WOMAN of ACTION, our tribute to Donna Summers

LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012), known by the stage name Donna Summer, was an American singer-songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the late 1970s. She had a mezzo-soprano vocal range, and was a five-time Grammy Award winner. Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the U.S. Billboard chart, and she also charted four number-one singles in the United States within a 13-month period.Diagnosed with lung cancer, Summer died on the morning of May 17, 2012, at her home in Key West, Florida.

Summer was born Ladonna Adrian Gaines on December 31, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts to parents Andrew and Mary Gaines and was one of seven children. She and her family were raised in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. Her father, Andrew Gaines, was a butcher, and her mother Mary, was a schoolteacher.

Summer’s mother later recalled that from the time she could talk, Summer would often sing: “She literally loved to sing. She used to go through the house singing, singing. She sang for breakfast and for lunch and for supper.”

Summer’s performance debut occurred at church when she was ten years old, when she replaced a vocalist who had failed to show up. Her priest invited Summer to perform, judging from her small frame and speaking voice that she would be an “amusing spectacle”, but instead Summer’s voice recalled a voice older than her years and frame.

Summer herself recalled that as she sang, “I started crying, everybody else started crying. It was quite an amazing moment in my life and at some point after I heard my voice came out I felt like God was saying to me ‘Donna, you’re going to be very, very famous’ and I knew from that day on that I would be famous.”

Summer later attended Boston’s Jeremiah E. Burke High School, where she performed in school musicals and was considered popular. She was also something of a troublemaker, skipping home to attend parties, circumventing her parents’ strict curfew. In 1967, just weeks before graduation, Summer left for New York where she was a member of the blues-rock band, Crow. After they were passed by every record label, they agreed to break up.

Summer stayed in New York and auditioned for a role in the counterculture musical, Hair. When Melba Moore was cast in the part, Summer agreed to take the role in the Munich production of the show. She moved to Munich, Germany after getting her parents’ reluctant approval.Summer eventually became fluent in German, singing various songs in German. She participated in the musicals Ich Bin Ich (the German version of The Me Nobody Knows), Godspell and Show Boat.

Within three years, she moved to Vienna, Austria and joined the Vienna Volksoper. She briefly toured with an ensemble vocal group called FamilyTree, the creation of producer Guenter “Yogi” Lauke. In 1971, Summer released her first single, a cover of The Jaynetts’ “Sally Go ‘Round the Roses”, from a one-off European deal with Decca Records. In 1972, she issued the single, “If You Walkin’ Alone” on Philips Records.

In the early 70’s, she married Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer and had a daughter, Mimi, the following year. Citing marital problems caused by her affair with German artist (and future live-in boyfriend) Peter Mühldorfer, she divorced Helmuth. She kept his last name, but Anglicized it to “Summer”.

She provided backing vocals on producer-keyboardist Veit Marvos on his 1972 Ariola Records release, Nice to See You, credited as “Gayn Pierre”. Several subsequent singles included Summer performing with the group, but she often denied singing on any of the Marvos releases. The name “Gayn Pierre” was also used by Donna while performing in Godspell with Helmuth Sommer during 1972.

In 1973, the couple married and that year Gaines gave birth to her first child, daughter Mimi Sommer.

While singing background for the hit-making 1970s trio Three Dog Night, Summer met producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. She eventually signed a deal with the European label Groovy Records and issued her first album, Lady of the Night, in 1974. The album was not released in America, but found some limited European success on the strength of the song “The Hostage”, which reached number one in Belgium and number two in the Netherlands.

In 1975, the couple divorced. Gaines took her husband’s last name, translated to English, as her stage name.

She is currently married to songwriter Bruce Sudano with whom she has two children, Brooklyn and Amanda Grace Sudano.

Donna is also grandmother to Vienna Lynn Adrianna Dohler and Savannah Grace Dohler (Mimi’s daughters.)

Over the years Donna has maintained homes in Los Angeles, Connecticut and New York, but currently she and her family have homes in Tennessee, Florida and New York City.

The late Dick Clark stated (Good Morning America 11/7/85): “She has got one of the great voices of all time. She survived adversity, adversity being – she’s a huge star in a period of time that overnight went away. She’s the only star, really, of the disco scene. And that was a terrible stigma and she managed to move on beyond that”.

