Which song will you turn to in remembrance of the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer, who died today at 63? A quick guide to a few of her hits:
If you know one Donna Summer song, it’s probably “Last Dance.” The song debuted in the 1978 disco movie “Thank God It’s Friday,” which has since faded into cinematic obscurity. But “Last Dance” lives on as a staple of high school dances to this day:
Another Summer hit that’s taken on a life of its own in pop culture is the 1979 hit “Bad Girls.” (Toot toot! Hey! Beep beep!) Aside from its huge success as a dance track, “Bad Girls” has made a number of small and big screen cameos in recent decades. Charlotte York danced drunkenly to it at a Staten Island bar on the third season of “Sex and the City,” John Cleese danced to it while wearing ladies’ undergarments in the ’99 remake of “The Out-of-Towners,” and an altered version of the song was heard in the 2000 animated movie “Rugrats in Paris,” to name a few. As Wikipedia describes the “Rugrats” version, “Instead of street hookers, the theme of it was misbehaved and spoiled children.” Here’s “Bad Girls” is in its original glory:
Music nerds might lean more toward the iconic hit “I Feel Love,” from Summer’s 1977 concept album “Remember Yesterday.” The all-electronic song is credited with helping to spawn techno:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7r83-y3j2A
Over-enthusiastic music nerds might prefer one of the many “I Feel Love” dance re-mixes:
Being in L.A., we have to heed Summer’s version of the Jimmy Web song “MacArthur Park.” Someone left the cake out in the rain!
Of course, Summer’s hits and talents are too numerous to list here. Her gifts transcended the disco era and allowed her to keep churning out popular tunes after the 1970s. Here she is in 1989 talking to Arsenio Hall about her work, home life and stardom:
What song do fans most identify her with? For the ladies, Summer tells Arsenio, definitely this one: