too bad there's no good performance videos to Hot Stuff or Bad Girls

^^ what a great view, thanks a lot... SoulAlive.

I like "Spring Affair" but in the early days of her career,Donna wasn't using the full power of her voice.On the first three albums,she did alot of cooing and whispering (kinda like what Janet Jackson does now) and very little real singing.This was intentional....she was playing a 'sex goddess' role,trying to sound sexy and inviting.

In the late 70s,she began singing her ass off! No more of that whispery-type singing.

SoulAlive said:

What do you think of her vocals on the "Lady Of the Night" album (along with "Virgin Mary"). She wasn't exactly power singing but her vocals were very strong especially considering the material. I think her vocal performances in later years have shown that her voice is either getting better with time or she is creating songs that really demonstrate her vocals well.

On that same 1976 episode of Soul Train,Donna came back and performed "Winter Melody".


It was released as a single.Around this time,Casablanca Records was trying to show Donna's diversity by releasing a ballad as a single,a strategy that they continued with the next album 'I Remember Yesterday'.

It's amazing to listen to a song like "Wasted" anc compare it to later singles like "Last Dance" and "Hot Stuff".

VinnyM27 said:

That's one thing that makes her a great vocalist to listen to: She can sound this way then that way and then another way, again. Listen to Sometimes Like Butterflies and compare it to Dinner With Gershwin and compare that to Hot Stuff and that to Leave Me Alone and that to Love To Love You Baby and that to Fame (The Game) and so on. It's one reason why I LOVE Donna Summer: Unlike many singers (male and female), she is more than just one genre and more than just one voice. She acts out a song and, in some cases, you might not know it's Donna Summer. Especially, if you're only used to one type of Donna Summer of which there are many facets both musically and vocally.
[Edited 2/19/10 15:30pm]

I have all of her albums and they are listed under about ten or so different genres (including New Wave, Folk, Post Disco...I have odd categories).

leecappella said:

What song(s) do you have under folk?
[Edited 2/19/10 20:33pm]

leecappella said:

The "Lady Of the Night" album. Wasn't sure what to do with it.

VinnyM27 said:

I have six songs from that cd in my library. I categorized them like this:

1. Lady Of The Night (pop)
2. Born To Die (country)
3. Domino (easy listening)
4. The Hostage (pop)
5. Wounded (rock)
6. Let's Work Together Now (easy listening)

Just my ear based view. LOL.

leecappella said:

I only do categories for albums because if I catheterized each song it would take forever. I obsesses over my Ipod and the album covers and genres enough. I think of both "Domino", "Let's Work Together" and "Born To Die" along with others as really fitting into my very loose definition of folk. I don't have an easy listening genre but put anything that would fit in there under AC, which is pretty board. The only thing I list under AC are her stand alone singles "Power Of One" and "Wherever There Is Love" although if I went by songs, obviously she has a ton of AC material from nearly every album (especially into the eighties).

Here is how I've listed her studio albums.


All Systems Go-Pop
Another Place and Time-Dance Pop (more than any other for sure)
Bad Girls-Disco
I Remember Yesterday-Disco
Once Upon A Time-Disco
Live and More-Disco
A Love Trilogy-Disco
Love To Love You, Baby-Disco
Cats Without Claws-Pop
Christmas Spirit-Christmas (obvious although if I didn't list it under Christmas, it would have to be AC)
Crayons-Pop
Donna Summer-Groove R&B (this is an odd catogery I made up based on eighties R&B which wasn't quite Funk, but is a bit danceable and funky....also based on a SiriusXm radio station although they would probably never play antying from this album)
Four Seasons Of Love-SoulTown (also based on a Sirius station....older R&B, mostly seventies based but also from older artists that don't fit into today's scene...I've always felt that this was more of a soul album than any of her other seventies albums, which are almost all listed under disco)
I'm A Rainbow-Post Disco
Mistaken Identity-Pop R&B (kind of self explanatory...not quite an R&B album, not quite dance pop....)
She Works Hard For the Money-Pop
VH1 Live and More Encore-Pop (especially the arrangements....the new songs would probably fit more into dance pop)
The Wanderer-New Wave
[Edited 2/20/10 23:19pm]

VinnyM27 said:

Yes, it does take time to organize one's music library. Especially, song by song. I'm rather anal about that kind of stuff, but I did manage to get over 3,000 songs in the genre that I believe they should be in. I have to do song by song. I don't think I have the option to categorize an album, as a whole, by any one musical genre. I only see that option for songs only.

leecappella said:

I have my entire library (well nearly my entire library) on my Ipod. Over nearly 13000 songs and growing!

VinnyM27 said:

All of my music that I like is in my Windows Media Player, Zune Software, and on my Zune players. You clearly have more songs than I, but if if I had the number of songs you had, I still would be anal. LOL.

This is my favorite Donna Summer song.

Vendetta1 said:

How YOU doin'? Thanks for visiting my thread.

SoulAlive said:

Nice! I didn't see this one. Not overly fond of the song, but fun to see the performance.