Donna Summer: Side One from On the Radio, Greatest Hits Volumes I & II

The great Nile Rodgers stated that her Love to Love You Baby was one of his major inspirations.  It has one of the great breakdowns.  And of breakdowns, Nile says that's why he wrote and played songs, to get to the breakdowns, Nard.  This record above is her greatest hits album.  Side One is what I can play straight through. And I did yesterday afternoon as I filled up our five hummingbird feeders with fresh red juice.  It starts with On the Radio, then Love to Love you Baby, and then Try Me, I Know We Can Make It, then I Feel Love, closing out with Our Love.  It is a great side of a great two-LP greatest hits album.  Yesterday I read the fine obituary of written by music critic of the Chicago Tribune.  Quoting Kot, "In 1977, the producers and Summer collaborated on a concept album that surveyed several decades of music, “I Remember Yesterday.” Its “future” segment included the track “I Feel Love,” which lived up to the hype: hypnotic waves of synthesizer rhythm suggesting some kind of science-fiction metropolis, with Summer’s voice rising and falling as if riding the celestial highway’s curves.  It was not only a No. 2 pop single, it would prove to have a lasting impact on music. Brian Eno, while in recording sessions in Berlin with David Bowie at the time, proclaimed the song, “The sound of the future.” Which, Bowie, added, “was more or less right.”   Kot is correct, it has a very Kraftwerk feel to it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e3H6t6j3Rk

Donna Summer - She Works Hard for the Money - photo of the back cover

Born right here in Evanston, IL - Michael Omartian - credited here on piano, synthesizer, Simmons drum programming, guitars, and accordion on this record - also had a huge role in it's production.  Also playing on this record are Jay Graydon - guitars, Marty Walsh - guitars, Gary Herbig - saxophone, Mike Baird - drums, Nathan East - bass (think Eric Clapton), Ray Parker, Jr. - rhythm guitars, and Lenny Castro - congas.  On Mercury records - Donna is credited with writing or co-writing every track on the album, mostly alongside Omartian.  It became her first Top 10 album in the U.S. since 1979 and produced a massively successful hit single in the form of the title track. The sleeve of the single and album pictured Summer as a waitress who "works hard for the money" and the song was a tribute to "the working woman."  It was accompanied by a high-profile music video which became heavily promoted on MTV, soon after the breakthrough of Michael Jackson's success on the channel, leading the way for other black artists to be played. The song shot to Number 3 on the Hot 100 American singles chart, making it her biggest hit there since "The Wanderer" three years previously.  The song was also given a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Donald Duck Dunn...the Memphis Group...

Donald Duck Dunn.   The MG's is a 1973 album recorded by The MG's for Stax Records.  Both frontman Booker T. Jones and guitarist Steve Cropper were estranged from Stax Records by 1973.  Remaining members Donald "Duck" Dunn and Al Jackson, Jr. recruited Bobby Manuel to replace Cropper and Carson Whitsett to replace Jones.  Billed as The MG's since Jones was not involved with the project, the group released two singles, "Sugar Cane" and "Neck Bone".  The singles and the album were not commercially successful, but were critically well-received.   By 1975, Jones and Cropper agreed to reform the original lineup with Jackson and Dunn, but just days before their scheduled reunion, Jackson was murdered at his home in Memphis, Tennessee.

Scorpions - Animal Magnetism - The Zoo

Scorpions - Animal Magnetism - The Zoo...

We eat the night, we drink the time

Make our dreams come true
And hungry eyes are passing by
On streets we call the zoo...