It featured one side of new studio material, including a disco cover of the psychedelic pop epic "MacArthur Park" that became her first number one pop single early the next year. Doubtlessly benefiting from the added exposure, the double-LP set Live and More became Summer's first number one album later that year. Her acting turn in the 1978 disco-themed comedy Thank God It's Friday produced another hit in "Last Dance," which won her a Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal (as well as an Oscar for songwriter Paul Jabara). Summer's albums were selling well, bolstered by her popularity in the dance clubs, and she was poised to become a major pop hitmaker as well. It became Summer's second Top Ten hit in the U.S., and she followed it with Once Upon a Time, another concept album, this one retelling the story of Cinderella for the disco era. Despite the album's title, it produced the most forward-looking single in Summer and Moroder's catalog, the monumental "I Feel Love." Eschewing the strings and typical disco excess, "I Feel Love" was the first major pop hit recorded with an entirely synthesized backing track its lean, sleek arrangement and driving, hypnotic pulse laid the groundwork not only for countless Euro-dance imitators, but also for the techno revolution of the '80s and '90s. Four Seasons of Love, released later in the year, was a concept album with one track dedicated to each season, and 1977's I Remember Yesterday featured a variety of genre exercises. The 1976 follow-up Love Trilogy contained another side-long suite in "Try Me (I Know We Can Make It Work)," and demonstrated Moroder and Bellotte's growing sophistication as arrangers with its lush, sweeping strings. In the wake of "Love to Love You Baby," albums (as opposed to just singles) became an important forum for Summer and her producers. A 17-minute, side-long epic on the LP of the same name, its single version topped the Billboard club chart and climbed to number two on the Hot 100. In 1975, the trio recorded "Love to Love You Baby," inspired by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin's lush, heavy-breathing opus "Je T'aime.Moi Non Plus." Powered by Summer's graphic moans, "Love to Love You Baby" became a massive hit in Europe, and drew the attention of Casablanca Records, which put the track out in America. The three teamed up for the single "The Hostage," which became a hit around Western Europe, and Summer released her first album, Lady of the Night, in Europe only. Her first solo recording was 1971's "Sally Go 'Round the Roses," but success would not come until 1974, when she met producers/songwriters Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte while working on a Three Dog Night record. Summer performed in various stage musicals and worked as a studio vocalist in Munich, recording demos and background vocals. She joined the Viennese Folk Opera, and later returned to Germany, where she settled in Munich and met and married Helmut Sommer, adopting an Anglicized version of his last name. She moved to Europe around 1968/1969, and spent a year in the German cast, after which she became part of the Hair company in Vienna. After high school, she moved to New York to sing and act in stage productions, and soon landed a role in a German production of Hair.
Part of a religious family, she first sang in her church's gospel choir, and as a teenager performed with a rock group called the Crow. Summer was born LaDonna Andre Gaines on December 31, 1948, and grew up in Boston's Mission Hill section. Summer died from cancer in 2012 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the next year.
Through the feminist anthem "She Works Hard for the Money" (1983), she became an MTV star, and she continued to top the club chart with disco-rooted house singles through 2010, 35 years after her breakthrough. After her subgenre was declared dead, Summer was very much part of the evolution of dance music. These crossover hits embodied the disco era with audacious musicality and uninhibited eroticism.
During the '70s alone, she topped the Billboard club chart 11 times with high-quality, often high-concept material that included the rapturous "Love to Love You Baby" (1975), the innovative "I Feel Love" (1977), a radically transformed "MacArthur Park" (1978), and one of her five Grammy-winning recordings, "Hot Stuff" (1979). Like many of her contemporaries, she was a talented vocalist trained as a powerful gospel belter, but she set herself apart with her songwriting ability, magnetic stage presence, and shrewd choice of studio collaborators, all of which resulted in sustained success. Donna Summer's title as the "Queen of Disco" wasn't mere hype.