2023
[DEC 30] Happy New Year everyone! (Well almost anyway...) And Happy
Birthday Donna wherever you are! It's just about the new month, so the
Summer Fever Pick has been updated.
We are opening the year with Cats Without Claws.
[DEC 30] In honor of Donna's birthday, German station WDR played
an hour of Donna today. You can listen to it online on the
station's website. (It played just fine for me here in the US,
so I'd say it's not region-locked.)
[DEC 30] Mary Gaines Bernard got together with Nathan DiGesare to make a
little
holiday video for the fans. They did O Come All Ye Faithful -
Mary on vocals and Nathan on piano. Watch until the end for a special
message. (We love you too Mary!) Oh and if you have sharp eyes, look at
the artwork hanging on the wall. I think you will all recognize who the
artist was. ;-)
[DEC 30] In the land of things to look forward to - Bruce posted that
Christmas Spirit will be released on vinyl for the first time in 2024.
[DEC 30] In the world of covers, REDHOUSE is releasing yet another cover
of Donna's music on January 12. This is a new version of If There
Is Music There - this time REDHOUSE will do the singing. (Last time they
had Oliviya Nicole doing the vocals.)
[DEC 30] The website
DW.com has a slideshow celebrating famous New Year's Eve babies.
Yes, Donna is included. :-)
[DEC 30] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's celebrate the
New Year! First up, Donna bringing in 2004 on
Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve. Then we have Donna ringing in 1994 on
Merv Griffin's New Year's Eve special, and Donna ringing in 1977 on
New Year's Rockin' Eve. Next we have a Suecase Hall video
New Year's Tribute to Donna, and of course we have to have Donna
singing
Happy Birthday. I have one more clip for you that I haven't seen yet
myself - and for good reason. As of this writing, it's not officially
posted yet. LPJ_IS_KOOL has a Birthday Megamix scheduled to go live on
YouTube at noon on December 31. So check
this link any time after that.
[DEC 30] So that's a wrap for 2023! Here's looking to a great 2024 for
all of us! If you are out partying tomorrow night, take a minute to
offer up a toast to Donna on what should have been her 75th birthday.
And if you are like me and not planning to go out any further than your
couch (LOL), then play some Donna tunes, or Donna videos. (Hmmm -
maybe I'll watch the documentary again. I haven't hit the double digits
on that yet... LOL)
[DEC 24] Happy Christmas Eve all! Congrats to Brooklyn and her
team for the recent nomination of Love To Love You Donna Summer for a
Satellite Award for best documentary.
[DEC 24] BBC Radio 2 has been celebrating disco this month. They have an
episode looking at "disco pioneers" Donna and Giorgio. You can listen to
that
online. (Unlike BBC television, BBC radio is generally not
region-locked. I had no problem accessing that here in the US.)
[DEC 24] In release news, we can look forward to a Japanese singles
collection on March 1. There's not much info available yet, just
that it will be 2 cds, 1 dvd and a booklet. It is listed on a few
retailer sites already. Here is
one at random.
[DEC 24] In Johnnyswim news, they have released a couple of new videos
on YouTube recorded at home. They did
Pass Me A Pint/Fairytale Of New York, and
What Are You Doing New Year's Eve.
[DEC 24] Also in Johnnyswim news, they are featured in an exhibit in the
Rock Hall Of Fame. Abner didn't say, but I think they are part of the
Right Here Right Now exhibit. They have Abner's hat and guitar and
Amanda's dress. Unfortunately, you can't see it on the Rock Hall
site, but it was posted in a reel on Johnnyswim's Instagram. (Now
while you don't see the Johnnyswim case on the Rock Hall site, you CAN
see the case with Donna's "Marilyn Monroe" dress on the page I just
linked you to. :-) )
[DEC 24] I think that's it for this week. I'll be back at some point
next weekend for Donna's birthday. :-) But I will leave you
once again with my
YouTube Christmas playlist. If Christmas isn't your thing,
then just dig out your favorite Donna album and play that. :-)
[DEC 17] Greetings all! Can you believe Christmas is just a week away?
Keeping that in mind, I'm not sure yet how I will handle next weekend's
update. It might be a little early or it might be a little late - I have
to see what my schedule is like. If I don't see you before Christmas - I
hope you all have a very merry one! (And if Christmas isn't your
jam.... have a great weekend anyway!)
[DEC 17] First up, there is new merchandise at
DonnaSummer.com.
There is a limited edition pillow that I think will still ship for
Christmas IF you get your order in... uh... now. LOL I think
Monday the 18th is the official cut off - at least domestically.
The image they used is the same black and white image from the
documentary promotion.
[DEC 17] Bruce Sudano fans - Bruce is a showcase artist for the
2024
Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City, MO from
February 21 to 25. Stay tuned to their website for more details as
their schedule of events has not been created yet.
[DEC 17] Johnnyswim fans - check out
their website
for exclusive Run Club merchandise. (Then keep an eye on their social
media to see when Abner announces the next run.)
[DEC 17] Also, you know Amanda and Abner just can't stay off the road
for long. So there are a few upcoming concert dates. I already
told you about the Kids Helping Kids event in January, and now there are
performances in Los Angeles on Valentines Day, and the Railbird
Music Festival on June 1 in Lexington, KY. Ticket info for all of
these dates is on the
Johnnyswim
website.
[DEC 17] I think that brings us to YouTube. With Christmas literally
right around the corner, I will leave you with my Donna Summer (and
family)
holiday playlist. As a special bonus, during COVID Johnnyswim did a
few concerts Live In The Backyard. One of those was a
Christmas concert that was really special.
[DEC 10] Happy Sunday all! And Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate!
First up this week - as you know the Grammy Museum in LA hosted a panel
on Donna with Giorgio, Bruce and Brooklyn. Now there is no complete
video of this event (darn!), but there are
photos. I saw a couple of VERY tiny video clips - but they were
posted to a restricted audience on Facebook. But the people who
were able to attend seemed to have a great time. :-)
[DEC 10] Speaking of a good time, I had forgotten that back in the 90s,
Donna reworked Hard For The Money to be used for Monday Night Football.
You can
see it here. A few years later, she revamped the song again
got
McDonald's. (Did somebody say McDonna? LOL)
[DEC 10] In Johnnyswim news - they had a run club the other day that
looked like a lot of fun. Keep an eye on their social media to see when
Abner decides to do another one. :-)
[DEC 10] And speaking of Johnnyswim,
Emea Tribute posted an article on alternative Christmas music to
listen to if you are tired of Mariah Carey. Johnnyswim's Christmas
Waltz made the list (righfully so!) If you haven't already, check
out their album A
Johnnyswim Christmas. (That's a paid Amazon ink - but you can get it
in all the usual places.) Believe it or not, that album is almost 10
years old already. (And Donna's Christmas Spirit is almost 30 years
old.... when did we get so old? LOL)
[DEC 10] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, I guess
inspired by the clip from Barbra's autobiography, someone posted a clip
from
Mariah Carey's 2020 autobiography where she talks about Donna and
the Divas 2000 event. So let's just go with Divas 2000. We have
Bad Girls,
Love Is The Healer
and
Reflections from that show. And of course there is the finale of
Ain't
No Mountain High Enough. Over on YouTube itself (because I had
to grab those Divas clips from other places), we have some
rehearsal footage and at the very very end you see Donna rehearsing
with Diana and Mariah for the Supremes medley.
This video also has a bit of that but also with more Donna in the
rest of the video. And as a special non-Donna bonus, here is the
Supremes Medley as it actually aired... well sort of. When you watch
the video you will see the visual trickery that was used to keep YouTube
from really recognizing the clip. That is why it is one of the VERY few
Divas 2000 clips actually hosted on YouTube. I believe the
copyright on that show is very aggressively protected and that's why the
clips tend to be on less widely known video sites.
[DEC 3] Happy Sunday all! It's December now so you know what
that means - Christmas Spirit is the new
Summer Fever Pick. Can you believe that album is almost 30 years
old?
[DEC 3] First up - don't forget that Brooklyn, Bruce and Giorgio will be
at the Grammy Museum in LA tomorrow talking all things Donna. If you are
in the area,
get tickets here.
[DEC 3] In other Donna news, we have all heard the story about Donna
falling off her stool when recording Enough Is Enough - Donna told that
one many times over the years. Well, now Barbra is telling the
story too. She put it in her new memoir, and now
People Magazine is reporting it.
[DEC 3] The BBC has a podcast called
Sounds Of The 80s. The most recent one has Pete Waterman as a cohost
and he has stories about many of the artists he worked with. You will
find Donna at about 1:15:35 and again at 1:30:15. The website says this
podcast will only be available for about 28 days.
[DEC 3] Johnnyswim fans - our favorite duo will be performing next month
for Kids Helping Kids on January 19 and 20 in Santa Barbara.
Tickets are
available here. Also, Abner wants to do a run club in Los
Angeles this month. Keep an eye on the
Johnnyswim Instagram for details.
[DEC 3] Bruce Sudano fans - he's live on the
couch on Facebook again with a new song inspired by his
granddaughter, but dedicated to all grandchildren.
[DEC 3] That brings us to YouTube. First up is a 1994 clip of
Melody Of Love that I never saw before. (Before you ask, the
guy they keep showing during the song is a fan who was being surprised
with the chance to meet Donna. So I think he was either in shock or
scared to death.) Also in the land of fans is this
WKTU tribute clip that features comments from a number of fans -
some celebrities! We also have a couple of Christmas clips to play while
you decorate for the year -
Donna on ET promoting Christmas Spirit, another
ET
clip about The Christmas Song, the promo version of
Breath Of Heaven (it omits the spoken intro), and a lyric video for
Rosie Christmas.
[NOV 26] Happy Sunday all! I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving (or
just a nice Thursday is you don't celebrate!) Here in the US,
Thanksgiving marks the official start of the Christmas shopping season
(even though Christmas stuff has been in the stores for ages already.
LOL) There are lots of deals to be had this weekend including
merch at
Johnnyswim.com and at
BruceSudano.com.
[NOV 26] Don't forget (if you are in the Los Angeles area) that one week
from tomorrrow (December 4) is the big live conversation with Brooklyn,
Bruce and Giorgio at the Grammy Museum.
Tickets are still available. I know people keep asking if it
will be live-streamed. I don't think so. The Grammy Museum does have a
YouTube channel, but it hasn't posted anything in a couple of years.
