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Dim All The Lights: New Donna Summer Compilation Coming Ahead of Broadway Musical

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Last night, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical began previews at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre starring not one, not two, but three actresses as the beloved superstar.  The musical directed and co-written by Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys) chronicles the life of the Boston-born artist from her days touring abroad in Hair to disco stardom to her untimely death in 2012 at the age of 63.  While a cast recording has not yet been announced, UMe and Island/Def Jam are collecting 17 of Summer's classics on a new collection designed to tie into the Broadway production.  Summer: The Original Hits is due on April 20, just days in advance of the musical's April 23 official opening.

This single disc, 17-track release primarily follows the sequence of the songs as heard in the musical.  All of Donna's big hits (many from the team of Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte) are here in various versions: edits of "I Feel Love" (Pop No. 6, 1977), "Love to Love You Baby" (No. 2, 1975) and "Dim All the Lights" (No. 2, 1979); single versions of Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park" (No. 1, 1978), "Bad Girls" (No. 1, 1979), "Hot Stuff" (No. 1, 1979) and Paul Jabara's Academy Award-winning "Last Dance" (No. 3, 1978); plus other favorites like "Heaven Knows" (No. 4, 1979), "On the Radio" (No. 5, 1979), and the Barbra Streisand duet "Enough is Enough" (No. 1, 1979).  (Alas, Barbra is not a character in the musical!)

Summer: The Original Hits looks to add up to a breezy Summer primer featuring all of her U.S. top ten Pop hits except for "The Wanderer," "Love is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)," and "This Time I Know It's for Real."  (To include all of her dance hits would take a far larger set!)  A Target-exclusive CD edition and digital release will boast three additional tracks: Donna's German-language recording of "White Boys" from the musical Hair, plus remixes of "MacArthur Park" and "Hot Stuff," bringing the total number of songs to 20.  The "Hot Stuff" remix is new for 2018.

Look for this companion to Summer: The Donna Summer Musical from Island/Def Jam on April 20 at the links below!

Donna Summer, Summer: The Original Hits (Island Def Jam/UMe, 2018)

Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Links TBD

  1. I Feel Love (Edit)
  2. Love To Love You Baby (Single Edit)
  3. I Remember Yesterday
  4. On My Honor
  5. White Boys - Donna Gaines, Shirley Thompson & Ann Helstone (*)
  6. Faster and Faster To Nowhere
  7. MacArthur Park (Single Version)
  8. Heaven Knows (feat. Brooklyn Dreams)
  9. No More Tears (Enough is Enough) - Donna Summer & Barbra Streisand
  10. Pandora's Box
  11. On The Radio
  12. I Love You (Single Version)
  13. Bad Girls (Single Version)
  14. She Works Hard For The Money (Single Version)
  15. Dim All The Lights (Edit)
  16. Unconditional Love (feat. Musical Youth) (Edit)
  17. Hot Stuff (Single Version)
  18. Last Dance (Single Version)
  19. MacArthur Park (Rosabel's Radio Mix) (*)
  20. Hot Stuff (Ralphi Rosario and Erick Ibiza 2018 Rework) (*)

Original versions of Tracks 1 and 3 from I Remember Yesterday (Casablanca, 1977)
Original versions of Tracks 2 and 10 from Love To Love You Baby (Casablanca, 1975)
Original versions of Tracks 4, 13, 15 and 17 from Bad Girls (Casablanca, 1979)
Track 5 from Haare (Hair): Originalaufnahme der deutschsprachigen Uraufführung (Polydor (DE), 1968)
Original versions of Tracks 6 and 12 from Once Upon a Time (Casablanca, 1977)
Original versions of Tracks 7-8 from Live and More (Casablanca, 1978)
Tracks 9 and 11 from On The Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II (Casablanca, 1979)
Original versions of Tracks 14 and 16 from She Works Hard For The Money (Mercury, 1983)
Original version of Track 18 from Thank God It's Friday: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Casablanca, 1978)
Track 19 from MacArthur Park (Rosabel's 2013 Club Mixes) EP (Verve, 2013)

(*) denotes Target-exclusive CD/digital deluxe edition-exclusive bonus tracks

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Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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Comments

  1. Excited to hear about the Broadway musical and the Target exclusive CD! My favorite Donna Summer recordings were not hits: Love Has a Mind of Its Own (duet with the inimitable Matthew Ward), Forgive Me (a cover from the Grammy award-winning The Lord's Prayer by Reba Rambo and Dony McGuire), and The Power of One (theme from Pokemon: The Movie 2000).

    Reply

    • Similar situation here... many of my favorites weren't hits. "True Love Survives" from the rejected "I'm a Rainbow" album, "The Queen Is Back" from her final album "Crayons," and most of "The Wanderer" among others...

      Reply

  3. Donna, Donna, Donna. Can we just please get remastered versions of her Oasis/Casablance years? Who cares about this release? Beautiful box sets for all of her Casablanca albums - CD and vinyl! It makes no sense - someone at Polygram should know this is a payday!

    NOTE: I think it's sad that they jumped in to capitalize on THE CHER SHOW. Donna never had a "public" persona until her absurd AIDS comment on The Tonight Show. And that brought about her total downfall - and this is produced by Mariah Carey's ex - TOMMY MOTTOLA! Whatever on that! AND they are doing a TINA TURNER - same concept - three TINA's.

    Cher will win the jackpot - she may have not had such incredible blockbuster hits as Tina and Donna - but CHER is CHER. AND she will hopefully (!) get the TONY for her EGOT.

    NOTE: I have every DONNA and TINA but I just don't feel the ability to go on and on and on

    Reply

    • I would say that Cher had plenty of blockbuster hits. Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves, Half Breed, Dark Lady and Believe all #1's and she had numerous Top 10 hits. Not to mention the hits she had with Sonny.

      Reply

    • Universal Japan beautifully and amazingly remastered all of Donna's Casablanca CD's 5 years ago. The job they did will never be improved upon. On Amazon, looks like Universal Japan is releasing them at decent prices. Buy them this time.

      Reply

  4. I agree, dishy bring on the Casa. albums - I can't afford the Japanese boxset, even if I could find one.

    It's a shame this release is only another compilation, but anything that can help erase the memory of the embarrassing 'tribute' album 'Love To Love You Donna' has to be congratulated.

    Reply

    • Universal Japan beautifully and amazingly remastered all of Donna's Casablanca CD's 5 years ago. The job they did will never be improved upon. On Amazon, looks like Universal Japan is releasing them at decent prices, maybe because of the Donna Summer musical opening April 23rd

      Reply

  5. I'm a sucker for (yet another) best of. Thanks for the heads up on the Target version Joe. Invariably I would have gotten the standard and then later have to buy the dang thing again for the bonus tracks. I hope whoever owns the Casablanca stuff does a reissue campaign, someone is sitting on a goldmine and this is perfect time w/ the play starting. Way overdue, and a nice big box set too. Does anyone have a link for buying upcoming the Japan reissues, I'm curious as I missed them last go round and regretted it. And are they same sound sources and design?

    Reply

  6. I already have a number of compilations, as well as the CD box set of releases from "The Wanderer" thru "Mistaken Identity" and added their belated "Crayons" expanded. So I'd like a companion of Casablanca/"She Works Hard..." at a more affordable price than the Japan set.

    Reply

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