.....so she had to do "Live And More" to 'prove' herself.



Just goes to show the disparity between today's voices and those of 30 years ago. No wonder the live album is pretty much a lost art.

folks really thought she was fakin that???

Well...Ive always wondered if that was actually her singing"Love To Love You Baby".She sounds alot different on her later songs.

Anyone have the story on that?

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Yeah, especially because she was pitched as a sexy disco star and the image didn't really mesh with the voice per se. People thought she was fronting for the "real" singer.

MrTation said:

Because she doesn't use the full power of her voice on that track, as she does on 99.9% of her later materal.

Also becaues it's mostly just her rolling around on the studio floor moaning. Her descriptions of some of the session takes are hilarious.
[This message was edited Wed Mar 10 15:31:10 2004 by VoicesCarry]

No. But, I remember when folks thought she was a man.


btw, I loved that "Live" album.


[This message was edited Wed Mar 10 16:05:52 2004 by UptownDeb]

VoicesCarry said:

yeah, i listened to a killer npr interview with her describing that session.....funny stuff!!

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I thought folks just thought she was fakin' the orgasms on "Love To Love You Baby"

I love all of Donna's albums,but I gotta admit,it's kinda frustrating listening to her first four or five albums.Donna is not using the full power of her voice.On most of these songs,she's singing in a sexy yet weak falsetto,but this approach is taken to the extreme on albums like 'A Love Trilogy' (1976) and 'Four Seasons Of Love' (1976).It's no wonder that many people didn't think she was a "real" singer back then.

But,as you pointed out,the 'Live And More' album changed all that.Once she started releasing songs like "Last Dance","MacArthur Park","Heaven Knows" ,etc,you could see that she was no joke.She was singing her behind off!

You guys should read the book "Donna Summer:Her Life and Music" by Josiah Howard,which was released last year.It gives alot of insight into her music and the chapter about the "Once Upon A Time" album is especially interesting.In the summer of 1977,producer/arranger Bob Esty worked with Donna on "Last Dance" and he was pleasantly surprised by her amazing vocal performance (her previous hits didn't really spotlight her powerful vocal range).The song was kept in the vaults for a year,but Donna quickly went to work on the "Once Upon A Time" album,and Bob was called in to arrange some tracks.He was shocked at what he heard.In his view,Donna was singing in her weak voice and not using the powerful range that she displayed on the newly recorded "Last Dance".He was surprised that producer Giorgio Moroder had no problems with her weak vocal performance.


"Once Upon A Time" is a stunning record,but I have to agree with Bob,her vocals are weak throughout.Only on a few tracks ("I Love You","A Man Like You") do we get to hear the strong,powerful voice that would soon come to dominate the rest of the decade.

DavidEye said:

I love the vocals on "Once Upon A Time". I think they are an improvement over the previous albums. Her best vocal preformances though have been recently on songs like "You're So Beautiful" and "The Power Of One". Those are just amazing vocals. Her voice just keeps getting better.

In the summer of 1977,Donna had one of the biggest hits of her career with the pulsing "I Feel Love".But once again,this was a song that did not spotlight her amazing vocal range.The "star" of that song is really producer Giorgio Moroder and his innovative synthesizer work.Any non-singer could have had a huge hit with it.

What's frustrating about this situation is,the original first single from the 'I Remember Yesterday' album was the ballad "Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over)".This song actually features Donna singing her heart out,but radio DJs were not impressed.They flipped the record over and played it's B-side ("I Feel Love").It seems as if,back then,listeners preferred to hear Donna moaning and whispering on a single...lol...


It was a relief when "Last Dance" came out in the early summer of 1978.From that point on,Donna would use only her full,powerful vocals.