:-( But a couple of fans are going for sure, so maybe we can get reports
from them.
[NOV 26] Canada - Canal D in Montreal will be airing Love To Love You
Donna Summer in French. (Not sure if they mean with subtitles or voice
overs - I sort of hope they do it with subtitles. Otherwise you might
miss some of the "new" music that plays during the film.) Look for that
on December 13 at 9PM.
[NOV 26] That brings us to YouTube. First up a
40
year retrospective on Donna's music condensed down to about 12
minutes. Some of you may remember that Donna did Hollywood Squares back
in 2003 to promote her autobiography. The
Donna Summer Archive channel is posting those episodes - 1 each day.
As I write this only the first couple are up, but if you check the
channel after the 28th, all 5 should be posted. Then we have the video
for
I Will Go With You that I haven't watched in who knows how long, and
the official animated videos for
Love To Love You and
I
Feel Love. Finally, I see someone has reposted Donna and
Barry's
Could It Be Magic. If you know me at all, you know I can't
resist posting it again. LOL
[NOV 19] Happy Sunday all! And Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends who
celebrate it! And even if you don't celebrate the holiday, take a moment
to be thankful for the good things in your life - however big or small.
(Does that make me sound like Oprah? LOL)
[NOV 19] In the only news of the week,
SoundOfLife.com posted an article looking at some of the most
impactful live albums. Donna's Live & More album from 1978 is on that
list. They cite the facts that the album went platinum and that is
started Donna's trifecta of back to back number one double albums.
[NOV 19] And that brings us to YouTube. (Yes, it's a very slow news
week! LOL) First up, a "new" clip from
Fantastico 1979 with Last Dance, preceded by a little clip of Donna
performing With Your Love! (Both are the typical lip-syncing that
artists have to do for TV shows, but still - how often do you ever get
to see Donna perform With Your Love?) Moving on we have Donna on
The View from around Thanksgiving 1999, Donna on
Queen Latifah also from around Thanksgiving 1999, and a performance
from Summer: The Donna Summer Musical at the
Thanksgiving Day Parade. And finally Donna singing
Friends Unknown at the Walk Of Fame ceremony.
[NOV 11] Greetings all and Happy Veteran's Day to all who served.
Let's start with the Grammy Museum. On December 4, it will be
celebrating Love To Love You Donna Summer with a panel discussion
featuring Bruce, Brooklyn and Giorgio. They will also be
showing clips from the documentary and then there will be a Q&A session.
Tickets are available at
GrammyMuseum.org, and the event will be held at the Clive Davis
Theater in Los Angeles.
[NOV 11] In other documentary news, the Grammy nominees were just
announced. Unfortunately, Love To Love You Donna didn't make the final
list. But if you want to check out the list of this year's nominees -
they are
posted here.
[NOV 11]
NationWorldNews.com just posted their review of Love To Love You
Donna. I think this article was translated because it frequently
uses the wrong pronouns.
[NOV 11] As you probably realize, Barbara Streisand has a new
autobiography out called
My Name Is Barbra.
(paid Amazon link) . Yes she does mention Donna in it. :-)
Chapter 33 is called Enough Is Enough and it talked about Barbra's Wet
album and how the Enough Is Enough collaboration came about. There is
nothing there that we don't already know, but it's really nice to hear
it from Barbra's point of view for a change. She did say that Donna was
a doll when they met, and that they did get to see each other at David
Foster's house not too long before Donna passed. Barbra ends the
chapter by saying that Donna had an amazing voice and she was a
lovely person. OH! I just discovered that someone posted that
chapter of Barbra's audio book on YouTube. So go
listen to Barbra. :-)
[NOV 11] Moving on to Bruce, he was live on the couch again on
Facebook with another song inspired by the current world situation.
This one is called I Still Believe In You. You can also catch
Bruce on his YouTube channel with a
live medley of Ball Of Fire/ Tighter And Tighter/ Bad Girls/
September In Your Eyes. (Sharp-eyed viewers will spot Super Bruce in the
background. :-)
[NOV 11] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up is a reaction
video with a little twist. Instead of just reacting to Hot Stuff, this
guy is
reacting to the stems from the Hot Stuff recording. So we get to
hear (and see him react to) all the various parts of the song -
instruments, vocals. It's pretty cool. Then if you are pressed for
time, someone has posted most of the scenes from Thank God It's Friday
featuring Donna on YouTube. There is Donna singing a bit of
Love To Love You in the DJ Booth, the
"listen Mr. Big Shot DJ" scene, the
crying in the bathroom scene (it cuts right before Donna tried to
put the wig over the wig... lol), the
Last Dance scene, and the
final scene.
[NOV 5] Happy Sunday all! It's a new month so it's time for the new
Summer Fever Pick. This month we
are working hard for our (no) money.
[NOV 5] Bruce Sudano fans - check out Bruce on Facebook at the piano
with
I'm A Rainbow. It's not one you usually hear him sing.
[NOV 5] Johnnyswim fans - episode 6 of the second season of In The
Kitchen With Abner And Amanda is now streaming on MAX, Discovery and
Magnolia. This week they are making Sunday supper with Chicken Marbella,
Roasted Feta Fries and Peach Galette.
[NOV 5] In the land of covers, REDHOUSE has covered On The Radio and
that will be released in all the usual places on November 10. Make
sure you check it out.
[NOV 5] That brings us to YouTube and I think we should celebrate the
Summer Fever Pick. So first up is the
title track from TopPop. Then we have
Unconditional Love from a Disney special, an alternate version of
Do
Believe (I Fell In Love), a Suecase Hall video for
Love Has A Mind Of Its Own, and
Donna and Onetta talking about the inspiration for She Works Hard
For The Money.
[NOV 5] And finally - this Tuesday (November 7) is Election Day here in
the US. If you haven't already early voted (or sent in an absentee
ballot), make sure you get your butt out to your local polling place and
vote! Make your voice heard!
[OCT 29] Happy Sunday all and Happy Halloween to all who celebrate!
Let's start with
TheMusicalHype.com and its list of "11 Alluring Radio Approved
Songs." (Basically they are all songs with the word radio in the title.)
So as you probably guessed, Donna made the list with On The Radio.
[OCT 29] Bruce Sudano fans - as you recall, he did a thing last week for
Radio Popolare in Milan. Bruce posted a couple of short video
clips on Facebook (Keep
Doin' What You're Doin' and
Bad Girls), but you can listen to the whole event on the
Radio Popolare website. The interview part is in English and
Italian. (One of the hosts translates - she asks the question in both
languages, Bruce answers in English, then she translates his answer into
Italian.) Make sure when you go to the site that you select the episode
from October 26, 2023. Right now that is the one that comes up on top,
but depending on when you read this, it may have moved further down the
list.
[OCT 29] Bruce also marked the 3rd anniversary of Spirals vol 2 on his
Facebook page with a video.
[OCT 29] Johnnyswim fans - well, this year's tour is over. But
give them 5 minutes and they will start another. LOL But
seriously, you can still get your Johnnyswim fix on MAX, Discovery+, and
Magnolia with Abner and Amanda In The Kitchen. Today's episode
(Season 2 episode 5) is Grandma Madge's meatballs with Sudano peppers ad
garlic herb focaccia. (Is it dinner time yet? LOL)
[OCT 29] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, yes I know I
linked to Donna's special last week, but I rediscovered
another link today that actually includes some of the old
commercials that aired during the broadcast. So if you like nostalgic
ads, check it out. Moving on, let's go with a Halloween-ish theme.
First up is a Scary Halloween Mix of
Once Upon A Time (which isn't really that scary LOL), followed by
the 30th Anniversary Megamix of
Another Place And Time, some footage set to
Breakaway with some extra footage of Donna in her Kabuki makeup, and
the CD+G version of
Another Place And Time. Moving from makeup to costume, we have
a
compilation of Donna as Aunt Oona (the fat suit edition of her
second appearance on that show), and the first part of Donna's
first appearance as Aunt Oona. (That whole first episode is broken
up into parts, so you can continue with
part 2,
part 3 and
part 4 if you want. Or if you want to see the shows the way they
aired, Family Matters streams on MAX and Hulu, or can be purchased on
Amazon, Apple, etc. Donna is on season 5 episode 23 and season 8 episode
22. )
[OCT 23] Greetings all! The 2024 Grammys are coming up in
February, so the nomination process is in progress. Love To Love You
Donna Summer has been submitted for consideration. For those who
don't know the Grammy process, it starts with creators submitting their
work for consideration. Then the Grammy people go through all the
submissions (which could be thousands of items) to make sure they
actually meet the nomination criteria. Then there is a round of voting
where the final 5 to 8 (depending on category) nominees are selected,
then the final round of voting where the winners are selected. So
the documentary has been submitted for Best Music Film, and we have to
wait and see if it makes the nominee list which should be announced on
November 10. Here's hoping!
[OCT 23] Speaking of the documentary, I am told that Chanel D in
Montreal will air it on December 13 with either a French voice over, or
French subtitles. (I vote for subtitles, so you can still hear
everyone's voice, and the extra music that gets slipped in throughout.
:-) )
[OCT 23]
FarOutMagazine.co.uk just posted an article about Bruce Springsteen
giving Donna the song Protection. Now I already liked Springsteen,
but this quote makes me like him even more: "She could really sing, and
I disliked the veiled racism of the anti-disco movement." The Boss
nailed it (although I would have also added homophobia - there was that
too.)
[OCT 23] In Bruce Sudano news, fans in Milan will want to catch
him on Thursday October 26 at 9 PM at the theater at Radio Populare (Via
Privata Ulderico Ollearo 5, Milano). He'll be singing and doing an
interview. Admission is free and the show will be simulcast on the
radio.
[OCT 23] Speaking of Bruce - he was live on the couch again on
Facebook (wearing some Johnnyswim swag), This is another new
song that is definitely inspired by the times.
[OCT 23] In Johnnyswim news - they have just 2 more dates on their
current tour: Kansas City and St Louis. Keep an eye on their social
media account if you want to join the run club. It looks like
they've had a lot of fun with that at all the recent tour stops. Also
check out this article from
SavannahNow.com. It touches on a bunch of things - the music, the TV
shows, etc.
