

Once Upon a Time...
CASABLANCA, 1977



#26 / BILLBOARD 200
#13 / BILLBOARD TOP R&B/HIP-HOP ALBUMS
#24 / UK ALBUMS

NBLP-7078

On Summer's first double LP, she enters the world of make-believe, fantasizing over Cinderella in a disco wonderland (let's call it disco-rella). For most of the journey, Summer takes on a flurry of vocal personalities (i.e, godmotherly narrator, soft porn actress, occasional soul singer). Meanwhile all four sides – labeled as acts on vinyl – go from one portal of sounds to the next. By the time she approaches the third song (“Say Something Nice”), her voice finally starts to break from its cocoon. But Act 1 showcases the weaknesses of a redundant carousel of basic disco. Towards the middle of the seventy minute set (starting with Act II), the Moroder/Bellottee bunch shine the spotlight on themselves, assuring listeners that the masterminds behind the musical veil are just as important as the dreamlike vixen seated in the front. The synth bleeps, buzz saw swipes and the strange Catholic choir provide “Now I Need You” with non-pop disco. Clearly, the sudden popularity of “I Feel Love” sparked the inspiration behind “Working the Midnight Shift” and the first half of “Queen for a Day.” But despite the need to invent a disco opera, similar to what The Who did for rock (Tommy) and David Bowie did with glam rock (...Ziggy Stardust), she hardly sings here. Instead Summer allows the synthy chords to do much of the hard homework for her. When she's finally allowed to belt a song, like on the Aretha-teased “Man Like You” or on the “Sweet Romance” it's when her fairy tale character finds love “happily ever after.” Thankfully, “I Love You” – teased with “Let's Dance” pleasantries –puts the underappreciated Summer where she works best and where she rightfully belongs: on dance floor rompers. Once Upon a Time is an ambitious work only for giving Summer something artsy and something ballsy enough to rattle her toughest critics. Once you dig deep under its surface, you'll discover the distress of a disco singer now exhausted of her own craft.

TRACK LISTING : Once Upon a Time / Faster and Faster to Nowhere / Fairy Tale High / Say Something Nice / Now I Need You / Working the Midnight Shift / Queen for a Day / If You Got It Flaunt It / A Man Like You / Sweet Romance / (Theme) Once Upon a Time / Dance Into My Life / Rumor Has It / I Love You / Happily Ever After / (Theme) Once Upon a Time

Live and More
CASABLANCA, 1978



#1 / BILLBOARD 200

NBLP-7119-2

For Summer's starpower to widen, a live album had to be in order. She was now being pegged a studio experiment, like many of her Eurodisco associates. Thanks to her live concert contribution Live and More, she proudly proved her legitimacy. The live album, culled at Los Angeles's Universal Amphitheater, is heavily stocked deep album tracks, mostly from the overlooked Once Upon a Time album. Some are better executed that the originals (“Once Upon a Time”), and some are simply too silly and audacious for such an event as this (“Fairytale High,” “Only One Man”). Trying to turn “Try Me, I Know We Can Make It” into a four-minute workout seems like a last-minute rush job. She even goes the Supremes-at-the-Copa route, using pop standards and even sound-alikes to plant the idea of a healthier cross over (“The Way We Were,” “Only One Man”). “Mimi's Song” is a bit forgivable, where she sings a sweet string-laden “Superstar”-like lullaby to her daughter using pompous theatrics. The album does find its groove when she works her sex appeal on the P. Funk workout of “Love to Love You Baby” and with the DJ-friendly fourth side, displaying a mammoth eighteen-minute “MacArthur Park Suite,” which showcased something of opera gospel excellence around Jimmy Webb's ambiguous pop hit. Also inside the epic: “Heaven Knows,” which unites Summer with Brooklyn Dreams on one of her greatest disco-pop pilgrimages.

TRACK LISTING : Once Upon a Time / Fairy Tale High / Faster and Faster to Nowhere / Spring Affair / Rumor Has It / I Love You / Only One Man / I Remember Yesterday / Love's Unkind / My Man Medley: The Man I Love, I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good, Some of These Days / The Way We Were / Mimi's Song / Try Me, I Know We Can Make It / Love to Love You, Baby / I Feel Love / Last Dance / Mac Arthur Park Suite: Mac Arthur Park/One of a Kind / Heaven Knows / Mac Arthur Park (Reprise)

