Donna Summer "Donna Summer [40th Anniversary Edition]" [11/4/22-Driven By The Music]

[Motown Eddie]

Description
• 32-page deluxe CD Mediabook Edition
• Featuring the new single, 'Mystery Of Love [Le Flex “Summer Mystery” Remix]'
• Also includes 7" versions of the international hits 'Love Is In Control', 'State Of Independence' and 'The Woman In Me'
Includes a new 8,000 word foreword and essay

DONNA SUMMER gained prominence during the 1970s disco era, propelled by her incessant and creative driving force behind the genre’s global popularity, rightly earning the title “Queen Of Disco” and becoming one of the most successful recording artists of the entire decade, now having sold more than 130 Million records worldwide.

Donna was the first artist to have three consecutive double-albums reach No. 1 on the US Billboard charts and also became the first artist to achieve four No. 1 singles in a thirteen month period.

Donna Summer became the first Artist signed to the new Geffen Records label in 1980 and the second album released for Geffen is this 1982 classic “DONNA SUMMER”, which saw production duties by Quincy Jones. This proved to be a masterstroke, as the next album that Quincy produced was Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’.

The album’s R&B/pop dynamic featured a ‘Who’s Who’ of the recorded music industry, from the album’s lead single ‘Love Is In Control [Finger On The Trigger]’, to the All Star Chorus on the Jon & Vangelis written ‘State Of Independence’, the beautiful ‘The Woman In Me’, the Bruce Springsteen-penned and performed ‘Protection’ and ‘[If It] Hurts Just A Little’, which was heavily sampled in 1999 by Cassius in ‘Cassius 1999’.

To celebrate the album’s 40th Anniversary, ‘Mystery Of Love’ with those memorable James Ingram vocal harmonies has been given a contemporary r&b/dance feel, with respect to the original version, by producer Le Flex, who has produced and worked on a number of chart hits.

This CD format, packaged in a beautiful A5 Mediabook, also contains 7” single versions of the hits, a non-album ‘B’-side, as well as the 12” Dance Mix of ‘Love Is In Control....’, a newly authored 8,000 word essay, with Foreword by Bruce Sudano, by noted US writer Christian John Wikane, featuring new and his own archive interviews conducted with David Foster,Phillip Ingram, Le Flex, Steve Lukather, Bill Meyers,Richard Page, Greg Phillinganes,Bruce Roberts, Brenda Russell,Dionne Warwick, and the late James Ingram.

This sublime masterpiece doesn’t need a specific mood or weather climate to hear. It can be listened to any time of the day night, any day of the year and 40 years later, it’s still being played....

Tracklist
1. Love Is In Control [Finger On The Trigger]
2. Mystery Of Love
3. The Woman In Me
4. State Of Independence
5. Livin’ In America
6. Protection
7. [If It] Hurts Just A Little
8. Love Is Just A Breath Away
9. Lush Life
Bonus Tracks:
10. Mystery Of Love [Le Flex 'Summer Mystery' Remix]
11. Love Is In Control [Finger On The Trigger] [7” Version]
12. State Of Independence [7” Version]
13. The Woman In Me [7” Version]
14. Sometimes Like Butterflies
15. Mystery Of Love [Le Flextended 'Summer Mystery' Remix]
16. Love Is In Control [Finger On The Trigger] [Dance Remix]

Amazon USA
Available for pre-order soon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B97HTZQ7/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B97HTZQ7/?tag=imwan-21

[Guy]

Not my favorite Donna Summer album but I will probably get it. At the moment, her family owns her catalog so at least I know they will profit from this release.

[Danno]

Not my favorite Donna Summer album but I will probably get it. At the moment, her family owns her catalog so at least I know they will profit from this release.

Not my favourite either and I already got the 2014 reissue along with her Encore box set in 2020. Mystery of love is one of my favourites though so if the remix is a good one, I'm probably going to end up paying close to 20 quid for 2 songs. Cost of living crisis?

[carlo]

I saw this one is coming out as a double red and blue vinyl as well.

I also have the 2014 CD reissue of this album. For this upcoming release, I was hoping they were going to include at least several new remixes, much like they did with the previous anniversary releases of The Wanderer and I'm A Rainbow. Looks like they're only including one new remix. Perhaps the previous two releases didn't sell nearly as well as they had hoped, so the economics of the situation likely only allowed them to do one remix this time. I think I'll skip this release and just listen to the remix on Spotify, when it's out. Nothing really new here for me.

I'm also not a big fan of this new media-book format trend. They can't be stored in CD sized shelves because they're so tall. I think it's a new and cost effective way for these music labels to put out 'deluxe-looking' packaging for CD reissues. It also often means having to crop the original album cover to fit the vertical cover of the media-book, which the purist in me also doesn't love.

[carlo]

Although I gotta say that the vinyl release looks quite pretty. I may be tempted to get it, just to complete my collection of Donna Summer coloured vinyls

[jack020]

[Guy]

I thought "Mystery of Love" was recorded as a duet with James Ingram but when Geffen wouldn't agree to label it as a "duet with James Ingram" he insisted that most of his vocal be removed. I don't remember where I heard that and don't know that's true.

However, this remix would have been the perfect opportunity to incorporate all of his recorded vocals. It's lacking something and it's not on par with the original version.

[Boogiedown]

Isn’t that Bruce her husband ? Does sound like James’ woo whooos.


Does anyone find Donna’s enunciations hard to follow? Do we really need every line blasted into our faces word for word …

[Danno]

I've heard worse to be honest. In the 90s, they'd have just cranked the pitch up and whacked a hi-hat over the top. 20s would've been one of Donna's words sampled ad nauseum over a totally different backing track. At least it still resembles the original song. The popping bassline has been mixed down and new keyboards added over it. I think Quincey's choral arrangement is pushed back which imo was one of the aspects that made the original so good.
Jury is out for me but could've been much worse.