[OCT 23] And speaking of Johnnyswim on TV - the latest episode of In The
Kitchen With Abner and Amanda is available to stream on Magnolia,
Discovery and MAX. This week they are making Shawarma on garlic
flatbread. I swear I gain weight just watching their show! LOL
[OCT 23] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's look at
Donna on various TV specials starting with her very James Bond-esque
cover of
With A Little Luck on Paul Anka's special. Sharp-eyed viewers
will notice that Suzanne Somers was also a guest on that show. She
passed away recently, but when Donna passed Suzanne has very
nice things to say about Donna. My condolences to all who
loved Suzanne Somers, she will be missed.
Moving on in YouTube clips, back in the day musical variety specials
and/or series were a big thing so Donna got to appear on a few. She was
also on
David Soul's special,
Eddie Rabbit's special (where she also did
Starting Over Again), a couple of Mac Davis' specials where
she did
A
Song For You, a cover of
Sir Duke (with the others on the show), and a
gospel medley with the others on that episode. and of course, Donna
got
her own special as well. (But we had to wait over 4 decades
til Brooklyn cracked open the vault before we could see the
really funny outtakes.)
[OCT 15] Happy Sunday all! And best wishes to Donna's oldest grandchild
Vienna Dohler! She just got married this weekend. (Now the grandkids are
getting married... I feel really old. LOL)
[OCT 15] Vinyl collectors - be on the lookout for the
Love To
Love You/ I Feel Love/ Hot Stuff 12" Limited Edition Rainbow Pride
vinyl. You can see the promo video clip on
Facebook.
[OCT 15] Italy - you can catch the Love To Love You Donna Summer
documentary starting now on Sky.
[OCT 15] In the Donna's music is everywhere category,
the film Fair Play starts off with Love To Love You.
[OCT 15] Johnnyswim fans - our favorite duo is still on tour and Abner
is still running with fans on show days. Everyone usually meets up
at the venue at noon and they run to a local coffee shop. If you want to
participate in one of the runs, keep an eye on Johnnyswim's social
media: Twitter
(sorry, I can't call it X),
Facebook,
or
Instagram. Abner sometimes posts videos from the runs as well.
[OCT 15] Also in Johnnyswim news, I forgot to mention last week that In
The Kitchen With Abner And Amanda season 2 is now streaming on Magnolia,
Discovery+ and MAX. There are 3 episodes available now, with more
coming. I advise you not to watch while you are hungry - unless you are
looking for some good ideas for dinner. :-) Oh and episode 3
features baking with the kids - that's a fun show.
[OCT 15] Bruce Sudano, catch him live on Facebook on the couch again
with
It Ain't Cool.
[OCT 15] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up a video clip
from
VH1's Say It Loud which is a combination of performance clips,
interview clips, and clips of people talking about Donna. Then we have a
retrospective of Donna's music from 1968 to 2023,
Donna performing with Seal on David Foster & Friends, and finally an
hour video of
Donna's "greatest hits".
[OCT 8] Happy Sunday all! Last week I told you that Donna was being
inducted into the
New England Music Hall Of Fame. You can see Joe S accepting
the award on her behalf on
Facebook.
[OCT 8]
American Songwriter has picked 5 songs that defined the Dance Music
scene of the 1970s. First on the list is Love To Love You Baby.
I actually thought they would have picked I Feel Love, but I think they
decided that Donna had so much success in dance music that they would
just pick the song that started it all for her.
[OCT 8] Bruce Sudano fans - he was
live on Facebook the other day celebrating the 1 year anniversary of
Ode To A Nightingale.
[OCT 8] Johnnyswim fans - the duo is
on tour as you
already know, and Abner's
run
club looks like a great success! Keep an eye on the Johnnyswim
Instagram for details, but the usual plan is that everybody meets at
that night's venue at noon and they run to a local coffee shop and have
coffee. Sounds like fun ... well, except for the running part. LOL (I'm
more of a walker... a slow walker, who has to stop and point a camera at
interesting things... )
[OCT 8] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, a concert I
haven't played in awhile -Donna
live at Piranha Falconara Marittima in 1977. This one is audio only
and the mix is a little off, (but the sound is very clear!) Then we have
the
Live & More Encore concert, a 1989 clip of Donna attempting to
record a
countdown promo, a promo for the
2000 Pokémon movie soundtrack, and a 1993 version of
La Vie En Rose.
[SEP 30] Happy Saturday all! Since tomorrow starts a new month, the new
Summer Fever Pick is up. This
month we are celebrating the self-titled collaboration with Quincy
Jones. (I hate to just say we are celebrating Donna Summer, because
really, we are celebrating her every day! LOL)
[SEP 30] Let's start off with award news. Tonight Donna is being
inducted to the
New England Music Hall Of Fame. Originally Donna's sister Linda was
to be on hand for the festivities, but as she is feeling under the
weather tonight, long time fan Joe S is stepping in for her. Speedy
recovery to Linda!
[SEP 30] Here's a weird one for you. There is a recording act called
Sweet Little Band. And they record popular music done as instrumentals
suitable for babies. They have one album called
Babies Go Donna Summer that includes 7 of Donna's hits. And if you
think that's odd, you should see the other albums they have - Babies Go
Bob Marley, Babies Go Rolling Stones, Babies Go Guns N' Roses...
Google them and have fun. LOL
[SEP 30] On to something sane, lol, Bruce Sudano is taking break
from his couch and moving to his piano to bring us a
classic Brooklyn Dreams song. Now I have to drag out my
Brooklyn Dreams albums again... :-)
[SEP 30] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's start with a fun
one from 1989 where Donna tries to record a
promo for the Countdown TV show. It's not as easy as you'd
think. (And I could totally see myself making the same mistakes.
LOL) Then we have
an
interview I haven't seen before from 1995 to promote Endless Summer
and a benefit she was doing at the time, a short clip
behind the scenes of Thank God It's Friday, an acapella clip of the
beginning of
On
The Radio, and finally ads for
The Complete Donna Summer. (The first one made me laugh for no
other reason than the ad is just so cheesy. LOL I love ya Donna!)
[SEP 24] Happy Sunday all! First up this week, Brooklyn is doing a cast
signing thing on Instagram with the cast of Cruel Summer. That
will be Tuesday September 26 at 2:30 PM Eastern. If you head to
her
Streamily page, you can see what items are available to order.
[SEP 24] Johnnyswim fans - as you know the duo are still on tour. And
Abner has been on an exercise kick for awhile now (and it shows!) So he
is looking for people to run with him on show days. Keep an eye on
Instagram for announcements.
[SEP 24] Bruce Sudano fans - yes, he is live on the couch AGAIN.
This time he's doing
See You When I Get There from Spirals Vol 1.
[SEP 24] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's do some unusual clips
this week. First up, a young Donna in an
ad for Afri-Cola. Then we have a clip of Donna singing
La Dolce Vita, a clip from an unreleased song called
Addiction, an alternate version of
If You Got It Flaunt It, a short clip of Donna rapping
Love To Love You on The Today Show, and finally Donna's live
cover of
Natural Woman complete with the "twins" intro. LOL (She can still
make me laugh no matter how many times I have heard the story!)
[SEP 17] Greetings all! First up is another auction of Donna's stuff.
Unfortunately I didn't realize it was going to be a one day only thing,
so it already closed. This is a bit different from the last one in
that it was mainly household things like furniture from her home
in Brentwood, TN - oh and her 1995 Mercedes. You can
look at the items here, but make sure that when the page loads you
check off the box on the left hand side of the page that says "Estate of
Donna Summer, Brentwood, Tennessee" otherwise you will see a whole bunch
of unrelated items as well. There is also a
short article about the auction here. This auction was
announced on Donna's
Facebook
page, but only about 2 days before the auction happened. So if you
are on Facebook, make sure you keep an eye on her page, and I will not
wait for a regular update if another auction is announced.
[SEP 17] Speaking of auctions,
ArtNews just posted an article about the Christies auction and the
documentary. This article is a little different in that it attempts to
analyze Donna's paintings to some extent.
[SEP 17] Bruce Sudano fans - he was
live from his couch again. Well, he was live from a different couch
this time. LOL (I feel like this could be a series of albums -
Live From The Couch, Live From The Other Couch, Live From An
Armchair... the list could go on. LOL) This time instead of
singing a new song, he is treating us to a live version of his current
single,
Better Than This (currently available in all the usual places.)
[SEP 17] In other Bruce news, he has been selected as an
official showcase artist for Folk Alliance International 2024.
The event is held from February 21 to 25, 2024 in Kansas City, Mo.
[SEP 17] Moving on to Johnnyswim (who are
still on tour,
by the way.) As you know, they had a cooking show on Magnolia called In
The Kitchen With Abner and Amanda that will be coming back with brand
new episodes on October 21. But in the meantime, they have teamed
up with
In Good Company. That is one of those companies that will ship meals
to your home for you to heat and eat. This one only covers Southern
California, so if that's your location check them out. At the
moment they are offering Abner & Amanda's Italian Short Ribs with
Polenta.
[SEP 17] If you have logged in to MAX lately (say to watch Love To Love
You Donna Summer, or any of the Johnnyswim shows), you may have seen a
familiar face pop up on the main screen. (At least on the TV, I seem to
get a different screen if I log in through my computer.) Anyway,
in honor of Latin Heritage Month MAX is doing Nuestras Voces and they
have used photos of Abner, Pedro Pascal (without his Mandalorian helmet
- yes I am a Star Wars nerd LOL), and Diane Guerrero.
[SEP 17] That brings us to YouTube. Since there has been a bunch of talk
about Divas 2000 on the forum, let's look at clips from that.
First up Donna's performances:
Bad Girls,
Love Is The Healer
and
Reflections. Then we have some
interviews and rehearsal footage (note the end with the footage of
the trio that never happened on show night), and of course the
finale,
Ain't
No Mountain High Enough.
[SEP 10] Happy Sunday all! It's pretty quiet this week. Johnnyswim
is still on tour for a few more weeks. You can catch highlights on their
Instagram. And if they are coming to your town - get yourself
a ticket! You will not regret it!
[SEP 10] Bruce Sudano fans - Bruce was
Live From The Couch again on Facebook for the first time in...? A
long time. He's back with a new one he wrote while he was on tour
with The Zombies.
[SEP 10] That brings us to YouTube. First up is the 2023
Extended Revisit mix of
I Feel Love. Then we have
Spring Affair from Soul Train, an extended mix of
Now I Need You,
Love To Love You from The Midnight Special,
MacArthur Park from American Idol, and a video for
Try Me.
[SEP 03] Greetings all and happy Sunday! I can't believe it's September
already! It's time for a new Summer Fever
Pick and this month we will be celebrating all the colors in I'm A
Rainbow.
