Tag Archives: Donna Summer

For the fifth time, Donna Summer is among the fourteen acts nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Summer, who died of lung cancer* in May, was also nominated four of the last five years, but has been overlooked despite numerous Grammy wins, including one for Best Rock Vocal Performance. Artists become eligible 25 years after the domestic …

The Library of Congress has added Donna Summer’s seminal 1977 single I Feel Love to its National Recording Registry. (The move was announced back in May, but I didn’t learn about it until seeing a CNN report last night.) Selected for preservation because they are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” the library said in a news release, the 25 sound …

JMG reader and famed AIDS activist Peter Staley sends us a previously unreleased letter that Donna Summer wrote to ACT UP at the height of the controversy about her alleged anti-gay statement. Hit the link and read Staley’s account of that time.

West Side Rag reports: “At a street fair on Amsterdam Avenue today, two men broke out in an amazing dance in front of the former Blue Donkey Bar on 83rd Street to the song “MacArthur Park” by Donna Summer, who passed away last week.” Father Tony weighs in: “Not so many years ago, two men would be arrested for doing …

Thirty-six years ago today, Donna Summer’s Try Me, I Know We Can Make It was in its third and final week atop Record World’s disco chart. (Billboard did not launch its own national Disco Action chart until later in 1976.) Clocking in at an epic eighteen minutes, this three-song medley from the aptly named Love Trilogy album was used as …

“When Summer died from cancer yesterday at the age of 63, the straight world lost a superstar, but gays of my generation lost an emblem of our lives that we may never experience again, even at a time when everything is marketed more and more brazenly to us. We’ll probably never have another open secret like Summer again because a …

“I’m so sad. This woman was the queen of disco and so much more. Her records sound as good today as they ever did. That she has never been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a total disgrace, especially when I see the second-rate talent that has been inducted. She is a great friend to me …

We cannot properly memorialize Donna Summer without mentioning Paul Jabara, the late gay songwriter and performer who won the Academy Award for Best Original Song after his Last Dance was performed by Summer in the pitiful disco movie, Thank God It’s Friday. Jabara had a bit part in the film and his own track, Trapped In The Stairway, was included …

In 1968, an aspiring 18 year-old singer auditioned to replace Melba Moore in the Broadway musical Hair, but was instead cast in the German road production of the show, later switching to the Austrian version. Years later, during a stint in the Vienna Folk Opera, she met, married, and had a child with Austrian performer Helmut Sommer. In 1974, Mrs. …

Three years ago, with Dr. Jeff and our DC pal Jimbo, I trekked out to Coney Island for Donna Summer’s massive outdoor free concert under the Brooklyn stars. It was hot, pushy, and maddeningly overcrowded. It was also fantastic. But not just for the music. It was also amazing to see several generations of gay men, including not a few …

Horrible news. Donna Summer, the queen of disco, has died of cancer. TMZ has the early details.

For the fourth time, Donna Summer is among the fifteen acts nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Summer was also nominated three of the last four years, but has been overlooked despite numerous Grammy wins, including one for Best Rock Vocal Performance. Artists become eligible 25 years after the release of their first commercial full-length record. Here’s …

Donna Summer has been nominated to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame for the third time, after having been passed over for the 2008 and 2010 classes of inductees. Classic disco group Chic has been nominated for the sixth time. Here’s the full list of this year’s nominees: Neil Diamond, Donovan, Alice Cooper, and Dr. John have all been …

A reader tipped me that today is three-time Oscar, three-time Grammy winner Giorgio Moroder’s 70th birthday. So in honor of my all-time favorite producer, here’s a bit of his early work from the mid-late 70s. The first clip is a cheesily announced promo clip from Casablanca Records, but it’s worth a look just to see how enormous the early synths …

Next month MTV releases Turn The Beat Around, which from the trailer seems to be a fairly standard installment of the “dancer with a dream” flicks we’ve seen so many times. But this one has a retro disco theme, complete with a Xanadu-esque “Let’s open a DISCO!” plot. The soundtrack includes a lot of disco covers and Donna Summer’s daughter …

ABBA made the list of 2010 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. Joining them will be Genesis, The Stooges, The Hollies, and Jimmy Cliff. And once again: NO DONNA SUMMER. Outrage! Eligibility begins 25 years after an artist’s first release, making Donna now ten years overdue. So much for those 12 Grammy nominations and five wins, including …

Last night DC blogger Jimbo, Dr. Jeff and I made the 90-minute haul out to Coney Island to watch Donna Summer’s free concert at Seaside Park. And holy crap, what an enormous crowd. Easily the largest outdoor show I’ve ever been to. We couldn’t get within a half-mile of the stage and watched much of the show from a sidewalk …

Just a reminder that Donna Summer’s free NYC concert is this Thursday in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach. The 31st Annual Seaside Summer Concert Series performances are held Thursday nights 7:30 pm at Asser Levy/Seaside Park at West 5th Street and Surf Avenue in Coney Island/Brighton Beach, across the street from the New York Aquarium. The public is encouraged to bring their …