Your favorite Donna Summer songs

Not a fan of 7" versions of any artist, really. They're cut for radio play and often the most interesting development of a song is left out. But to the have all the 12" versions sounds like a good deal!

 

Agree with you, but on some of the 80s' single, the radio edit (or in some cases, single remix) is slightly tighter for me than the album cut-- definitely not so on the 70s output!

 

Really dislike the line, "Turn my brown body white."
Never listen to it because of that. Probably best not said here but she put it out there.

This cut and On The Radio make me immediately hit the fast forward button on the stereo. Otherwise Donna puts a smile on my face.

 

That tv appearance was her crucial breakthrough in the Netherlands on Van Oekel's Discohoek. She actually returned to the show to thank its host Sjef van Oekel (aka Dolf Brouwers) generously and performed Love To Love You Baby , my favourite together with I Feel Love.

 

I’ve always thought it was more about sex than anything else, but then I have no problem with “Brown Sugar” either.

I saw her in a casino post-born again, and she sang that line and “if you find the perfect love, let it fill you up” but changed “tonight it’s all the way” to “the night is on its way”. Who knows. . .

 

Oh yeah. The visual and (especially) emotional content is a bit ??? for me that's all. My sister and I used to have a contest over who could hold that note at the end of "Let it fill you uuuuuuuuuup!" So it still has a bittersweet charm.

 

Man, I loved "On The Radio" back in my roller-rink days! Haven't heard it in years, but I can "play" it in my mind pretty well...

 

“Our Love”. Admittedly stolen by New Order for “Blue Monday”.

 

I wish they could have made a set with just the Casablanca albums, as they are the ones who have not been reissued/remastered previously. All the later albums have been done in Deluxe versions, I assume all the same bonus material is here, and there's even been a box for those: Donna Summer / Deluxe Editions + limited Vinyl and CD box sets | superdeluxeedition

I hope maybe the Casablanca albums will be released separately later on, with bonus tracks added (although I'm not sure if there's a logical way to distribute the bonus tracks from that period). The bonus content of that era isn't very interesting anyway, most of the Casablanca 7" versions are what's been used over and over on most compilations and I don't think any of them are new to CD except "With Your Love". On the 12" disc I have to say I don't know "Love To Love You Baby (Come Dancing Version)" and "Could It Be Magic [12″ Single Version]", are those later remixes? Strangely omitted on that disc is the 12" version of "Walk Away" (previously incuded on The Dance Collection and Bad Girls Deluxe). About distributing, I'm not sure I understand the logic in separating "non-studio album" singles into it's own section (makes an essential song like the full-lenght "Last Dance" get lost, it seems they couldn't decide if "Theme From The Deep" is "non-studio album" or not, but "Denver Dream"/"Something’s In The Wind" certainley are, so they're in the wrong place), wouldn't it be better to just have everythig chronolocigal?

I notice that Lady Of The Night is missing "Full Of Emptiness", as on other CD releases. Since it was re-used on Love to Love You Baby including it on Lady Of The Night has previous been prevented for other labels. But the versions on the two albums are actually different, and since this is now all under one roof it doesn't make sense to not include the first album in full.

Perhaps it seems petty to be complaining when there is so much material here, but the thing is there isn't much that is new here, and I think there is much more stuff that could have been included for the Casablanca years and earlier (and actually for the very late era of 90s/00s as well).

 

Looking at this some more there are also plenty of Casablanca 7" singles missing, "Could It Be Magic" (there are actually several edits), "Try Me, I Know We Can Make It" and "Spring Affair" are all completely missing (all three have been included on previous compilations, like Anthology and Gold, but not in their authentic single versions), there are also two different single versions of "Love to Love You Baby", so one is missing (I guess the original single is included here, but there is also one that is an edit of the album track, as used on Gold), and since "Last Dance" is only included on the last disc, and I assume that is the long(est) version (from soundtrack album and 12"), that means the single version of that as well must be missing, should have been on either disc 28 or 32. There is also a previously released alternate version of "Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over)" (I think available on iTunes) which could have been on here.

I am assuming that for this release Crimson Productions has just licensed Casablanca era tracks from Universal that were already released, and no additional work has been done for that period.

I see now that the former was an edit on the B-side of a 1984 UK 12", and the latter is (perhaps) from the B-side of a 1991 (?) "Bad Girls".

In case anyone is interested, here is "Love To Love You Baby (Come Dancing Version)":

(I don't think this has been reissued anywhere before.)

 

There is a bunch of remixes found on the post Casablanca album DEs that aren’t on this box. Those are pretty complete. This box set is not complete. They should’ve just did the Casablanca/Mercury years and left it at that. They could’ve included the post 1991 material as well. There are a bunch of mixes and single versions not included so it’s pretty frustrating. Unconditional Love 12” is a glaring one as that has never been on CD.

 

As I mentioned above, when I thought about this some more I realized Crimson Productions, who are doing this, will have to license the Casablanca material from Universal, as this is not a joint effort, and that is probably pretty difficult, not to mention costly, and if so I guess mainly what is already released is what was available to license, as probably no extra work was done to dig out stuff (still there are a few things here that are new to digital it seems).

I am not that interested in the post-Casablanca material, but I really feel sorry for those who have already bought all those Deluxe Editions (didn't one of them even come out twice in different versions) and now have to get all (or most) of that again to get to the rest...

 

I love “Mystery Of Love”, but never cared for “Protection”.

 

I like "Protection".

 

"On My Honor" - This is from the Bad Girls album & it's a beautiful ballad.


"Lucky" - Also from the Bad Girls album. A disco track with a great story.
Lucky

"This Time I Know It's For Real" - From the Another Place In Time album. Wow!
Just when we thought Donna Summer was faded into our past, she comes out with
this great song & reminds us what The Queen Of Disco can do!
Donna Summer - This Time I Know It's For Real


Donna Summer's "Bad Girls" album is a perfect album from beginning to end! Very highly recommended!!!

 

Four Seasons of Love (1976, Casablanca)

 

I really like "The Hostage"...

 

I think Summer is making to reference to heat, as in hot sex. When something burns hotter than red hot it burns white hot. Her innocuous lyric really shouldn't be complicated with a racial implication. As the sole songwriter I think her intention was pretty clear. Her intellect as an artist should be taken for granted & respected.

 

The beautiful thing about art is that it can be interpreted in myriads ways. It certainly doesn't require instructions for reception. And in no fashion did I or will I display disrespect to any artist. That doesn't mean that I have to admire everything they produce.

 

"Macarthur Park" a huevo, amigos! Great song! Great park (yeah it looks like pants these days but so what?)

Macarthur Park or bust!!!

 

On The Radio
Hotstuff
Heaven Knows
Last Dance
This Time I Know It's For Real
(Great thread btw, always good to remember Donna)

 

Hot stuff
She Works Hard For The Money
MacArthur Park
On The Radio
Last Dance

 

Born To Die. Could be Stone Poneys outtake.

 

For those still into vinyl - Bad Girls Side 4 is till my favorite side next to The MacArthur Park Suite on Live & More:


Our Love
Lucky
Sunset People

 

Once Upon A Time
Act 4

Act 1 Reprise