[SEP 03] I guess we can start with Bruce this week. :-) He
recently did
an
interview with Harvey Brownstone, and you can catch it on YouTube.
It's a pretty long interview that covers a lot of ground from childhood
to now. And yes, there is a bunch of Donna stuff in there too.
:-)
[SEP 03] And speaking of Bruce - I told you last week, he is selling
t-shirts now. If you grab one and
send
his Facebook a photo of you wearing the shirt, he just might share
it. :-)
[SEP 03] Johnnyswim fans - they are still
on tour
until the end of October. Also, the second season of their cooking show
debuts on Discovery+ on October 21, AND on
Instagram Abner periodically teases new songs in the works, so I
suspect the last quarter of 2023 is going to be a fun time for all the
fans. :-)
[SEP 03] In Donna news, she ended August 2023 with 16.3 million streams
on Spotify. That made August her 4th best streaming month. So if
anyone is wondering where Donna Summer fans hang out on the web -
clearly Spotify is on the list. :-)
[SEP 03] In documentary news,
The Goa Spotlight has recommended 4 films to watch from Disney+,
MAX, Prime Video, and Filmin and their recommendation for MAX is Love To
Love You Donna Summer. :-)
[SEP 03] I think that brings us to YouTube. I think this week we should
celebrate the new Summer Fever Pick. So let's start off with the title
track,
I'm A Rainbow. Then we have
Don't Cry For Me Argentina from a 1993 TV appearance, and the
official music video for
Romeo. Donna doesn't actually appear in that - they just used clips
from Flashdance. Moving on we have the Ladies On Mars Street Race
Mix of
Highway Runner, and
To
Turn The Stone from the original Broadway cast of Summer: The Donna
Summer Musical (sung by Ariana DeBose).
[AUG 27] Happy Sunday all! It's been a quiet week, but we still
have
Johnnyswim on tour. And keep an eye on the merch tables if you are
going to one of the shows. You might find some exclusive items.
[AUG 27] And speaking of merch - Bruce Sudano has redone his
website and
with that comes a new t-shirt. It's actually the first time he has
offered t-shirts. But don't worry - if shirts aren't your thing,
you can still get the Super Bruce bobblehead! :-)
[AUG 27] In the land of covers, Claire Richards and Delta Goodrem
have covered
No
More Tears. It's pretty faithful to the original. Claire
has also covered
This Time I Know It's For Real. Clearly she's a fan. :-)
[AUG 27] That brings us to YouTube. Since we were just talking about
covers, let's take a look at some of Donna's covers. In 2006 she was
doing Sade's
Pearls in concert and Aretha's
Natural Woman. She's also done
Georgia On My Mind,
La
Vie en Rose,
Nights In White Satin,
Superstar, and in Divas 2000 she did a cover of
Reflections. Donna is also known for her dance version of Barry
Manilow's
Could It Be Magic. (And yes, I will use any excuse to post this
clip. LOL)
[AUG 20] Greetings all! This week the main news is Brooklyn in
Ambassador Digital Magazine. I showed you the
Instagram post with the photo shoot, but now the interview and
select photos are on the
magazine's website. One of the main takeaways from this
article is that the documentary will NOT be the only film in Brooklyn's
directorial career. She would like to do more, and I can't wait to
see what she sets her sights on next. Hopefully the writers and
actors strikes will end quickly (and fairly!) so creatives can get back
to creating.
[AUG 20] Johnnyswim fans - our favorite duo is officially back on the
road again (living their nomadic life!) Keep an eye on their
Instagram for photos and videos from the tour. If you are
looking for dates and places, check
their website.
But be warned - Johnnyswim tickets always sell FAST!
[AUG 20] Last Dance fans, check out the Dodz 2k22 mix available on
Soundcloud. It's short but fun.
[AUG 20] And that brings us to YouTube. First up, a
1990 interview
about Donna's painting exhibition. Then we have a
1987 interview
from the UK's Sky, and a
2004 interview
from a UK radio show called From The Bottom To The Top (the clip is
about an hour and 20 long and Donna is scattered throughout the show).
Then on the music side of things, we have
Starting Over
Again from the Eddie Rabbitt special, and
Science of Love
from XM Radio's Artist Confidential.
[AUG 13] Happy Sunday all! Let's start with some time sensitive
info for Johnnyswim fans. They will be performing in New York City at
Rockwood Music Hall this Thursday August 17 at 7PM as part of the
Preserve Rockwood Benefit Series. Tickets are
available here. Then their official
Stories tour
starts on August 19 in Bethel, NY and continues through October 21 in
Waco, TX.
[AUG 13] In Brooklyn Sudano news, Ambassador Digital Magazine has done
an interview and photo shoot with Brooklyn. They posted clips from
the photo shoot on their
Instagram, but nothing has appeared on their
website
just yet. But check out the Instagram pics - it's a very glamorous
session.
[AUG 13] In documentary news, Love To Love You Donna Summer has hit New
Zealand on Sky Arts as of today. Because of that,
Stuff.co.nz has posted a review of the film.
[AUG 13] in Giorgio Moroder news, he has
sold his producer royalties to Iconoclast. They have "struck a
deal to work on the development and marketing of 'The Father Of Disco's'
name, image and likeness rights." I'm no expert on music
industry legal matters, but this sounds to me like an 83 year old man
looking make sure his legacy will be secure after he passes (in what I
hope is the FAR FAR FAR distant future.)
[AUG 13] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, TopPop remastered
their clip of Donna performing
Love To Love You. (That's the clip where Donna is backed by the
blond male dancer in the very 70s white outfit. lol) Then we have
a
short interview clip from Donna's appearance on a Disney
special. (Here is the
full special. You can catch Donna at 4:03 and 23:23. See if you can
spot Mimi in Unconditional Love. Oh and I should warn you that right
before Unconditional Love, there is a clip of the It's A Small World
ride. You might want to mute the sound on that part. LOL) Next up
is a recent clip
from LPJ_IS_KOOL with a clip of On The Radio plus the audio of a 2003
interview where Donna talks about the song. (You can even see a
picture of the handwritten lyrics that sold at the recent
Christie's auction.) And finally, Donna performing a couple of
songs at the London Palladium. This is the infamous performance with
the mic problems. I happen to like this clip because it shows what
a professional Donna was. I have always believed that if you make your
living performing live (in any capacity - music, acting, making
speeches, dancing, etc) that eventually anything that can go wrong will.
And to me the mark of a professional is in how they handle situations
where things go wrong. Donna just kept chugging through without
missing a beat as the crew found a mic that worked. Someone with
less experience might have stopped the show, but not Donna.
[AUG 6] Happy Sunday all! This week is the first update for
August so you know that means it's time for a new
Summer Fever Pick. This month we will
be rocking to The Wanderer. :-)
[AUG 6] So let's start off with Donna. The Hard Rock Cafe in Sioux City
has installed some new memorabilia and included is a dress Donna wore in
1980. The
Sioux City Journal has an article about the new memorabilia, but it
is behind a pay wall. I did a little digging and found out the
dress at Sioux City used to be on display at the
Hard Rock in Boston.
[AUG 6]
American Songwriter posted their 15 favorite quotes from Donna
recently. There are some good ones in there.
[AUG 6] BrooklynVegan.com posted an article on the album Prestige by
Girl Ray. Specifically, the article discusses eight albums that were
influences on that album. Yes, Donna is on that list with Bad Girls.
:-)
[AUG 6] Some of you (okay, all of you LOL) probably remember that
when Four Seasons Of Love came out back in the day, there was a fold out
calendar for 1977 included. Well, a fan going by the handle @workinghardforthemoney
on tumblr made a really good clean scan of the calendar and
posted it. (If you are wondering, the next time that calendar
will be accurate will be 2033, then 2039, and 2050. After than you can
figure it out for yourselves you young whippersnappers! LOL)
[AUG 6] Since the rest of the family seems to be on a well deserved
vacation this week, I think that brings us to YouTube. In honor of
the new Summer Fever Pick, let's look at clips related The wanderer.
First up, the title track (and On The Radio), from the
Tom Snyder Show
1980, Then we have a stampyurfeet video for
Art On Ice/Cold
Love, a Suecase Hall video for
Looking Up,
and another Suecase Hall video for
Grand Illusion.
Finally there is the official video for
The Wanderer.
[JUL 30] Greetings all and happy Sunday! First up this week - The
Johnnyswim Stories Tour. Our favorite dup will be hitting the road
from August 19 to October 21. The full list of dates/venues is on
their website,
and tickets are on sale NOW. Johnnyswim tickets usually sell out pretty
fast so get yours as soon as possible.
[JUL 30] While I was away, Bruce Sudano's new single/video dropped. It's
called Better Than This and you can catch it on
YouTube and all the usual places. The video is packed with old
photos and videos of Bruce from over the years. It's fun to watch
and the lyrics are very relatable. On a side note, I was on
vacation last week with an 11 month old who got very cranky one night -
the animated video for Fatal Love bought us about 30 seconds of peace.
LOL (I know, that doesn't sound like much, but it was enough time to get
the bottle ready for her. )
[JUL 30] Bruce's new single got write-ups on
Mescalina.it and
JamTV.it. Both articles are in Italian, so Google Translate is
your friend if that is not your language.
[JUL 30] In the land of milestones, Donna has officially topped 1
BILLION streams on
Spotify. That's not a typo! :-) (I swear, it wasn't just
me going nuts on vacation! I streamed off the SD card in my phone, not
from the Spotify app! LOL)
[JUL 30] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up a rather unusual
clip of
This Time I Know It's For Real. Then we have a Suecase Hall
video for Love
Has A Mind Of It's Own done as a tribute to Donna's relationship
with Bruce. And finally a short CBS news clip featuring Donna at
home with her granddaughters and a young pre-married Johnnyswim.
[JUL 15] Happy Saturday all! Before I get started, I just want to let
you know that I will be away on vacation next weekend so there will be
no update for the 23rd. (Any burglars reading this - no, my house
will NOT be unoccupied. There are other family members staying home to
care for the cats - and guard my Donna collection. LOL) The next
update will be on or around July 30. :-)
[JUL 15] On to the news. Congrats to Brooklyn and team! Love
To Love You: Donna Summer has been nominated for the HCA 2023 TV Awards
in the category of Best Broadcast Network or Cable Documentary. It's up
against Last Flight Home, The US And The Holocaust, and White Coat
Rebels. The awards are handed out on August 12... well... that's when it
is scheduled. I have no idea if the writers' and actors' strikes will
have an impact on that. (On a side note - stage actors are
NOT on strike, so maybe use this time to see some live performances. You
will be glad you did!)
