Donna Summer died Thursday morning after a battle with cancer.
Lovingly named the “Queen of Disco,” the 63-year-old was in Florida at the time of her death, according to TMZ. Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines, the 5-time Grammy award winner rose to fame in the ’70s with hits like “Hot Stuff,” “Bad Girls” and “Love to Love You Baby.”
This is my favorite Donna Summer song, though I also like “On The Radio” a lot.
tommyspoon
Aw man….
First Chuck Brown and now Donna Summer? I shudder to think who’s next.
Betty Cracker
That sucks.
Clime Acts
I am very sad about this.
I loved her music, and she always seemed like a good hearted person.
Bye Donna. Thank you.
amk
RIP Donna.
Villago Delenda Est
I remember when “Love to love you baby” was called “the electric orgasmatron” by Time or Newsweak, one of those two rags.
Donna Summer was “HOT STUFF”!
Rest in peace, justified diva.
Alex S.
Noooooo………
I’ll always love her for ‘I feel love’.
eemom
The woman’s soaring voice has always defined the late 1970s for me.
RIP.
tamied
That’s too bad. I loved State of Independence. It’s one of my all time favorites.
Woodrowfan
lots of pleasant college memories have her music as a soundtrack. SIGH RIP Ms. Summer.
rlrr
@tamied:
A cover of a Jon & Vangelis tune…
eemom
I feel looooooooooooooove….
Also love that duet she did with Barbra Streisand, Enough Is Enough.
Dare I admit I even love her version of that crazy old MacArthur Park….?
Brachiator
Very sad. Agree that Dim All the Lights is a great song.
Also, was sad to read the details about the death of Mary Kennedy, wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr
Apparently, she hanged herself. I didn’t know much about her or the details of her death, but in some of the photos in various news stories, there is often a sadness in her eyes. Very sad.
donnah
Sorry to hear that she has passed. I was in high school and college during the seventies, and I enjoyed her style and class, and of course her sweet voice.
RIP, Ms Summer, from another Donna
RossInDetroit
If ephemeral pop culture has ever risen to sublimity, it was on a Donna Summer record.
RIP.
Ben Cisco
Wow. Voice of a generation, and what a voice it was.
RIP Dear Donna.
schrodinger's cat
RIP Donna Summer.
OT: Posting this here since there is no open thread, Andrew Sullivan thinks that he has a finger on the pulse of the nation and declares that the election is Romney’s to lose. Is there a more useless profession than a being a professional Punditubbie.
Svensker
That makes me very sad. She had a great voice and Hot Stuff and Bad Girls were the soundtrack of some really fun times.
Thanks for all the great music, Donna. RIP.
Violet
I just love her music. It defines a certain era for me. RIP, Donna and thanks for the music.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodinger’s cat:
There is. It’s being a professional “non professional” politician, like OvenMitt Rmoney.
Villago Delenda Est
LOL.
Prominent ad on my page right now is for DJ lighting!
Gotta love Googleads.
El Tiburon
I was around 11-12 when Saturday Night Fever came out and disco was just beginning.
I admit I had the disco feather-back and wished I could dance like Tony Manera. I never developed the disco-hate.
Donna Summers was one of the better ones. What a shame.
Sasha
I’d just rediscovered the awesome that is “I Feel Love”. That song really did redefine club music for the next two decades.
The Queen of Disco is dead. Long live the Queen.
pete
More was always more with Donna, the diva who proved that being good and being great are compatible but distinctly different. I thought I hated disco until she converted me, somewhere about 14 minutes into the long version of “Love to Love You Baby.” May she rest in peace, with mirror balls reflecting glory all around, and the kitchen sink featuring heavily in the orchestration.
J.
Hearing that Donna Summer died, it’s like someone left a cake out in the rain, and it took so long to bake it, and you’ll never have that recipe again.
RIP, Donna Summer. You will always be Hot Stuff to me.
Persia
@eemom: “Enough Is Enough” is my favorite too, though “Dim All the Lights” and “On the Radio” both come close.
ChrisB
Dim All the Lights was my favorite too.
RPI Donna Summer.
Toot toot, beep beep.
geg6
Damn. She really was the queen of disco. And, despite what I thought back then, there were some great disco artists, Donna being one of the foremost.
She worked hard for the money, that girl.
youtu.be/1TKQcWEXSKU
Nemo_N
I’m still unable to detach Hot Stuff from The Full Monty:
youtube.com/watch?v=bW1-1XAhR6Q
Just Some Fuckhead
Terrible news. Huge disco fan and she was one of the greats in that genre.
I feel like someone left the cake out in the rain.
eemom
@geg6:
left you a link over on the Bishoprick thread.
canuckistani
I had the disco hate back in the day, which I suspect now was just sublimated teenage homophobia. But I secretly dug “I Feel Love”. Sad news.
But I’m semi-relieved that someone didn’t die in their bathtub full of needles and diet pills.
