A German TV station was playing Dirty Dancing when I was Lausanne this weekend. It was still horribly cheesy in another language. However, half (aka the non 80s half) of the backing music was suprisingly better than I expected. Like this for example
THE POP MUSIC WORLD was stunned Thursday by the death of Donna Summer, the original “Disco Queen” who ruled the late 1970s and proved over the next three decades that she and her music were stars, not fads.
She was 63 and died after a secret battle with cancer, her publicist said. She was reportedly diagnosed with lung cancer 10 months ago but had made no public acknowledgment.
“I’m still in shock,” said Joe Causi of WCBS-FM, “If you were driving around the streets of Brooklyn in the late 1970s and your 8-track wasn’t playing Donna Summer, it was probably broken.”
Summer won five Grammys and is a member of the Dance Music Hall of Fame. She died in Naples, Fla., near where the family owned a condo.
Summer burst onto the pop scene in 1975 with the seductive “Love to Love You Baby,” and followed with a string of hits that included “I Feel Love,” “Hot Stuff,” “Bad Girls,” “On the Radio,” “MacArthur Park,” and “Last Dance.”
Because her music became instantly popular in dance clubs, she was labeled a disco artist, which she and many fans considered unfairly restrictive.
“This woman was the queen of disco and so much more,” Elton John told E! News. “That she has never been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a total disgrace.“
“She was the face of the disco movement,” says Jeff Foxx, afternoon host on WBLS. “But she bridged dance music and R&B. It may have been called disco, but there was some funky stuff going on.
Born and raised in Boston, Summer grew up singing in church before joining a short-lived psychedelic rock band. After winning a role in a touring production of Hair, she moved to Germany, where she would meet Moroder. Their collaboration on the suggestive "Love to Love You Baby," which Summer sang with Marilyn Monroe's breathy singing style in mind, became a huge dancefloor hit after Casablanca Records' Neil Bogart requested a long version of the song – 17 minutes.
Summer went on to major success during the disco era, scoring Number One pop singles with "Hot Stuff," "Bad Girls" and an unlikely version of Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park." In 2004 Summer was elected to the Dance Music Hall of Fame, and in 2009 she performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in honor of President Obama.
Asked upon the release of her 2008 album Crayons whether she felt vindicated by her longevity, Summer replied, "I don't think they made fun of my music as much as they made fun of some of the music that maybe came as a result of that whole genre. But I do think in the course of time it is nice to reestablish something and to say, 'Okay, this stood the test of time. . . ' I have nothing to prove to anyone. I just get out there and do my best, and those who love it, great. And those who don't, they'll move on to something else." Summer is survived by her husband Bruce Sudano, and their children Brooklyn, Amanda, and Mimi