[JUL 15] Speaking of Brooklyn,
KCRW.com has a little piece about Brooklyn and her love of
gardening. (I think that apple didn't fall too far from the tree... I
seem to remember her mom was a gardening enthusiast too. :-) )
[JUL 15] In Donna news,
SingersRoom.com last a list of the Top 10 famous singers from
Massachusetts. Yes, Donna is on the list but 2 of the other "singers" on
the list are not known for singing. Chick Corea and Leonard
Bernstein are both insanely talented musicians and composers in their
genres, but I don't think either springs to mind when someone talks
about singers. LOL
[JUL 15]
TheGrio.com has an article about the story behind She Works Hard For
The Money. The article is a new one that goes with a
podcast from last month that features Bruce talking about the song.
[JUL 15]
We Are Cult has posted a review of the latest release of Another
Place And Time. The author is a big fan of the album, but he has
to concede that maybe there have been too many reissues in too short a
period of time.
[JUL 15] In Bruce news, we can look forward to a new single (and video!)
called Better Than This on July 21. (That would be 2023 or 2024
depending on which post you saw on social media! LOL But at
least when Bruce gets a case of fat fingers, he only messes up by a
year. When I do it, it's usually by a century. There is nothing like
saying Bad Girls was released in 1879! Thank god I usually spot
it before I publish. LOL)
[JUL 15] But while you are waiting for Bruce's new single, you can
check out
MusicExistence's review of Two Bleeding Hearts.
[JUL 15] Johnnyswim fans - catch them at the
Moon River
Music Festival in Chattanooga with Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors on
September 9. FYI, the combination of Johnnyswim and Drew Holcomb &
The Neighbors is billed as Goodbye Road. So whenever you see a
billing for Goodbye Road, know that it is the two acts working together.
Now, the festival is sold out at the moment, but there is an option to
get on a waiting list or to buy verified resale tickets.
[JUL 15] I think that brings us to YouTube. In honor of the latest
release of Another Place And Time, let's look at songs from that album.
First up the Pete
Hammond remix of the title track. Then we have
This Time I Know
It's For Real live on David Letterman,
Love's About To Change My Heart live on Arsenio Hall,
I Don't Wanna Get
Hurt from TOTP, and the video for
When Love Takes Over You. Finally, a segment about Donna from
SAW: Legends Of
Pop.
[JUL 9] Happy Sunday all! It's a pretty quiet week, but we do have
a new article about the Christie's auction from
Salon Privé. This one breaks down some of the highlights - the items
that did particularly well. Apparently there were bidders from 21
countries. :-)
[JUL 9] Bruce Sudano fans - look for his next single, Better Than
This, in all the usual places on July 21. In the meantime, check
out his current single with Valerie Simpson, Two Bleeding Hearts, which
is doing well on
YouTube. :-)
[JUL 9] In throwback cover news, back in 1982 Frida from ABBA released a
solo album that included a cover of To Turn The Stone. (That was
before we got to officially hear Donna's original version since it came
from the shelved I'm A Rainbow.)
Queerty recently posted an article about the cover. I have to say
that I have heard Frida's cover many times, but this is the first
time I saw the music video that goes with it. And, uh.... well,
it's a good reminder that 80s videos were often just plain weird. LOL
[JUL 9] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, I previously shared
a video where Fil from Wings Of Pegasus
analyzed Donna's
1999 vocal performance of Last Dance. Well, I recently ran into a
previous video where he analyzed a
1983 performance.
I love his analysis videos - he doesn't just gush and say "wow that's so
awesome." He will tell you exactly why a performance is good and give
you some of the technical stuff that is going on. It's definitely
music nerd territory. :-) (And I just love it when he starts
smiling when Donna sings!) Next up is a
band pit video
from the NCL Prima cruiseship production of Summer: The Musical. It's
broken into a 4 part split screen where you can see the guitar, the
keyboard, the drum, and what's happening on stage. Next is a
podcast discussing the documentary. They call it a review, but it's
more of a discussion. In the category of WHY? somebody posted a video of
Love To Love You
sped up so that Donna sounds like one of the Chipmunks. LOL (His
whole channel is sped up songs. He's actually got
4 Donna songs there.) And because after listening to that, you need
something to cleanse your ears, LOL, here is the
Live & More
Encore concert. (I'm still trying to figure out that whole sped up
songs channel - seriously, WHY? LOL)
[JUL 2] Greetings all! Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends and
Happy Fourth to my American friends. (To my other friends - celebrate
with us. Just tell your jobs that you are taking a day or two off. LOL)
[JUL 2] It's a new month, so that means it's time for the new
Summer Fever Pick. This month we
can all celebrate our inner "bad girl" by dancing to Bad Girls.
Toot toot!
[JUL 2] Let's start with the Christie's auction. That closed the
other day and it looks like they made some pretty decent money.
:-) You can check out
the website for the final bids on everything. It looks like
the awards and paper ephemera (photos, lyrics, etc) did the best. There
was hardly any action on the costumer last week when I looked, but as I
suspected, bidders for those waited until near the end of the auction.
The paintings were a bit slow to attract bids too - probably because the
minimum bids for those were pretty high to start with. But all but 2 of
them eventually found a buyer. :-) If you want to see what the
items looked like on display at Christies, they have a
virtual tour posted on their website. Congrats to all the
lucky winners on your new collectables! :-)
[JUL 2] For more auction news, check out WABC New York's
news report on the auction, and
FineBooksMagazine.com has a short article on the auction results.
[JUL 2] We have a new official video out there. This one is an animated
video for I Feel
Love. I kind of like the way they combined the computer
generated faceless animated figures with footage of the real live Donna
Summer - just like the record combines the synthesizer (computer)
generated music with vocals by the real live Donna Summer. That
was a really good idea. :-)
[JUL 2]
ARTnews.com has an article about celebrities who paint. They start
right off with Donna.
[JUL 2] in documentary news, interviews with Brooklyn still keep turning
up. :-) (Girl - go take a vacation already! You earned it! LOL)
So we have a print interview with
SRQ Magazine, and then a video interview for
Togethxr.
[JUL 2] IN the everyone is a Donna Summer fan category, Debbie Harry and
Blondie played at Glastonbury recently and they threw in a bit of I Feel
Love in the middle of Heart Of Glass. I couldn't find enough video of
that particular performance, but I found a different
recent performance where you can definitely hear the Heart Of Glass
music change to I Feel Love music. It's at about the 5 minute
mark.
[JUL 2] In Bruce Sudano news, Chris Epting just posted an
interview with Bruce that focuses on songwriting. It's a nice read
particularly for anyone who wants to get into the mind of a songwriter.
[JUL 2] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, someone
posted what they are billing as the original take of
Love To Love You
Baby. It is taken from a 28 track stem. Then we have a
playlist from Donna's 1992 Walk Of Fame ceremony. (I know some of my
readers were there - see if you can spot your younger selves. :-)
) And then just because I have been playing this lately, the ballad
version of I Will
Live For Love. (I love that song!)
[JUN 25] Happy Sunday all! This week brings more on the Christie's
auction (which only has a few more days of bidding left!)
Good Morning America had a piece about the auction with an interview
with Brooklyn, Mimi and Amanda, and footage from inside the auction
house.
The
Cut also has an article about the auction. And, of course, the
auction is still available to look at (or even bid on) on the
Christie's website. I have noticed that as of this writing,
the photographs, lyrics and awards are (generally) going
higher than expected, the gowns are going lower, and some of the
paintings have no bids yet - probably because they have high opening
amounts. But having said that, smart bidders are probably
waiting until the last minute so that they don't drive the prices
up too early. (I used to see that on eBay all the time. In the
final moments of an auction, the price would go up like crazy!) If you
are in New York, you can still see the items on display until Tuesday.
[JUN 25] In documentary news,
Spin.com has an interview with Brooklyn. The documentary is
still streaming on MAX, so go check it out if you haven't already.
[JUN 25] As you know, on July 7 we are expecting a rerelease of
Another Place And Time. One of the ways it will be available is as
a Zoetrope picture disk. The official Facebook page
posted a video of the Zoetrope in action and it's pretty cool!
It uses images from the This Time I Know It's For Real video that, when
the record spins, becomes an animation. It's sort of like a flip book,
the way it works.
[JUN 25] Johnnyswim fans - catch them in Waco, TX for SIlobration on
October 20 and 21. For tickets,
click here.
[JUN 25] In musical news, Summer: The Musical is still playing at my
local Gateway Playhouse for a couple more weeks. They have a
promo video on YouTube if you want a little taste of what I saw.
They also posted several
local reviews, and
photos from the production. If you are in the area, there are still
plenty of
tickets left. :-)
[JUN 25] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, a
medley from 1994 that I haven't seen in ages. Then we have the
perfect summer (Summer? LOL) clip -
Sand On My Feet.
Then here's an unusual video from the musical. It's the
Conductor Cam from the cruise ship NCL Prima. All you
see is the man at the keyboard playing and conducting, but you can kind
of hear what's going on on the stage. (The metronome is very distracting
though.) And finally for something completely different...
someone on YouTube tried to fill in what she feels are the missing
parts of the documentary by reading Tarot cards. (Not sure she
needed Tarot cards to come to the conclusions she did. But the
cards are pretty. And yes, this is proof that you can find ANYTHING on
YouTube. LOL)
[JUN 18] Greetings and Happy Father's Day all! As you know, Friday
was Donna Summer Day in Boston and it looks like a great time was had by
all! Mary was on hand to perform. She did Melody Of Love, On The
Radio, and of course Last Dance. Her niece, Taihisha posted a
couple of clips on
Instagram, And if you are in Mary's Facebook group, a couple
of people posted clips there too. :-)
[JUN 18] In documentary news,
Brooklyn was on CNN recently to promote Love To Love You Donna
Summer. She also did an interview for Mark Tara's
Rainbow Country podcast, and one for
WCVB in Boston. And there is an interview with Bruce
about Donna and the documentary on
UDiscoverMusic.com.
[JUN 18] In auction news, the
Christie's auction for Donna's memorabilia is now accepting bids
until June 29. So if you have your eye on something, now is the
time to make an account and place your bid.
