DONNA SUMMER: The 100 Essential Songs. Starts with #95-91. Continues: tomorrow.

Caffè Lattè presents…  THE 100 ESSENTIAL SONGS BY DONNA SUMMER Donna Summer began working with songwriter / producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte in Munich, Germany. They made inroads in Europe with early recordings but it wasn’t until they recorded “Love To Love You Baby” that Donna came to the attention of Neil Bogart at Casablanca Records in America. By now she had divorced Helmut Sommer but continued using the Anglicized surname of Summer.

95 QUEEN FOR A DAY While Gloria Gaynor was the first woman to dominate the Disco Chart, Donna Summer soon eclipsed her predecessor and was hailed as the Queen of Disco. “Queen For A Day” was included on the ‘Once Upon A Time’ LP.

94 RUNNING FOR COVER  By 1980 disco was the target of a vicious backlash. Summer, Moroder and Bellotte realized a change in musical direction was crucial. Donna had already shown her ability with ballads, torch songs, country and gospel, so this was no radical departure for her. Many of the tracks on the 1980 album ‘The Wanderer’ (such as “Running For Cover”) leaned more towards rock.

93 BREAKAWAY In 1989, Donna collaborated with British hit-makers Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman for her ‘Another Place And Time’ album which contained the track “Breakaway”.

92 END OF THE WEEK This track from ‘I’m A Rainbow’ was written by Pete Bellotte and Sylvester Levay. The project was shelved by Geffen Records and remained in the vault until 1996.

91 RUMOUR HAS IT In the 1970s, Donna released 4 consecutive double albums. The first was ‘Once Upon A Time’ which featured “Rumour Has It”.