One day in 1975, an African-American actress/singer billing herself as Donna Summer mentioned a six-year-old French song to her Italian producer, Giorgio Moroder. They were in Munich, Germany, where Summer had gone in the late ’60s to star in a production of Hair; she’d married an Austrian actor named Helmut Sommer (hence the moniker; she was born LaDonna Gaines). The song was Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s “Je t’aime . . . moi non plus,” a short sex scene set to guitar and organ, climaxing with Birkin, well, climaxing.According to Anthony Haden-Guest’s The Last Party, Summer told Moroder, “I can do a record like that.” His response: “You? Come on! You’re not sexy!”

And even though the resulting song, “Love to Love You, Baby,” would last more than 17 minutes and follow the singer’s every moan and gasp through what Time magazine infamously counted as 22 orgasms—more than everybody in the song’s filmic equivalent, Deep Throat, three years earlier, combined—Summer continued to insist that, no, she wasn’t sexy. “That was Marilyn Monroe singing that song, not me,” Summer told Haden-Guest. “I’m an actress. That’s why my songs are so diverse.”

A BLAST FROM THE DISCO YEARS … remembered well. Make no mistake, though: Summer’s first four albums with Moroder—Love to Love You, Baby; the 1976 pair A Love Trilogy and Four Seasons of Love; and I Remember Yesterday—make up the heaviest-breathing artistic unit in pop history.

1975 GREATEST HIT – ‘Love to Love You Baby’

In 1975, Summer approached Moroder with an idea for a song she and Bellotte were working on for another singer. She had come up with the lyric “love to love you, baby”. Moroder was interested in developing the new sound that was becoming popular and used Summer’s lyric to develop the song. Moroder persuaded Summer to record what was to be a demo track for another performer.

She later said that she had thought of how the song might sound if Marilyn Monroe had sung it and began cooing the lyrics. To get into the mood of recording the song, she requested Moroder turn off the lights while they sat on a sofa with him inducing her moans and groans. After hearing playback of the song, Moroder felt Summer’s version should actually be released.

The song was then sent to Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart in hopes of getting an American release. Bogart informed Summer and Moroder he would release the song (now called “Love to Love You Baby”) but requested that Moroder produce a longer version for discothèques. Moroder, Bellotte, and Summer returned with a 17 minute version and Casablanca signed Summer and released the single in November 1975. The shorter version of the single was promoted to radio stations while clubs regularly played the 17 minute version (the longer version would also appear on the album). Casablanca became one of the first record labels to popularize the 12″ single format.

By early 1976, “Love to Love You Baby” had reached No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while the parent album of the same name sold over a million copies. The song generated controversy due to Summer’s moans and groans and some American and European radio stations, including the BBC, refused to play it.

“Love to Love You Baby” found chart success in several European countries, and made the Top 5 in the United Kingdom despite the BBC ban. Other upcoming singles included “Try Me, I Know We Can Make It”, US No. 80; “Could It Be Magic”, US No. 52; “Spring Affair”, US No. 58; and “Winter Melody”, US No. 43. The subsequent albums Love Trilogy and Four Seasons of Love both went gold in the US.

In 1977, Summer released the concept album I Remember Yesterday. This album included her second top ten single, “I Feel Love”, which reached number six in the US and number one in the UK. According to David Bowie, then in the middle of recording of his Berlin Trilogy with Brian Eno, its impact on the genre’s direction was recognized early on:

“One day in Berlin … Eno came running in and said, ‘I have heard the sound of the future.’ … he puts on ‘I Feel Love’, by Donna Summer … He said, ‘This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.’ Which was more or less right.”

The album version lasts for almost six minutes. It was extended for release as a 12″ maxi-single, the eight-minute version included on the 1989 compilation The Dance Collection: A Compilation of Twelve Inch Singles.