[JUN 18] Bruce Sudano fans - catch him in the latest edition of
The Beat
(from the UK).
[JUN 18] Johnnyswim fans - catch Abner on Magnolia's Silos Baking
Competition tonight or streaming on Discovery+, Magnolia, or MAX.
He was a guest judge last week for episode 4 and he will be on again
tonight for episode 5.
[JUN 18] Johnnyswim is also on
Cameo
now. If you've never heard of Cameo, it is a service that allows
you to purchase special messages or videos from participating
celebrities. For instance, you could pay for a video where Johnnyswim
sings Happy Birthday to your mom... or where they wish your best friend
a happy anniversary... or whatever else you can think of.
[JUN 18] In musical news, as you know Summer is playing at my local
theater
The
Gateway Playhouse until July 16. I got to see it last night and I
have my report on the show here.
And I will probably go see it again. :-) (Support your local
arts people!)
[JUN 18] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, we have a
new Suecase Hall video for
Bad Girls (with an emphasis on the "new" demo version.) Then we have
the Loverdose recording of
Love To Love You Baby, the
Dick Clark Live Wednesday performances of MacArthur Park and Last
Dance, a performance of
Friends Unknown, and
If
There Is Music There from VH1 Live & More Encore.
[JUN 11] Happy Sunday all! This week brings more on the
documentary. First up, Mary had a live chat on her Facebook group
this past week and she wanted to make sure that we all know that Mimi's
husband, Rick Dohler, was the guy who cataloged and digitized all those
home movies, etc that they found. (And it was all stuff on
8mm, VHS, you name it - whatever the tech of the times were, and he was
working on that for years.) So a huge shout out to Rick! Your efforts
are truly appreciated!
[JUN 11] And speaking of Mary, she will be performing at Donna Summer
Day in Boston on June 16. She might even try to do some live
Facebook streaming while she's there.
[JUN 11] In release news, on July 7 look for a new release of
Another Place and Time. There will be a 2 CD set, a half-speed black
vinyl and a Zoetrope picture disk. The CDs have a couple of unreleased
edits and a new remix of Another Place and Time. (The Zoetrope sounds
interesting. I haven't run into one before, but apparently if you
view it with a stroboscope app in your phone, you see a continuous
dancing effect. ) If you have Facebook, the official account posted a
short video to promote the release.
[JUN 11] On to the never-ending documentary coverage. :-) So
we have an excellent article in
Harper's Bazaar, and a piece from
Today.
[JUN 11]
Cultured has an article about the Christie's auction of Donna's
memorabilia. I imagine we will see more articles about that as we
get closer to the end of the month.
[JUN 11]
MusicConnection.com has an interview with Bob Conti and in it he
talks about Donna (among other things.)
[JUN 11] In musical news, the Gateway Playhouse production of Summer
opens June 16.
Gateway has posted a video with a little bit of rehearsal footage.
[JUN 11] I think that brings us to YouTube. Since tonight is Tony night,
let's do some clips from musicals - either covers, or stuff Donna wrote
for musicals. I made a
whole playlist to make it easier. And as a bonus, here is a
clip of the Broadway cast of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
performing at the Tonys.
[JUN 4] Greetings all and Happy Pride Month! It's a new month so
you know what that means - time for the new
Summer Fever Pick. This month we are yelling "more more more" for
the original Live & More.
[JUN 4] We are still in promotion mode for the documentary. So for that
we have
Brooklyn on ET the other night, we have an
interview
with her for QRO, another interview for
PopCulture.com, and one for San Diego
Entertainer Magazine. Then Brooklyn and Roger are interviewed
together for
Deadline.com, and the
LA Times.
[JUN 4] Of course all the publicity for the documentary has people
speculating about a biopic. Now, none is planned at this time, but the
name that comes up all the time as potentially playing Donna is anyone
does a biopic is Kelly Rowland.
ET
asked Brookyn about that, and
Tamron Hall talked to Kelly Rowland about it.
[JUN 4] Reminder for Boston - Donna Summer Day is June 16 this year.
There will be music and roller skating from 6 to 9pm in City Hall Plaza.
Usually some of Donna's family is on hand for the party too.
[JUN 4] As you know Christie's is auctioning off some of Donna's stuff
this month. All the items are now posted on the
Christies site - costumes, shoes, sunglasses, awards, photos,
handwritten lyrics, artwork... so much to look at! There are 147
lots you can look at (or even bid on!) I'm pretty sure that Donna
owned more than 147 things LOL so maybe if this auction does well,
there will be another? Or maybe there are other plans in the works?
[JUN 4] Speaking of Christie's, they added an article about Donna to
their website. You can find that
here.
[JUN 4]
Gateway Playhouse here on Long Island is running Summer: The Donna
Summer Musical later this month. (I have tickets for the 17th!)
Casting
has been announced finally. The three Donnas will be Renee
Marie Titus as Diva Donna, Afra Hines as Disco Donna and Grace Capeless
as Duckling Donna. Afra Hines was in the original Broadway cast
and even went on as Disco Donna a number of times.
[JUN 4] Moving on to Johnnyswim news. The duo will be performing at
AmericanaFest in Nashville this September. The event goes from
September 19 to 23 and you can check out the complete list of performers
on
the website.
[JUN 4] Also in Johnnyswim news, it looks like they are filming
more episodes of their cooking show for Magnolia. Don't forget -
if you signed up for HBOMax (now just MAX) to see Love To Love You Donna
Summer, a quick search on the service for Johnnyswim will give you a
list of all their Magnolia series and you can check them all out if you
haven't had a chance before. Oh and if you have seen their
original series, The Johnnyswim Show, when it first came out, you might
remember that episode 3 originally had the wrong closed captions.
It had the captions for some gardening show which was just weird and
sometimes even funny. That's been fixed now. (And I never
could find the cooking show to see if it had the Johnnyswim captions.
LOL)
[JUN 4] I think that brings us to YouTube. I think we'll have some fun
with the auction items. So up first is lot #10 in action - Donna
performing at
Reagan's inauguration. Up next is lot 22 - the
Romeo dress, lot 94 the dress from the
Lloret de Mar
concert, lot 115 from
Art On Ice, lot 132 seen on
German TV (sorry the sound is rough on this clip), lot 50 as
seen on
TOTP (well, one of the hats was anyway), and lot 59 from
Divas 2000. And of course, special mention goes to lot 60, the
famous
silver goblet that stars don't drink from... LOL
(Actually, I don't think this is the same goblet from the clip but how
could I resist?) Now there are other costumes in the auction that
I remember seeing on tour or whatever, I just didn't find the right
clips on YouTube.
[MAY 27] Greetings all! It's Memorial Day weekend here in the US - the
unofficial start of the summer (Summer? LOL) season. To my
American friends - have a great time this weekend, but take a moment to
reflect on the reason for the holiday - all those we have lost in
service to the country over the years.
[MAY 27] As I write this, Love To Love You Donna Summer should already
be streaming in the UK on Sky. So welcome to the party UK.
:-) Here in the US it is streaming on HBO Max which JUST rebranded
itself as MAX. This transition has not been without a few hiccups,
so if you previously has the HBOMax app on your phone, tablet, or smart
TV, you may have to update the app. Some people even had to delete the
app and reinstall the new version. I have a Roku TV and the app there
updated itself seamlessly, If you watch on the web, the website
changed to Max.com.
And here's the best part - Max has acquired the rights to stream the
Discovery+ shows which of course includes the Magnolia Network. So if
you signed up for MAX to see Donna, you can now also watch all of
Johnnyswim's shows. (That's Home From The Road, The Johnnyswim
Show and In The Kitchen With Abner and Amanda.) If you never got to see
any of those before, now if your chance to check those out.
[MAY 27] In honor of the documentary, there is a new
playlist on
Spotify which includes all the (released) songs used in the film.
The very last track on the list is a newly released track - the "new"
demo of Bad Girls that ran over the movie credits. :-) And when I
say newly released, I mean it. You can buy that demo at all the
usual places. (And yes, the cover art is weird. LOL)
[MAY 27] And speaking of music - I forgot to mention last week that we
now have a collection of mixes of Melody of Love available at
Amazon and the
usual places. So you will want to check those out.
[MAY 27] Back to the documentary. The publicity continues! Well,
that and reviews. So here are some of the articles I have sun into this
week. There is a review on
Yahoo News,
People has an article about Mimi,
BET has an article with 5 things they learned about Donna (no
surprises there for diehard fans),
The Grio has a review,
V Magazine has an article,
The Wall Street Journal has an article (you need to make an account
to see it),
The Independent has a nice long article, and then there is this one
that I find entertaining for all the wrong reasons.
LeeDaily has an article about Donna's daughters that has a few
editing errors that amused me. According to that one, Donna has 3
daughters names Toby Dohler, Manhattan Sudano and Jessica Sudano. Who
knew? LOL
[MAY 27] If video is more your thing, watch Brooklyn on
Allison Interviews, watch Brooklyn and Roger Ross Williams on
Black Film And TV, and then watch
uDiscover Music's piece for the LA Premiere of the documentary. On
and a while ago I posted that Brooklyn was on the A Trip To The Movies
podcast. The video for that is now available on
YouTube.
[MAY 27] As you know, Donna's estate is auctioning off some of Donna's
stuff.
Salon Prive Magazine has an article about that with some interesting
new details. Prior to the auction, Christies will showcase the
collection at their Rockefeller Center location in NY from June 23 to
June 27. AND some highlights will be shown at Christies Los
Angeles location from May 31 to June 3. (That's this week people -
you Los Angelenos get on that! LOL)
[MAY 27] In chart news, the documentary stirred up enough interest in
Donna's music to put 6 of her albums in the R&B top 40 on iTunes and 2
albums in the top 10 Dance albums. Unfortunately, then Tina Turner
passed away (may she rest in a well earned peace) and naturally Tina's
albums took over the charts for now.
[MAY 27] In Bruce Sudano news, (something else I forgot to post last
week during documentary mania LOL) - he did an interview with
Vents Magazine about his latest single, Two Bleeding Hearts.
(The video, by the way, already has over 100,000 views on YouTube.
