CoronaVinyl Day 208 (S): On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2 by Donna Summer

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

February is Black History Month, so as we roll through the alphabet during the month of February, I'll be featuring the music of black artists and bands, to the extent my collection allows (some letters are more plentiful in my collection than others).

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "S," and I finally watched HBO's documentary about The Bee Gees last night, so I have disco on the brain.  As a result, today's selection is Donna Summer's 1979 On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2.  The album title makes sense on so many levels.  First, she had a Top 5 hit song called "On the Radio."  Second, her songs were often played on the radio.  Third, on the album cover, she's literally sitting on a radio.

Over the years, my feelings about disco music have evolved.  I was born smack dab in the middle of the disco era, and though my parents had a few disco records and dressed me in a t-shirt that said "Disco Kid," by the time I was old enough to remember anything, disco had faded.  In the '80s, disco music and fashion was kind of anathema -- a cheesy relic of the '70s that was pushed away in Reagan's '80s America.  "Disco sucks" was essentially the mentality.  In high school, I bought a disco compilation CD, mostly ironically because I wanted some cheesy '70s music for a video I was making for a school project (your classic update of Arthurian legend set in the 1970s, though sadly, my teacher made me change the lead character's name from Arty the Pimp to Arty the Player).  I didn't dislike the music per se, but you must understand that I've never been a dancer, so the entire idea of disco was a little foreign to me.  As I've grown older, I not only appreciate the music more, but I appreciate its place in cultural history now that I know more about the racial and LGBTQ issues that underscored the music and its rise to popularity (and much of the resulting backlash).

Anyway, Summer was the undisputed Queen of Disco, and On the Radio was her first official compilation album, released at the height of her popularity.  It's a double album of her hits released between 1975 and 1979, as well as three new tracks -- a single version and a long version of the title track, as well as a duet with Barbra Streisand called "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)."  The album reached #1 on the Billboard album chart and made Summers the first artist to have three consecutive #1 double albums (in less than two years, at that).  It also went double platinum in the U.S.

Between 1978 and 1979, Summers had eight consecutive singles that were released in the U.S. that went to the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100, and four of those went to #1.  All eight are on this album, along with three other Top 40 hits (two of which were Top 10), and three songs ("I Remember Yesterday," "Our Love," and "Sunset People") that were not released as singles in the U.S.

Though disco may have died early on in the '80s, Summer continued to produce hits well into the decade.  In the '80s, her most memorable hit is probably 1983's "She Works Hard for the Money," which we to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Summer continued to make music over the following decades, until her death in 2012.  Even though she didn't have a ton of mainstream success after the '80s, she still had considerable success on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, with 13 Top 10 songs on that chart from 1994 on, including 9 #1s.

All in all, over her career, Summer had 20 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, 14 of which reached the Top 10, and four of which went to #1.  On the Billboard R&B singles chart, she had 12 Top 10 songs, including two #1s.  She also dominated the aforementioned Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, racking up 43 Top 10 songs, including 28 #1s.  She also had #1 songs on the pop charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Japan, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK, and Top 10 songs in many other countries.

It's no shock that, in 2016, she was ranked by Billboard as the #6 Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists.  I'm just surprised she wasn't #1.  In addition to various other accolades, she won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "I Feel Love"

Summers's second Top 10 hit, "I Feel Love" is an entrancing and influential song.  It was one of the pioneering electronic music songs, and its use of the synthesizer certainly foreshadowed the synth pop wave that would come several years later.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Last Dance"
"Last Dance" is one of the quintessential disco songs in my mind.  It starts out slow and then breaks into disco fever.  The song appeared in the 1978 movie Thank God It's Friday, and ended up winning the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, not to mention the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

Favorite song from Side 3:  "Sunset People"
This song wasn't released in the U.S. because of some litigation between Summer and her former label.  It's an ode to Sunset Boulevard in L.A., and it's another song that's more electronic than disco.

Favorite song from Side 4:  "On the Radio" (long version)
There are only two songs on Side 4, and one of them is a nearly 12-minute duet with Barbra Streisand.  This is the other one.