Amir Khalid
I remember the lady from my teenage years. Hot Stuff was my own favorite of her songs, maybe because to me it seemed the most rock&roll sounding thing she did. Also too, She Works Hard For The Money. I seem to remember that Bruce Springsteen wrote one of her hits, back when his legal battle with Mike Appel was keeping him away from the studio. Can anyone confirm this, and if so which one was it?
Patricia Kayden
RIP Donna. Didn’t even know she was battling cancer.
Jager
Donna played Sheila in the Berlin cast of Hair in the 60’s. (she lost the Broadway role to Melba Moore) She was also in Godspell and Showboat. While she was married and living in Germany she sang in a folk opera group. I wasn’t ever a big disco fan, but saw her do a show in Boston in 1979…she tore the house down.
Suffern ACE
@schrodinger’s cat: Well, that’s not exactly what he is saying. However, if you believe that this is a slam dunk and that racially charged campaigns won’t lead to the defeat of Obama, I would point to the demographics of the registered Voting population and ask, how your strategy, which relies on historic number of hispanics, african americans and young people to come to the polls, will work if they just show up in non-historic, but normal numbers. That’s what he is saying.
geg6
@eemom:
Thanks. Good stuff there. I’ve been following that case a little bit because, like the other thread that co-stars a former Pittsburgh bishop (Wuerl), this case also had a very special guest star and former Pittsburgh bishop, Bevilaqua. Too bad that evil old bastard isn’t around to take the heat on this.
Paula
Generationally speaking, I’m a good 20 years on the outside of this one — but it still kinda hurts.
“On the Radio” …
“I Feel Love”
“Last Dance”
“Love to Love You Baby”
One can’t fathom how much of an effect popular artists have on your imagination, even when you mostly absorb through osmosis.
If Madonna hasn’t already made some deal where she gets to live forever, I’m gonna be crying my eyes out when she passes …
beltane
Donna Summer’s music was like the soundtrack of my preteen years. One of my few pleasant memories of sixth grade is of singing “Bad Girls” with a very flamboyant male classmate. His rendition was so exuberant it still makes me smile to think of it.
RIP Donna.
JPK
Oh this is a sad one. She was great.
ET
The Wanderer was one of the first records I bought. I rather liked “She Works Hard for the Money”
pseudonymous in nc
When Brian Eno first heard “I Feel Love” in 1977, he said to David Bowie: “I have heard the sound of the future. This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next 15 years.” It still sounds like the future today.
Jeffro
Listening to Chuck Brown and Eva Cassidy at the moment…will have to play a little Summer later too…
RossinDetroit
Donna’s no longer with us but her legacy lives on in the myriad genres of club and dance music. Disco is a punchline these days but it was the grand daddy of everything from Deep House to Dubstep.
Thank you, Miss Summer.
Rey
Donna Summer dead? All of her songs are the sound track for my sweet childhood. So blessed I got to listen-RIP Disco Diva- sing with the angels baby!
Brachiator
I did not know this.
Loved to love ya, baby
rikyrah
RIP, MS. Summer.
yes, I LOVED DISCO.
now that I go over to youtube, and look up Donna Summer, I realize that I knew, by heart, all of her songs.
so, yeah, I loved Disco.
Maude
She talked about having depression. She had guts to do that, being in the music industry.
What a voice.
the Conster
Whitney, Levon, Adam, Donna – great big holes in American musical voices now. I haz a big sad. RIP Donna – thanks for so many memories.
Maude
@rikyrah:
Her music will playing in the clubs this weekend. And on the radio.
Some of the Disco music was wonderful.
badpoetry
Even more than the song itself, the video for “She Works Hard for the Money” always broke my heart. Anyone who thinks the poor are lazy needs to watch that video. youtube.com/watch?v=1TKQcWEXSKU
Rest in Peace, Donna.
schrodinger's cat
@Suffern ACE: I don’t believe its a slam dunk, but neither do I think that it is Romney’s election to lose. I think no one can predict what will happen this November, right now. Doing so is useless self important blather.
Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom
Damn! This really sucks. RIP Ms. Summer. You will be missed.
Don K
I feel a little older today. The peak of Donna’s career coincided with my post-college coming-out years, and her songs defined many a visit to Menjo’s and Backstreet in Detroit.
I agree “Dim All the Lights” is her best. It epitomizes the Moroder/Summer technique of a slow, easily-recognizable intro that got everyone onto the dance floor, followed by a song that would have the crowd in a frenzy seven minutes later.
Tony the Wonderhorse
Bless you dear woman
Some of the best sex I ever had was listening to the crazy long version of I Feel Love, usually stoned. It was fucking religious
Hey, her waiting for you is another reason to look forward to being dead.
lorimakesquilts
Ah, memories of college, she always got people to their feet. And “Love to Love You Baby”, well, oh my, the ultimate sex on the dance floor song.
jayjaybear
They need to dim the lights in the Castro. We will never have that (star) recipe again… :(
Waynski
Simply this.