:-) )
[MAY 27] That brings us to YouTube. If you search YouTube for
Donna clips uploaded this week, you will find any number of clips taken
from the documentary. If you haven't seen the documentary, I am not
going to spoil things by posting any thing more than
this one clip (because it cracks me up! LOL) but if you don't
mind spoilers, then go do some searching on YouTube. In
non-documentary clips, we have Donna's segment from
The John Walsh Show in 2003. (Fun fact - there were 3 guests on his
show that day. But each guest was filmed on a different day, so each
segment was packed with fans of the artist being filmed.) Then there is
the classic club mix of
Melody Of Love (in honor of the remixes coming out on Spotify, etc),
and a just uploaded audio interview with Donna talking about working
with SAW. (Thank you LPJ_IS KOOL). Finally,
If
There Is Music There because I have been enjoying that clip lately.
:-)
[MAY 21] Ok I have seen the documentary... three times actually. I
guess I'm getting my money's worth out of HBOMax this month!
LOL I LOVED it! Brooklyn did a fabulous job! This is her first
time directing and if this is the direction she wants to take with her
career, I look forward to her future projects. She is an excellent story
teller. I have a lot to say about Love To Love You Donna Summer.
And it is far too much to fit on the news page. So I have posted my
comments here in the article
archive for you to see. I kept the beginning of my post pretty
much spoiler free (which might make that part a bit boring - sorry) and
the second half has all the spoilers including a list of all the music
used, and a list of all the people who spoke. If you don't want to
be spoiled - stop reading were I tell you to stop! You have been warned!
LOL
[MAY 20] Greetings all and happy Saturday! Happy documentary day!
And today was also my MS Walk. Unfortunately due to a stomach bug, I had
to bow out of the official walk, BUT I still appreciate all your support
and when I am feeling better you will get a 3 mile walk out of me. So
you are probably wondering why the update is now instead of after the
documentary airs. Well, what else am I going to do on this rainy
Saturday at home? LOL Also, there is a ton of stuff that has come
out in the lead up to the film that you guys are going to want to see.
[MAY 20] But first - the estate has decided after all these years to
part with some of Donna's belongings. Costumes, photos, art pieces,
awards - the family has gone through it all and decided what they want
to part with. So next month, the famous Christies auction house
will have an online auction. Bidding runs from June 15 to June 29 and
there will be viewings in New York from June 23 to June 27. The main
page for the auction
is here, and make sure you click through to the
viewing room, and the
related feature to both read more and to see more of the items.
[MAY 20] On to Love To Love You Donna Summer - the promo! Mimi, Brooklyn
and Amanda were all in New York this week filming things, doing
interviews, and attending a premiere party that looked fun. :-)
So we have Brooklyn was on FOX5 Good Day NY - unfortunately, they have
not posted that video on their website (yet). The girls filmed
something for Good Morning America that will not air until next month.
And ABC News had an
interview with Brooklyn that actually IS on YouTube. The
Associated Press has an interview with Brooklyn and Roger Ross
Williams on YouTube, and
Access Hollywood did a piece with all 3 daughters filmed on premiere
night. (FYI, the wig Brooklyn is wearing is her mom's. She had it
on an Instagram story the other day.) And NPR has a
podcast with an interview with Brooklyn. That starts at 12:27. (Oh
and while you are bopping around YouTube, be warned. I saw a few links
purporting to be links to the full documentary. They are NOT. They are
all scammers just trying to get you to click through to their scam
websites. )
[MAY 20] Looking at print publicity, FOX news has
this article (which may have come from the Good Day NY show),
Awards Daily has an interview,
Forbes has an article,
CNN has an article,
Billboard has an interview with Brooklyn,
LA Times has an interview with Brooklyn,
Jezebel.com has an article, and
UDiscoverMusic has a list of 10 things they learned from the film.
(Don't worry about spoilers in that one - some the things they learned
are things we fans have knows for decades - like that Donna toured with
family members, or that she started in Germany. LOL) I'm
sure there are other articles out there that I missed on this list. All
I can say is that if I got to ask Brooklyn a question it would be,
"Which was more exhausting - making the movie, or doing all the stuff
you need to do to promote it?" LOL (Girl - go take a vacation now
- you earned it!)
[MAY 20] Oh and one more print article courtesy of
People is about Donna's daughters. They just give a quick
overview of all 3 girls. (And just a side note - remember that little
girl from the Live & More album who came out to say goodnight? Yeah,
she's 50 now. Show of hands - who feels old now??? LOL)
[MAY 20] In the land of photos - head over to
Getty Images to see a bunch of photos from the premiere party for
Love To Love You Donna Summer. All 3 girls were there with their
husbands and in Mimi's case with her kids as well, Bruce was there with
his wife, Mary was there, and so was Taihisha. Mary posted some
video on her Facebook group and it looked like a great time was had by
all. They closed the night with a disco dance party.
{MAY 20] Songwriter/Producer Bruce Roberts has said that this year, he
would like to put together a bunch of stuff he and Donna were working on
in her last years and release it as an album. You can hear
what he said here. I would take it with a pinch of salt
though. As much as he might like to do a project like that, there are
bound to be legal hurdles and such that are out of his control. So
fingers crossed that it does happen, but I'm not going to work myself up
into a frenzy for it yet. :-)
[MAY 20] In the Donna is everywhere category, RuPaul recently gave
Architectural
Digest a tour of his home. In it he has a "disco room" that has
(among other things) a photo of Donna on the wall.
[MAY 20] Moving on to YouTube.... the TV show, The Midnight Special has
an official channel and in honor of the documentary they created a
playlist of Donna's appearances on the show. (And here is Mary
Hart's
introduction to the playlist). One special treat in the
playlist is Donna and Lou Rawls duet of
Swing Low Sweet
Chariot. Also on YouTube, the full
1980 TV Special.
[MAY 14] Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! So this week we
mark the 11th anniversary of Donna's passing. (Can you believe it?) and
then this weekend we have the debut of Love To Love You Donna Summer on
HBO on Saturday. (The same day as my
MS Walk - it will be a full Donna Summer day for me!) A little
birdie told me that Donna's girls will be in NYC this week doing press
on May 17 and 18, with a possible appearance on Good Morning America on
May 17. So keep your eyes and ears open this week. :-)
[MAY 14] Speaking of publicity for the documentary, Brooklyn did an
interview for People that you can
read online. (It includes some pictures of her and Donna at various
times - Brooklyn was a cute baby! :-) ) She also did an episode of
the A
Trip To The Movies podcast. (That link offers the option to
either listen to or watch the podcast. As of right now, the watch link
is not working for me. But the listen link works just fine and
gives you several options of where to listen (Spotify, Apple podcast,
etc). An if you want a fun little clip, there is a
YouTube short with Brooklyn singing a couple of lines from Bad
Girls.
[MAY 14] We also have a couple of new articles about the documentary.
The first is a short one on
ThatEricAlper.com, and the other is a much longer ( and more
intriguing) one on
MovieWeb.com. Then
48Hills.org posted an article that is partly about the film and
partly a reprint of a 1999 interview.
[MAY 14] Oh, and I should break down where you can watch the documentary
if you are outside the US. In the US as you know HBO/HBOMax (just
recently rebranded as MAX) has the streaming rights. In Canada it
should debut May 20 on Crave, and in the UK it debuts May 27 on Sky
Documentaries and NOW. I don't have info for other countries -
other than a handful of articles that are thinly disguised ads for a VPN
company. Having said that, if you have a VPN or access to a proxy
server (Google is your friend), then you can watch things that are not
from your home country. Now here in the US, MAX is a paid service,
but you can get a free trial, or you can pony up for a subscription and
then cancel it if you have no further need for the service. (I do
stuff like that all the time! Actually, I think it may be time for
a purge of some of my recently unused subscriptions...) After the
film airs, I will try to keep this main news page mostly spoiler free.
[MAY 14] In Bruce news, it's all about Two Bleeding Hearts.
IndieMusicReviews.net posted an article abut the single, and so did
TopBuzzMagazine.com.
[MAY 14] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, a YouTube
short of
Nickelbag Annie. Then we have a reconstructed video by
LPJ_IS_KOOL for
Love To Love You Baby, and a clip of Donna and the cast of the Mac
Davis 1978 TV Special singing a cover of Stevie Wonder's
Sir Duke. (You may have noticed that al of these clips came
from the same YouTube channel. :-) This is a channel you might want to
subscribe to so you can keep an eye on new uploads. ) And in honor of
May 17, I have to share these clips - Donna's cover of
Nether Lands and
Angel by Omega Red (featuring Donna). I firmly believe that
Donna recorded both of these as a way of saying goodbye. And
because that thought just brought me to tears... here's
Could It Be Magic by Donna and Barry to bring back the smiles.
Love you Donna....
[MAY 7] Greetings all and happy Sunday! It's a new month so it's time
for the new Summer Fever Pick. This
month we go on a Fairy Tale High with Once Upon A Time. :-) Also,
it's only 2 more weeks until the Donna documentary hits TV screens, and
only 2 more weeks until my
MS Walk. (So I get to celebrate walking by watching the doc!
:-) ) Speaking of the documentary, now that the trailer is out and
pretty much everybody is posting about it. This link is to the article
on
Playlist.com but pretty much all the recent articles are the same -
the trailer ad a press release. But there is a new interview with
Brooklyn on
SRQ Magazine.
[MAY 7]
WhatRecords.com is listing a very limited Pride edition of Love To
Love You. It's a 12" vinyl in rainbow colors that includes the full
version of Love To Love you, the 12" version of I Feel Love and the 12"
version of Hot Stuff. It gives a release date of June 2 but it also says
it's out of stock with no link to pre-order. So the question is, was it
originally up for preorder and it is sold out already? Or is there no
preorder and it's just out of stock because their copies haven't arrived
yet?
[MAY 7] Bruce Sudano fans - catch his interview on
Celebmix.com to promote the new single Two Bleeding Hearts.
And if you haven't already, check out the video while you are there.
[MAY 7] Long Island area fans - the
Gateway Playhouse in
Bellport is running Summer: The Donna Summer Musical from June 16 to
July 16. Tickets are onsale now, but there is no word yet on casting.
(They will probably announce that soon. Their first show of the season,
Evita, just opened and plays until the end of the month. So I would say
that as that production winds down, info on Summer will start turning
up. ) If you are coming from off Long Island to see the show, I will
warn you now that public transportation on Long Island is pathetic. Your
own car is pretty much a requirement here. But if you are thinking of
taking the LIRR from Manhattan, you want to take the Montauk line to
Patchogue and NOT Bellport. (Bellport trains are few and far between and
if you find one that works for you, it's still about a mile and a half
walk to the theater through mostly residential streets.) Then you
would need to Uber to Bellport. There are plenty of places
to eat in Patchogue and a few in Bellport as well, but you will need to
plan your visit very carefully.
