Donna Summer as I look back over my life.

Deet Promotions Tribute
Donna Summer 

by Harry Frank Towers

To say that I am in shock over the passing Thursday of Donna Summer would be an understatement. Over and over again I heard people remark, “I didn’t even know she was sick.” Getting the news while I sat at my desk yesterday was like someone sneaking in my office behind me and hitting me in the head with a baseball bat, like where did that come from? Sadly it was true and the thought made my life flash back in front of me. I was a 15 year old kid sitting in the back of my Aunt Betsy’s Volkswagon beetle as she drove to Coney Island and “Love To Love You Baby” comes on the radio and she turned to my mother and said “This is that song I was telling you about that I heard at the Disco, she sounds like she’s…” and then realizing that myself and my two little cousins were in the backseat she quickly changed the station. I was 16 in the courtyard of Tottenville High School during lunch period and “Spring Affair” came on the radio. There was a big whoop heard from all the kids in the courtyard and we all broke into the Hustle. The next year I was buying 45’s at Our Music Center and Ray behind the counter comments as he opened a box, “Oh here is the new Donna Summer single.” I bought it without even hearing it. I took that 45 home and popped it on to my turntable as I couldn’t wait to hear it.

The song was called “Can’t We Just Sit Down and Talk It Over.” I was shocked it was a ballad! I liked it for sure but flipped it over just to hear the back and was blown away. I played that “B” side over and over for days as I had never heard anything like “I Feel Love” before. Soon that “B” side became the hit and changed music forever. I’m 19 waiting for my friend Tom to get dressed before heading out to the Ice Palace and Disco 92 played “Hot Stuff” and “Bad Girls” back to back and we were living! I’m 21 at Alex In Wonderland and “I Feel Love” comes on and halfway through the song the track goes off! The dance floor was living inside the track and we were all blown away by the Patrick Cowley “Megamix.” I’m 23 and spinning at Abracadabra and played “Our Love” and the whole crowd is singing every word and the chorus “Our love will last forever” captured a moment of innocent celebration by a family soon to lose that innocence as we start losing many members as A.I.D.S. swept through or community. I am at the Intermetro Record Pool picking up product and there are copies of “There Goes My Baby” cracked in half in the garbage. When I asked Dewayne Dixon what happened he said the Gay DJ’s were making a statement against Donna Summer by boycotting her music after she made a statement about A.I.D.S. being God’s way of taking care of Gay people! I was shocked and hurt and didn’t know what to think and I asked Dewayne, “Do you think she really said that?” He answered, “I met Donna Summer once and she was real nice and embraced her Gay fans whole heartedly and I want to believe it isn’t true. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt.” I agreed with him and did the same and in the end we were right. She was misquoted and had never turned her back on the Gay community even when so many of us turned our back on her.

 
I’m 29 and spinning “This Time I Know It’s For Real” at the Spectrum in Brooklyn. This was the club where they filmed Saturday Night Fever at and I remember turning on the lighted floor and thinking all was right in the world. Donna’s voice was booming from the speakers, the floor was packed and I thought to myself, “Disco never died it just got a make-over and y’all don’t recognize it.” Disco may not have died but Donna Summer did.

 
Or did she? Everytime I hear one of her songs and I see the joy on the face of the people around me isn’t that what was life is about, isn’t that living. People will say her music will live on, but in her case it actually gives us life. Providing a soundtrack for us at so many important moments in our lives. How many important family functions have you been to where the night ended with “Last Dance”? Donna Summer was simply the most important female vocalist of the 70’s and her career lived on right up to now as her later recordings still thrilled dancefloors. Jimmy Smith asked me what song did I play after I got the news of her death that made me cry. For him it was “Someday.” I cried as soon as I heard the news. I recently did a Quantum Leap show that had “Spring Affair/ Summer Fever” on it and in fact that is playing right now as I right this. But for me the song that the mere thought of brought the most tears to my eyes was “I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiro).” You’re going to hear a lot of her songs I suspect this week, but for me these are a dozen that I never get tired of hearing…

 
1 - “Try Me I Know We Can Make It” – By far my favorite single by her. I interviewed Giorgio Moroder for DMA magazine and he told me that he spent time in a DJ booth and watched how the DJ worked the crowd through peaks and valleys and went in the studio to condense an entire disco night on one side of an album and he succeeded with flying colors.
2 - “I Feel Love” – This appears on the “I Remember Yesterday” album as the last cut. Since the album was a musical tour through time starting with the Big Band influenced title track I asked Giorgio if “I Feel Love” was his view of what the future of music would be and he answered yes. He was so right as in this tune and his own albums “From Her To Eternity” and “E=MC2” you hear the roots to all the electronic dance music we enjoy today and the Patrick Cowley “Megamix” took this to the next level.
3 - “Mac Arthur Park Suite” – Without a doubt this was the weirdest choice of a tune to cover but she did it brilliantly and for me I can close my eyes and I’m at Studio 54. This song is quite possibly the most perfect example of a disco record ever recorded.
4 - “With Your Love” – From the “Thank God It’s Friday” soundtrack, “With Your Love” is one of those singles many people forget about but shouldn’t. I had a party at Twist during the Winter Music Conference and Radionic through this on and the roof came off the club. Brilliant!
5 - “This Time I Know It’s For Real” – Textbook comeback single! Stock Aiken and Waterman were at their peak at this time and Donna never sounded better.
6 - “I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiro)” – Emotional, beautiful and sung to perfection. Again not the easiest choice of a cover but like “Mac Arthur Park” Donna worked her magic and made it totally hers.
7 - “Our Love” – This is such a perfect recording that you could play it today and it would still pack the floor even if the crowd is too young to remember it.
8 - “Rumor Has It” – Power, energy and a hell of a lot of fun is this tune off her “Once Upon A Time” album. Of all her Double LP’s this was my favorite.
9 - “On The Radio” – What a great song and Donna sounded so powerful singing it that her vocal seems to float in the air as her voice comes out of the speakers.
10 - “I Do Believe I Fell In Love” – This is a ballad and my favorite of her ballads. It’s from the “She Works Hard For The Money” album and I love how the track over 5 minutes continues to build in intensity to it’s climax.
11 - “All Systems Go” – This is a personal favorite of mine from the album with the same name. there was a promotional 12” released that was a tremendous hit for me and I never understood why it wasn’t released commercially. This should have been a much bigger hit than it was.
12 - “Could It Be The Magic” – When Donna covers a tune she claims it and her recording of this Barry Manilow single still sounds great today. Funky baselines and Donna’s sexy vocals take this track over the top. Where the original was over dramatic and self conscious, Donna makes it sexy, energetic and fun!

“Once Upon A Time” there was Donna Summer and all was right in the world!

 Harry F. Towers is the founder of DEET Promotions and Sirenia Records.