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Old School R&B/Disco Track Of The Day(2/19/04): Donna Summer-On The Radio Ladies And Gentlemen,
The undisputed Queen Of Disco in one of her greatest tracks. By the time this track was released she was no doubt crowned the queen of a genre that is often misunderstood. "On The Radio" gives the lie to the notion that disco was just a bunch of useless noise, fronted by mindless,spineless lyrics. This track actually tells a story. Donna is making reference to a countdown show back in the 70's and 80's called American Top 40 Countdown. I'm sure some of us remember that radio show. It was hosted by Casey Kasem.....The show was 4 hours long and every week he'd count down the top 40 pop songs in the country(U.S.). Well, three times during the countdown..Casey will read a special dedication letter. Someone will write a letter, included will be a few comments and normally the letter ends asking Casey to play and dedicate a song to a special someone...Sometimes the letter will state how much that special someone means to them..sometimes the letter will be a friendship letter.....sometimes the letter will be a plea for reconciliation for the sake of a marraige/relationship.....Donna's lyrics addresses the latter. Donna proclaims that things "weren't the same since they broke up last June". She is torn between many emotions....she's angry, shocked, proud and sad...a multitude of feelings comes over her. For example, it made her feel proud that "he couldn't find the words to say it himself". Behold...STOP THE PRESSES...the song ends on a surprising twist. Donna is now laying in her man's arms...the man "she sent away long ago...cause he said it really loud and said in on the air on the radio". Reconciliation is a beautiful thing and the process of it is not as imperative as the end result.....EVEN IF IT THOUGH A RADIO STATION. What makes this song great is the way that Donna and producer Giorgio Moroder starts the song out in a slow fashion then speeds up the pace of the music during the choruses..then slows down the tempo just a tad on the last verse...then again accelerate the pace of the music during the chorus at the climax for a grand finish. It's for reason like this, along with Donna's amazing voice and her ability to tell a story that she was one of disco's most forward thinking practitioners. We pay tribute to you on THIS day Queen Of Disco!!!! Brother 9/15 | |
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 I pretty much love everything by Donna,including this song.The lyrics are deep and heartfelt.Notice how when the song fades,Donna cryptically says..."The only friend I know". | |
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BRO915 said: Ladies And Gentlemen,
The undisputed Queen Of Disco in one of her greatest tracks. By the time this track was released she was no doubt crowned the queen of a genre that is often misunderstood. "On The Radio" gives the lie to the notion that disco was just a bunch of useless noise, fronted by mindless,spineless lyrics. This track actually tells a story. Donna is making reference to a countdown show back in the 70's and 80's called American Top 40 Countdown. I'm sure some of us remember that radio show. It was hosted by Casey Kasem.....The show was 4 hours long and every week he'd count down the top 40 pop songs in the country(U.S.). Well, three times during the countdown..Casey will read a special dedication letter. Someone will write a letter, included will be a few comments and normally the letter ends asking Casey to play and dedicate a song to a special someone...Sometimes the letter will state how much that special someone means to them..sometimes the letter will be a friendship letter.....sometimes the letter will be a plea for reconciliation for the sake of a marraige/relationship.....Donna's lyrics addresses the latter. Donna proclaims that things "weren't the same since they broke up last June". She is torn between many emotions....she's angry, shocked, proud and sad...a multitude of feelings comes over her. For example, it made her feel proud that "he couldn't find the words to say it himself". Behold...STOP THE PRESSES...the song ends on a surprising twist. Donna is now laying in her man's arms...the man "she sent away long ago...cause he said it really loud and said in on the air on the radio". Reconciliation is a beautiful thing and the process of it is not as imperative as the end result.....EVEN IF IT THOUGH A RADIO STATION. What makes this song great is the way that Donna and producer Giorgio Moroder starts the song out in a slow fashion then speeds up the pace of the music during the choruses..then slows down the tempo just a tad on the last verse...then again accelerate the pace of the music during the chorus at the climax for a grand finish. It's for reason like this, along with Donna's amazing voice and her ability to tell a story that she was one of disco's most forward thinking practitioners. We pay tribute to you on THIS day Queen Of Disco!!!! Brother 9/15 Disco wasn't a fad and it never died. It just morphed into modern dance/club music. This track exemplifies what was so great about the best disco - a euphoric mood, romantic lyrics, great instrumentation and arrangement and a spot-on, incredible vocal by the always-reliable Ms. Summer. [This message was edited Thu Feb 19 4:57:44 2004 by VoicesCarry] | |
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When I was boy growing up in the 70's..Donna was the woman of my dreams..I used to always tell my friends that I was gonna grow up and marry her ONE DAY!!!!! I had a nice poster of her on my bedroom wall!!!!!
She's still a cutie in my book. | |
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BRO915 said: When I was boy growing up in the 70's..Donna was the woman of my dreams..I used to always tell my friends that I was gonna grow up and marry her ONE DAY!!!!! I had a nice poster of her on my bedroom wall!!!!!
