Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Donna Summer,All Through the Night
Donna Summer and Bruce Roberts,Whenever There Is Love 1996
"Whenever There Is Love" was by no means Bruce Roberts' and Donna Summer's first collaboration. In 1979 he co-wrote her number one disco duet with Barbra Streisand, "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)", with the late Paul Jabara, and the same year he also wrote the ballad "All Through The Night" with Summer for her multiplatinum selling album Bad Girls, a song which he in turn covered on his 1995 album Intimacy.
Donna Summer on Family Matters
Donna Summer,The Power of One,2000
The dramatic ballad was produced by renowned music producer David Foster. Summer and Foster had previously collaborated in 1996 on the song "Whenever There Is Love," the theme to the Sylvester Stallone film Daylight.
"The Power of One" was included as track 1 on the Pokémon 2000 soundtrack album and was released as two different CD singles in the United States. A number of dance remixes were also issued on vinyl to nightclub DJs. Following 1999's "I Will Go with You (Con te partirò)" and "Love Is the Healer" which both topped the US Hot Dance Club Play chart, the club remix of "The Power of One" became another dancefloor success for Summer, peaking at #2 on the same chart in 2000.
The Power of One was also Summer's return to the Atlantic Records label, some ten years after her highly successful album Another Place and Time, albeit for just this one-off single. Summer has not collaborated with either Atlantic Records or its parent label Warner Music since.
The song's lyrics were quoted numerous times by former 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, including at the August 11 Republican debate. Cain has variously attributed the lyrics to "a poet" and has referred to "The Power of One" as "the closing song to the 2000 Olympics." However, the song is not included in the music list for the 2000 Olympics' closing ceremony.
Donna Summer: Her Life and Music (Book)
Donna Summer dominated the American and European pop
charts in the 1970s with dance music classics such as "Last Dance,"
"Love To Love You Baby," "I Feel Love," "Hot Stuff," and "Bad Girls" --
earning her the title "Queen of Disco." In a career which has now
spanned four decades, she has sold over 100 million records worldwide,
won five Grammy Awards, scored twenty Top 40 hits, and collaborated with
musical giants such as Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, and Quincy
Jones.
Controversies which have surrounded her, including her becoming a Born Again Christian at the height of her career, and an antagonistic relationship with the gay community in the 1980s
This chronicle and analysis of Donna Summer's triumphs and setbacks -- both professional and private -- paints the definitive picture of an artist who overcame adversity, pushed musical boundaries, and created a catalog of innovative recordings that helped define an era.
"Donna Summer: Her Life and Music" is the first book in
over twenty years to examine this extraordinary performer's life and
career. Author Josiah Howard provides in-depth, insightful coverage of:
The artistic and commercial high points of her recording
career, including her groundbreaking 1970s hits recorded with producers
Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte
Her pre-superstardom stage and recording work in Europe. http://www.amazon.com/Donna-Summer-Her-Life-Music/dp/0967597331/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_3
The
carefully conceived image manipulation that she and her record company
employed to make her the biggest star to emerge from the disco genre
Her
largely overlooked success as a songwriter, which includes many of her
own hits, and even a #1 country hit recorded by Dolly Parton Controversies which have surrounded her, including her becoming a Born Again Christian at the height of her career, and an antagonistic relationship with the gay community in the 1980s
This chronicle and analysis of Donna Summer's triumphs and setbacks -- both professional and private -- paints the definitive picture of an artist who overcame adversity, pushed musical boundaries, and created a catalog of innovative recordings that helped define an era.
Donna Summer,Ordinary Girl,The Journey (Book)
Book Description:
Ordinary Girl is legendary singer-songwriter Donna Summer’s
delightfully candid memoir about her journey from singing in a Boston
church to her unexpected reign as the Queen of Disco—and the tragedy and
spiritual rebirth that followed.
Donna Summer was born on
New Year’s Eve in Boston. Her childhood was filled with music. Inspired
by Mahalia Jackson, she began singing in church choirs at the age of
ten. A few years later she joined a Boston rock group, and by the end of
the 1960s she was living the life of an artist in New York City’s
Greenwich Village.
Soon after, Donna left the United States to
join the German cast of Hair. She was still in her teens, a shy,
ordinary girl who was suddenly feeling the jolt of the sexual
revolution. She lived in Germany for seven and a half years, modeling,
acting, falling in love, getting married, and giving birth to a
daughter. She met a producer named Giorgio Moroder, and together they
created a song called “Love to Love You Baby.” It became one of the
world’s premier disco hits.
Donna Summer returned to America as a
star, a “sex goddess” who bore little resemblance to her own sense of
who she was. She describes what that personal transformation felt like
from the white-hot center of the disco era, and how, over the next two
decades, it contributed to a sometimes harrowing spiritual journey.
With heart and humor, Donna Summer relives the decadent days of disco
and shows how she transcended them. This is the inspiring tale of an
“ordinary girl” on an extraordinary journey.
http://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Girl-Journey-Donna-Summer/dp/1400060311
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