Another concept album, also released in 1977, was Once Upon a Time, a double album which told of a modern-day Cinderella “rags to riches” story through the elements of orchestral disco and ballads. This album would also attain gold status. In 1978, Summer released her version of the Jimmy Webb ballad, “MacArthur Park”, which became her first US number one hit. The song was featured on Summer’s first live album, Live and More, which also became her first album to hit number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, and went platinum selling over a million copies. Other studio tracks included the top ten hit, “Heaven Knows”, which featured the group Brooklyn Dreams accompanying her on background and Joe “Bean” Esposito singing alongside her on the verses.

Summer would later be romantically involved with Brooklyn Dreams singer Bruce Sudano and the couple married two years after the song’s release. Also in 1978, Summer acted in the film, Thank God It’s Friday, playing a singer determined to perform at a hot disco club. The film met modest success, but a song from the film, titled “Last Dance”, reached number three on the Hot 100 and resulted in Summer winning her first Grammy Award. Its writer, Paul Jabara, won an Academy Award for the composition.

In 1978, while working on the hit track, “Heaven Knows” which featured Brooklyn Dreams member Joe “Bean” Esposito on vocals, Summer met fellow member Bruce Sudano. Within a few months, Summer and Sudano became a couple.

They married on July 16, 1980. A year later, Summer gave birth to another daughter (her first child with Sudano), Brooklyn Sudano, named after Sudano’s group. (Brooklyn would grow up to star in the hit ABC production My Wife and Kids.) A year after that, Summer and Sudano had their second child, Amanda.

PHILANTHROPY

In 1979, Summer performed at the world-televised Music for UNICEF Concert, joining contemporaries such as Abba, Olivia Newton-John, the Bee Gees, Andy Gibb, Rod Stewart, John Denver, Earth, Wind & Fire, Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson for an hour’s TV special that raised funds and awareness for the world’s children. Artists donated royalties of certain songs, some in perpetuity, to benefit the cause.

Controversy

In the mid 1980s, Summer was embroiled in a controversy. She had allegedly made anti-gay remarks regarding the then-relatively new disease, AIDS, which as a result had a significantly negative impact on her career and saw thousands of her records being returned to her record company by angered fans. Summer, by this time a born-again Christian, was alleged to have said that AIDS was a punishment from God for the immoral lifestyles of homosexuals. However, she denied that she had ever made any such comment and, in a letter to the AIDS campaign group ACT UP in 1989, she said that it was “a terrible misunderstanding.

I was unknowingly protected by those around me from the bad press and hate letters… If I have caused you pain, forgive me.”She went on to apologize for the delay in refuting the rumours and closed her letter with Bible quotes (from Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians).

Also in 1989, Summer told The Advocate magazine that “A couple of the people I write with are gay, and they have been ever since I met them. What people want to do with their bodies is their personal preference.” A couple of years later she filed a lawsuit against New York magazine when it reprinted the rumours as fact just as she was about to release her album Mistaken Identity in 1991.

In 1994, Summer and her family moved from Los Angeles to Nashville, where she took time out from show business to focus on painting, a hobby she began in 1985.

In addition to her recording and performing career, Summer is an accomplished visual artist whose work has been shown at exhibitions worldwide including Steven Spielberg’s “Starbright Foundation Tour of Japan” and The Whitney Museum as well as a prestigious engagement at Sotheby’s in New York. Since 1989, she has sold over 1.2 million dollars in original art – with her highest piece going for $150,000. In 2003, Random House published her autobiography “Ordinary Girl,” co-authored with Marc Eliot. Also that year, Universal released “The Journey,” containing all of her original hits, as well as two new songs.

In 1994, she released “Endless Summer,” a greatest hits retrospective containing a new song, “Melody of Love,” which became Billboard’s #1 Dance Record of the Year. She also released the critically acclaimed gem “Christmas Spirit,”a collection of Summer’s original songs and holiday standards recorded with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Summer spent the ’90s continuing to tour, performing to sold-out audiences worldwide.

In 1995, Summer’s mother died.

In 1997, when the new “Best Dance Recording” Category was created at the Grammy Awards, Donna Summer was the first winner with her fifth career Grammy award for “Carry On.” In 1999, Sony/Epic Records released “VH1 Presents Donna Summer: Live & More – Encore!,” an album and DVD of Summer’s critically acclaimed VH1 broadcast taped at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom. The show premiered on VH1 as one of the network’s highest rated shows to date and featured live performances of Summer’s top hits.

