Thursday, May 17, 2012

Donna Summer (1948-2012)

I first found this out when I was watching the noon news at work. The music business has lost another of its all-time greats with the passing of Donna Summer at 63 after a bout with cancer.

The first lady of the disco era, Summer scored a string of hits with songs like "Bad Girls", "MacArthur Park", "Love to Love You Baby", "Hot Stuff", "On The Radio", "Enough is Enough (No More Tears)"(a duet with Barbra Streisand), and "She Works Hard For the Money" between 1975 and 1983. "Money", in fact, was Donna's first music video to ever appear on MTV.

Ignored by top 40 radio in the 90's, Donna gave acting a shot, guest starring on Family Matters as a relative of Steve Urkel (Jaleel White). The guest shot gave Donna a chance to dust off another of her disco classics, "Last Dance". She even had the opportunity to sit in as a guest co-host for a day with Dick Clark on American Bandstand.

Following is a clip, presumably from Solid Gold, since it sounds like Dionne Warwick did the intro, of Donna singing "On The Radio":



Rest in peace, Donna.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

R.I.P. Ms. Summer!

Many glorious memories of school dances that featured many of her songs!

"On The Radio" turned up on the radio yesterday, still sounds as great as ever!

My personal favorite however was "She Works Hard For The Money".

hobbyfan said...

I wasn't that big a fan of "Bad Girls" or "Hot Stuff", but I did dig "On The Radio", "The Wanderer", and "She Works Hard For The Money".

Should've remembered her big screen debut was in "Thank God It's Friday", which, I believe, wasn't a big box office hit.