She's still a cutie in my book. Donna was/is the the Epitomy of the Disco era,and yaright disco never died at all, they just dont use real instruments anymore,mostly every string arrangment on every disco era was done by ( and david knows this) Alec r Constandinos, Donna's Music Made Casablanca records what it was,she was Neil Bogart's baby. it would have been great had donna gotten other producer's of that time "Cerrone,Gregg Diamond etc etc". My Classic Donna album would have to be "the 4 seasons of Love, i own an original Copy on "Oasis" which was a early subsidiary of Casablanca. if anyone has the Thank God its Friday soundtrack on Vinyl it came with an extra 12'' donna doine "Je'taime Moi non plus" a special One sided 12'' Casablanca was infamous for releasing those. Donna Music will always be the soundtrack 2 the disco era and the soundtrack to my Life. | |
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TheRealFiness said: If anyone has the Thank God Its Friday soundtrack on Vinyl it came with an extra 12'' Donna doing "Je'taime Moi non plus" a special One sided 12''
Yeah,I have the "Thank God It's Friday" soundtrack on vinyl,with that bonus 12" single.At the time,I thought it was strange that you could only play one side of it  | |
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some interesting Donna Summer trivia...
***The song "Last Dance" was released in May 1978 and it became a hige summer hit for Donna.But the song was actually recorded a year earlier (summer of 1977) for possible inclusion on the 'Once Upon A time' album.But when Neil Bogart (Casablanca Records President) heard it,he wisely decided to save it for the movie "Thank God It's Friday". ***In the spring of 1977,Casablanca released the ballad "Can't We Just Sit Down (and Talk It Over)" as the first single from Donna's 'I Remember Yesterday' album.But radio DJs were unimpressed.They flipped the record over and began playing it's B-side---"I Feel Love".The rest is history. (Even though "I Feel Love" rightfully became a huge hit,I still love "Can't We Just Sit Down" and it's a shame that it was a failed single). ***The song "On The Radio" appeared in the late-1979 film "Foxes".I've seen this movie and the song is played constantly,over and over and over...lol...there's even a rare version that is entirely a ballad. | |
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DavidEye said: some interesting Donna Summer trivia...
***The song "Last Dance" was released in May 1978 and it became a hige summer hit for Donna.But the song was actually recorded a year earlier (summer of 1977) for possible inclusion on the 'Once Upon A time' album.But when Neil Bogart (Casablanca Records President) heard it,he wisely decided to save it for the movie "Thank God It's Friday". ***In the spring of 1977,Casablanca released the ballad "Can't We Just Sit Down (and Talk It Over)" as the first single from Donna's 'I Remember Yesterday' album.But radio DJs were unimpressed.They flipped the record over and began playing it's B-side---"I Feel Love".The rest is history. (Even though "I Feel Love" rightfully became a huge hit,I still love "Can't We Just Sit Down" and it's a shame that it was a failed single). ***The song "On The Radio" appeared in the late-1979 film "Foxes".I've seen this movie and the song is played constantly,over and over and over...lol...there's even a rare version that is entirely a ballad. "Dim All The Lights" was a song Donna originally wrote for Rod Stewart (!), but then decided to record herself. | |
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VoicesCarry said: DavidEye said: some interesting Donna Summer trivia...
***The song "Last Dance" was released in May 1978 and it became a hige summer hit for Donna.But the song was actually recorded a year earlier (summer of 1977) for possible inclusion on the 'Once Upon A time' album.But when Neil Bogart (Casablanca Records President) heard it,he wisely decided to save it for the movie "Thank God It's Friday". ***In the spring of 1977,Casablanca released the ballad "Can't We Just Sit Down (and Talk It Over)" as the first single from Donna's 'I Remember Yesterday' album.But radio DJs were unimpressed.They flipped the record over and began playing it's B-side---"I Feel Love".The rest is history. (Even though "I Feel Love" rightfully became a huge hit,I still love "Can't We Just Sit Down" and it's a shame that it was a failed single). ***The song "On The Radio" appeared in the late-1979 film "Foxes".I've seen this movie and the song is played constantly,over and over and over...lol...there's even a rare version that is entirely a ballad. "Dim All The Lights" was a song Donna originally wrote for Rod Stewart (!), but then decided to record herself. some more trivia... Donna has turned down many songs that later became big hits for other artists... ***"What's Love Got To Do With It"---became a career highlight for Tina turner ***"It's Raining Men"---writer Paul Jabara offered it to Donna first,then Diana Ross,but they both passed on it.It became a huge dance hit for The Weather Girls in 1983. ***"Flashdance...What A Feeling"---by 1983,Donna had ended her association with Giorgio Moroder.So,in early 1983 when he was composing the "Flashdance" soundtrack,he simply hired a Donna Summer soundalike singer---Irene Care---to sing the theme song,whcih became one of the year's biggest hits.Could you imagine Donna singing this song instead? | |
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Callipygian is one of my favorite obscure words because of Donna Summer. No one uses it of course, but hey! you never know when it'll pop up on Jeopardy or in a crossword puzzle. 
It means, having a nicely shaped butt, or in modern lingo--bootylicious! ANYWAY, the Donna Summer reference is that this is the word some guy used to describe her when he painted her picture. He thought she had the most beautiful ass he'd ever seen. btw, don't know if this is trivia but her name is actually spelled "Sommer." That was how her former husband, Mimi's dad, spelled it. I remember in interviews Donna used to refer to him as "Aryan" to describe his German heritage, blond hair and blue eyes. That just wouldn't sound too right, right about now.... Oh, I've got "The Donna Summer Anthology." Can you believe that "Love to Love You Baby" is only 3:21 minutes long!?  It's one of my favorites. Also love "I Feel Love"  , "The Wanderer", and "State of Independence." I LOVED her live album and "Four Seasons of Love" (concept album, right?). She had some really tight tracks!  | |
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