By 1979, Donna Summer time had cemented her standing because the “queen of disco.” Singles like “Love To Love You Baby” and “I Feel Love” had taken her into the higher echelons of the charts and made her a worldwide star. She’d additionally gained a repute as a grasp of the double album by 1977’s As soon as Upon A Time, a report that was described by critic Robert Christgau upon launch as the primary “disco opera.”
As soon as Upon A Time confirmed the star’s burgeoning creativity, taking the rags to riches themes of Cinderella and setting them to the sounds of the disco zeitgeist. The entire album’s tracks had been co-written by Summer time and her producers, Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, with whom she’d labored as a trio since 1976’s A Love Trilogy.
Hearken to Donna Summer time’s Unhealthy Ladies now.
Work started on Unhealthy Ladies in December 1978, with the singer teaming up with Moroder and Bellotte as soon as extra. The classes, which spanned 4 months, had been prolific. As a substitute of following the standard album-making method of writing, demoing, after which recording a last model, the group would provide you with concepts for melodies and hooks, flesh them out into full songs after which hit the sales space instantly to report them.
“As soon as I was done with the mix of one song, we went right in and recorded,” Moroder defined within the liner notes of Unhealthy Ladies’ deluxe reissue in 2003. “While I was recording Donna… Pete would be recording a basic track for another song. But we had our sounds; we were on a roll. Donna is a great artist, very easy to work with. She could complete two or three songs a day, easily, without straining her voice or getting tired.”
Disco’s reigning queen shook issues up sonically on Unhealthy Ladies, too, taking her sound into new territory whereas holding that dancefloor sparkle intact. With rock’s ascendance on the charts, Summer time leaned into heavier sounds, merging chugging riffs with the disco model she had change into synonymous with. It was a mix that labored spectacularly – not least on the only “Hot Stuff,” which went on to earn her the Grammy for Greatest Feminine Rock Vocal Efficiency in 1980.
Whereas Unhealthy Ladies is undoubtedly heavier than her earlier albums, there are additionally extra soulful, R&B-based moments. Ballad “On My Honor” dropped the strutting rhythms and upbeat hooks for one thing extra timeless and basic, as Summer time vowed to do her finest for her husband. A lot of the album’s second half adopted go well with, offering an emotional counterbalance to its starting.
If Summer time was already a star earlier than Unhealthy Ladies was launched, the double album made her burn even brighter. After only one week of launch, it was licensed platinum by the RIAA. It topped the Billboard 200 for six weeks and the R&B Albums chart for 3. It additionally spawned two Billboard Sizzling 100 No.1 singles – “Hot Stuff” and the title observe – and one No.2, “Dim All The Lights.” Summer time turned the primary feminine artist to have two songs within the Prime Three of the Sizzling 100 at one time. Later, the album was listed in Rolling Stone’s 50 best albums by ladies, with the publication saying that Summer time “pull[ed] out all the stops for an album that sums up Seventies radio, from ladies-choice smooch jams to filthy funk.”
The report, which has now bought over 4 million copies worldwide, additionally laid the foundations for extra experimentation to come back in Summer time’s discography. Her subsequent album – 1980’s The Wanderer, her first for Geffen Information – lived as much as its roaming title and ventured additional into rock and new wave, whereas future information explored synth-pop, gospel, and extra.
Hearken to Donna Summer time’s Unhealthy Ladies now.