Donna Summer has earned five Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards, three consecutive #1 platinum double albums (she’s the only artist, male or female, ever to accomplish this), 11 gold albums, four #1 singles, 2 platinum singles, and 12 gold singles. Donna is also the first female artist to have a #1 single and #1 album on the Billboard charts simultaneously (“Live & More;” “MacArthur Park” 1978) a feat she also repeated six months later (“Bad Girls” & “Hot Stuff” in 1979). She has charted 22 #1 hits on the Billboard Disco/Dance charts, over a period of 25 years a milestone solidifying her as The Queen of Dance.

In 2008, celebrating four decades of milestones, Donna Summer adds another accomplishment to her list with the success of her new album “Crayons.” The album debuted at #17 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart making it Summer’s highest debuting album ever. It also debuted at #5 on the Billboard R&B chart – another personal best. “Crayons” is Donna’s first album of all new studio material in 17 years and is her highest charting album since “She Works Hard For The Money” in 1983. To date, the album has spawned three #1 Dance hits “I’m A Fire,” “Stamp Your Feet” and “Fame (The Game).”

A 2008 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame nominee, it is estimated that Donna Summer has sold more than 130 million records worldwide.

With a total of 31 #1 hits (singles and albums) on the Billboard Pop/R&B,Disco/Dance, Album charts combined, over a period of 35 years, Donna Summer is ranked at #24 on Billboard Magazines 50th Anniversary issue featuring the Hot 100 Artists of All Time.

Donna’s DeathSummer died on the morning of May 17, 2012, at her home in Englewood, Florida at the age of 63. She had been diagnosed with lung cancer; Summer did not smoke cigarettes, and the cancer was unrelated to smoking.

The Bradenton Herald, quoting “Sarasota County records”, stated that she lived in Englewood at the time of her death. The reference did not state her location at the time of her death. The New York Times reported that she died at her home in Naples, Florida. Summer is survived by her husband Bruce Sudano, their daughters Brooklyn and Amanda, as well as her daughter Mimi from a previous marriage.

WALK of FAME – Tribute to Donna Summers

Paul Lawrence Price, owner and artist of Walk of Fame Art, originally a native of Louisiana, now a permanent resident o Los Angeles for the past 20 years states; “Back in the 80’s and 90’s I was touring England and the U.S. with the premier Liverpool rock band, Echo & the Bunnymen. A mutual friend of the band took me out and did some street design rubbings. Later I returned the favor when we were down in New Orleans and took him around to the above ground gravesites for some of our favorite Frottages.

After settling in LA, I began producing mostly street designs from manhole covers, water sewers, etc. Eventually, one day as I was doing some work on the Walk of Fame, I thought lets try one of these and I did a Marilyn Monroe star. The next day I brought the artwork directly to the Chamber of Commerce. Johnny Grant and Micheal Tileman were very receptive and excited about the quality of the work. They generously put me in contact with the licensing company for the Walk of Fame.”

A licensing agreement was reached, and now Walk of Fame Art Productions are available to the World. Investment and distribution available for interested companies and/or individuals, as well as mail-order inquiries.

In 1992, Donna enjoys her entrance into the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

By late Thursday afternoon, Donna Summer’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Famehad amassed a variety of mementos left by fans following the announcement of her death in Florida.

The Hollywood Historic Trust had placed a wreath filled with pink roses, yellow orchids, snapdragons and Queen Anne’s lace. Fans had left handwritten messages, candles and a sparkling tiara on the star.

A couple TV reporters were stationed in front of the star for the early evening broadcasts. News vans were parked close by in a line.

Summer’s Star is located in front of 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, adjacent to the Roosevelt Hotel. She was inducted into the Walk of Fame on March 18, 1992.

Summer received star No. 1,952 and sang live without musical accompaniment at her dedication ceremony.

About this Star:
■Category: Recording
■Star rank: 1052
■Address:7030 Hollywood Blvd
■Position: 3 tiles from the curb, facing west
■GPS location: 34.101417, -118.342612

“I felt like God was saying to me ‘Donna, you’re going to be very, very famous” your words that came true …. … may you now find God and R. I. P., our ‘very, very famous’ Donna.