Thursday, February 25, 2016

This List is RANK: The Top 20 Donna Summer Songs of All Time

Called the "Queen of Disco", but is the only woman maybe artist to have been nominated in 5 different genres of music at the Grammy Awards [Disco, Pop, Rock, R&B & Dance]. Donna Summer and her quality songs stretch way beyond the mid to late 1970s when she was labeled the "Queen of Disco".
Up until 1991, she enjoyed levels of mainstream success and experienced some of the most infamous lows a recording artist could.

For the purposes of this list, I'm considering all proper releases from her that don't suck from Love to Love You Baby to the 1 good song from Mistaken Identity (Crayons from 2008 felt like a retread and was mediocre and material from albums named The Wanderer, Cats Without Claws & All Systems Go are disqualified for being lurid trash.) along with lost in the 80s but released in the 90s I'm a Rainbow and the 2013 remix album Love to Love You Donna.


20. "I Need Time" [from I'm a Rainbow]- One of the more subtle productions especially for Giorgio Moroder, Summer's vocals present themselves with such grace in a "lost" ballad that Geffen should've been behind along with the other material from this album.

19. "To Turn the Stone" [from I'm a Rainbow]- Although the Celtic adjacent vibes are unsettling at first, this other "lost" treasure does show what many don't exactly know about Donna; that she really did more than disco songs really well. This ballad showcases the late singer's near perfect projection and vocal control.

18. "Love to Love You Baby" [the title track from her proper U.S. debut]- "WHAT?! HOW DARE YOU, THIS SONG IS LEGENDARY." No, the mythos behind this song is legendary. Donna Summer had WAY better songs than even this classic. Recorded when she was laying down on the floor because as Summer herself revealed on [at least] the Arsenio Hall show that this was how she envisioned Marilyn Monroe singing it (Remember; Donna was on her back & this is how she thought Marilyn would sing it...the shade wrote itself.)
As for the orgasms...err vocal performance, it did showcase potential left and right that led to Summer becoming the definitive artist of the 1970s.

17. "Spring Affair" [from Four Seasons of Love]- An under-appreciated cut, this showed the playful facet of Summer's vocals while still sounding just as "lustful" or "come hither" as most of her material from that time.

16. "When Love Cries" [from Mistaken Identity]- Let's get this out of the way now; had it not been for this song, Mistaken Identity wouldn't be represented at all as that album for all of its 90s New Jack Swing type of R&B appeal...just sucks and did nothing for her vocals at all.
This lone exception showed that had producers actually put in way more effort, this infamous flop known as Mistaken Identity could've stood a better chance in the eyes of music critics. Her final Hot 100 entry stands out for containing her most alluring vocals on any record of hers.