Bad Girls
CASABLANCA, 1979



#1 / BILLBOARD 200
#1 / BILLBOARD TOP R&B/HIP-HOP ALBUMS
#23 / UK ALBUMS

NBLP-2-7150

Bad Girls is Donna Summer in her finest hour. She's glowing at a smart commercial peak, even if disco was only minutes away from a total shipwreck, and she's also pulling out melodies and lyrics from her own playbook, even if she's getting some of the best assistance from Moroder and other co-writers. Willing to take bigger and riskier changes, Summer draws up her magnum opus using the double-LP as her canvas. She's taking big chances before, but not this majestic. “Hot Stuff” creates a sweet blend of disco and rock, incorporating a mean guitar solo from Doobie Brother alum Jeff “Skunk” Baxter. The lyrics are also worth fetching, as Summer shines the spotlight on the paid-to-play prostitutes infamously known for working the Sunset Strip (“Sunset People” explores the story even further). The song then segues into the infectious album title track. The story of the night prowler continues: “See them out on the street at night walking/Picking up all kinds of strangers if the price is right/You can't score if your pockets tight.” Its bodacious blend of Chic piano chords, blazing horns and the “toot toot, ahy, beep beep” chants were all the proper ingredients needed to make a smash hit. But finding hits on Bad Girls come easy: “Walk Away” fires up the R&B bass using Linda Ronstadt's “You're No Good” as inspiration; “Dim All the Lights” – penned entirely by Summer – pours Studio 54 disco atop Teddy Pendergrass folklore; “Our Love” is a safer field trip into “I Need Love” synth fantasies; “Can't Get to Sleep at Night” sounds like the perfect precursor to New Wave-dancey pop, even if it harbors Hammond B-3 blurts and superior drum work. The ballads aren't all that interesting here, except for the Nashville glossed “On My Honor.” Sometimes double-LPs are too much to digest. For most music connoisseurs, Donna was usually too much to digest anyway, especially with the ten-minute disco voyages. Bad Girls, wrought with Top 40 radio tracks, ingenious production and Harold Faltermeyer's arranging, showed no sign of disappointment.

TRACK LISTING : Hot Stuff / Bad Girls / Love Will Always Find You / Walk Away / Dim All the Lights / Journey to the Center of Your Heart / One Night in a Lifetime / Can't Get to Sleep at Night / On My Honor / There Will Always Be a You / All Through the Night / My Baby Understands / Our Love / Lucky / Sunset People

On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II
CASABLANCA, 1979



#1 / BILLBOARD 200
#24 / UK ALBUMS

NBLP-2-7191

Using her memorable contribution from the Adrian Lyne-directed, Jodie Foster-starred Foxes as the album title to her first legit “greatest hits” album, Donna Summer pours out another double-LP set. It easily avoids the filler and goes for her most sovereign tracks. Instead of just pulling out single edits, Giorgio Moroder turns each side into a sweaty mega-mix, sewing together tracks into a disco cantata. The songs try to flow in a chronological order, which is a definite plus. On the album's fourth side, the 12-inch version of Summer's chart-topping duet with Barbra Streisand on “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” and a six-minute version of “On the Radio” comes as the grand finale for Summer's truest fans. Although you've probably inherited these tracks from their respected albums, Moroder's mixing assignment here transforms him into a Paradise Garage sensei.

TRACK LISTING : On the Radio / Love to Love You Baby / Try Me. I Know We Can Make It / I Feel Love / Our Love / I Remember Yesterday / I Love You / Heaven Knows (Duet with Brooklyn Dreams) / Last Dance / Mac Arthur Park / Hot Stuff / Bad Girls / Dim All the Lights / Sunset People / No More tears (Enough Is Enough) (Duet with Barbra Striesand) / On the Radio (Long Version)

VH1 Presents Live & More: Encore!
EPIC, 1999



#43 / BILLBOARD 200
#33 / BILLBOARD TOP R&B/HIP-HOP ALBUMS

EPC-494532-2

Twenty years since dropping the No. 1 Live and More, Donna Summer – now in her contract with Sony – reprises the “live and more” vestige. This time around, she's able to add big hits tunes to her set list that were still in the incubator when 1978's Live and More was actualized. “Bad Girls,” “She Works Hard for the Money,” “On the Radio” and “Hot Stuff” are widely displayed, along with her latter-day hits (“This Time I Know It's for Real”). She works the crowd into a furious sweat, and stays in good voice throughout the entire sixty-minute show. The live covers, particularly “Bad Girls,” mostly bear that cringing post-disco blandness, where the drums are drowned deeply into background. The backing vocalists on “I Feel Love” also drowns out anything that possibly could be heard from Summer's lips. Fortunately, the album is sparred with a number of memorable moments: The hearty prelude on “Dim All the Lights” when she imitates Rod Stewart's gritty vocals perfectly (Summer claims she scored the song for the “Maggie May” singer); “No More Tears (Enough is Enough)” puts her squarely in a sparkly duet duel with Tina Arena; “I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiro)” – her techno spin on the Andrea Bocelli tune – provides the perfect bonus track.

TRACK LISTING : MacArthur Park / This Time I Know It's for Real / I Feel Love / On the Radio / No More tears (Enough Is Enough) / Dim All the Lights / She Works Hard for the Money / Bad Girls / Hot Stuff / My Life / Last Dance / Love Is the Healer / I Will Go With You (Con te partirò)