[MAY 7] That brings us to YouTube. Let's look at some clips to celebrate
our new Summer Fever Pick. First up, a rip of the promo,
Selected Cuts From Once Upon A Time. Then we have a video for
the song
Once Upon A Time, a Suecase Hall video for
Rumor Has It, a video edit for
Working The Midnight Shift,
Fairy Tale High from the 1980 TV special (with Mimi), a
liveandmore video for
Queen For A Day, and finally
I
Love You live on The Tonight Show.
[APR 29] Happy Saturday all! This is a very exciting week! The trailer
for the Donna Summer documentary dropped FINALLY! If you haven't seen it
yet (or even if you have LOL)
go watch it right now! Go ahead, I'll wait. In fact, I'm gonna go
watch it again right now. LOL We get to see the whole thing on
HBO/HBOMax/Max/whatever they will be calling themselves on May 20th at
8PM Eastern. It the UK, Bruce said it would air on Skye.
[APR 29] Along with the trailer for the documentary... (must resist urge
to stop and watch it again... LOL) we have a couple of new interviews
with Brooklyn and Roger Ross Williams because the film was airing at IFF
Boston last weekend. The
POV Magazine interview is a great one to explain the thought
processes behind how they approached the documentary, and
The Guardian interview has a couple of bombshells about events that
are talked about in the film. I recommend both!
[APR 29] In other Donna news, I've talked before about the new book
called
Donna Summer La Voce Arcobaleno by Andrea Bufalini and
Giovanni Savastano. Well, someone posted an
unboxing video of the book on Instagram. Check that out to see how
absolutely beautiful the book is. The book is in Italian only right now,
so if that is not your language, find yourself a cute Italian guy or gal
to help you out. ;-)
[APR 29] In the Donna's music is everywhere (sort of), late night talk
show host James Corden ended his show after an 8 year run just the other
night. He opened his final show with his own version of
Last Dance with modified lyrics. It was fun. :-)
[APR 29] Moving on to Bruce. We have two new interviews with him. The
first is a
video interview for On The Sofa With Esther where they talk about
many things. This is the interview in which Bruce says Skye will
be airing the documentary in the UK. The other interview is a print one
for
American Highways and in it Bruce talks about the new music.
[APR 29] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up we have a new
video for
Love To Love You on Donna's official channel. This one is done with
animation and it came out really well! Then we have the donna Summer
Discography channel which acquired the 10" acetate of Last Dance.
He posted the
complete unedited transfer on his channel - complete with the usual
vinyl hisses and clicks - and then he added a cleaned up recreation of
the acetate. He's got one video with the
fast parts of the song and one with the
edits from side two. And finally we have a German TV
performance of
Love To Love You. Check out her gold platform boots - that just
screams the 70s! LOL
[APR 23] Greetings all! Let's start off with the documentary. It
will play on the opening night of
IFFBoston on April 26. And only a few more short weeks until
we get to see it streaming on HBO! Speaking of the documentary, a
clip has surfaced on YouTube that was shown on French TV. It
is a home video that was reportedly used in the documentary. Judging by
the comments, the original audio that went with the clip was replaced by
Can't Understand.
[APR 23] In other Donna news, look for Another Place And Time released
as a
picture disk on July 7. I'm sure that will make the vinyl
collectors out there happy. :-)
[APR 23] Johnnyswim fans - episode 3 of their cooking show aired on
Magnolia today. (All episodes are available to stream on the Magnolia or
Discovery+ apps.) And if you are on their mailing list, the recipes
should be sitting right there in your email box.
[APR 23] Bruce Sudano fans - Bruce is currently in the UK touring with
The Zombies. Of course tours usually mean promotion, so check out
this interview Bruce gave to
The Telegraph. (The article is behind a paywall. You can sign
up for a free trial to get around that, or use
12ft ladder, or check
Bruce's
Facebook post.) This is an unusual interview - it's under the
category of "fame and fortune" so it focuses on the business
side of Bruce's career.
[APR 23] I think that brings us to YouTube. This week I am looking at
interviews where Donna's paintings are the focus. First up an
interview for
channel 4 news, then we have
Lifestyles Of The
Rich and Famous, an appearance on
Regis and Kathie
Lee, and a
news report about one of Donna's exhibits. As a bonus clip, I have
Giorgio talking about Donna with his own artistic vision of Donna on
display.
[APR 16] Happy Sunday all! This week we start off with Bruce's new
single, Two Bleeding Hearts with Valerie Simpson. (You know - the
surviving half of Ashford and Simpson.) You might remember that they
performed the song at Sugar Bar in NY a few weeks ago. Now the
single is out along with the
official video (which looks like it was shot on the Sugar Bar
stage.)
[APR 16] Also in Bruce news, he hits the road with The Zombies this week
in the UK. Check the
dates on his
site. If you are looking to attend one or more of these shows, get
your tickets NOW. Some venues are sold out already and others are close
to it.
StoakesMedia.co.uk
has poste an interview with Bruce to promote the tour, the music, and
the Donna documentary. (That's coming out the end of May.) The interview
runs about 20 minutes, so leave yourself time to listen.
[APR 16] Johnnyswim fans - their cooking show is on Magnolia. Episode 2
ran today, and as they did last week, they sent out the recipes from the
show in their newsletter. I will give you my standard warning - do not
watch the show when you are hungry! LOL
[APR 16] Looking at the movie, Spinning Gold, it's still in theaters
with no streaming plans announced yet. Having said that - going by
some of the fan comments I have seen, the theaters have been pretty
empty so it will probably stream sooner rather than later. There
is another
interview with Tayla Parx ("Donna Summer") on YouTube talking about
her role in the film.
[APR 16] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's do a few random
clips this week. First up, an acapella video of Donna singing
La
Dolce Vita while traveling, followed by
the version that was ultimately released. Then we have
I'm A Rainbow
(because Bruce talked abut that in his interview), and
Starting Over Again from The Tonight Show (also talked about by
Bruce in his interview.) And for good measure, here is Bruce's version
of
Starting Over Again. And finally,
Begin Again
from Ordinary Girl. (I know the beginning is a bit long and dramatic
because of its part in the musical, but once that one kicks in I love
the energy!)
[APR 16] And finally, I know I haven't been as vocal about this as usual
this year (lots of stuff going on in my personal life at the moment) but
I am walking for MS again this year on May 20. If you'd like to
donate, my
link is here. And THANK YOU to those who have already donated!
[APR 9] Greetings and Happy Passover, Happy Easter, and Happy Sunday
all! First up , Johnnyswim's In The Kitchen With Abner and Amanda has
finally hit TV screens (although the series has been available to stream
for awhile now.) And now that their cooking show is on TV, they have
added the
recipes to their website. (Pay close attention to Amanda's very
precise measurements. LOL)
[APR 9] In Bruce Sudano news (and Donna news) check out
episode 49 of A Journey Through SAW where they talk to Bruce
about Donna's career in the 80s. (It starts about 44 minutes into the
podcast.) People with
paid
subscriptions to the podcast have access to more exclusive content
about Donna's singles with SAW.
[APR 9] Spinning Gold is still in theaters and
ScreenRant.com has posted an interview with Tayla Park - the screen
"Donna". I did pause a coupe of times where (when asked if she had been
able to speak to the family about Donna) Tayla mentioned that Donna's
daughter is still alive. I'm assuming she meant Mimi just based on the
time frame the movie covers, and all I kept thinking was "Why would
anyone think Donna's daughter WASN'T still alive? " I mean, it's not
like the Casablanca story happened in the dark ages. LOL Then
later, she says something about Donna having a daughter and a son.
I feel like when I watch this movie, I'll need to have a notebook and
pen in hand.... LOL (Hmmm.. I wonder if I have time to see it next
weekend?)
[APR 9] Moving on to books... as you know Andrea Bufalini and
Giovanni Savastano (both long time Donna fans from Italy) have written a
book about Donna's career, Donna Summer La Voce Arcobaleno. It's
been available from the
Italian Amazon store, and now it is hitting other bookstores across
Italy. They had a book launch in Rome and Pete Bellotte himself
sent the guys a video. (He also wrote the preface to the book.) If you
are in Italy - keep an eye on your local media. You just might find the
guys on the radio, on TV, or in the newspaper talking about Donna.
:-) If you are on Facebook, you can follow the
page
for the book and keep up with all the promotion. Now I will warn
you, so far the book is only available in Italian (but if that's not
your language, the awesome photos will still make it worthwhile.) And
you can always write to the publisher to request that they publish in
other languages as well. I'm sure if they get enough requests for
English, French, German, etc to make it financially worth their while,
they would do it. Now on Facebook, the posts are in Italian but
mostly Facebook has been automatically translating them to English for
me. I'm thinking if your default language is something else,
Facebook would translate to that? Any outside links will be in Italian,
so if that's not your language then find yourself a cute Italian boy (or
girl) to help you out. ;-)
[APR 9] I think that brings us to YouTube. Since it's Easter
Sunday, let's look at a few of Donna's religious songs. First up,
Amazing Grace - 2 versions put together in 1 fan video. Then
we have
Riding Through The Storm from VH1,
When I Look Up
(duet with Darwin Hobbs), and finally we have a
compilation video with Rejoice, Amazing Grace, and a medley from the
Mac Davis Show.
[APR 2] Greetings all and Happy April! Spring is here which means we are
a little bit closer to seeing the documentary on HBO. :-) It also
means that it's time for a new Summer
Fever Pick. This month we remember, I Remember Yesterday.
[APR 2] While we are still (EAGERLY!) waiting for Brooklyn's
documentary, we have another film to see in the meantime. Spinning Gold
is out in theaters now. But not for long. I read on the USA Today
site that it will be in theaters for 45 days then it goes to video on
demand and finally streaming. Now reviews have been... well, not
what many have hoped for. I personally haven't seen the film yet, but I
have seen a couple of fan's posts about it and there are abundant
factual errors with Donna's part of the story at least. (I'm sure that
would carry over to other artists as well, but I don't really follow any
die hard KISS or Parliament fans.) As far as professional
reviews go,
RogerEbert.com gives it 1 and 1/2 stars, the
NY Times doesn't give stars but it does say the script is flawed,
the
LA Times says the film hits more wrong notes than right ones,
and
Rotten Tomatoes has an aggregated rating of 4.6 out of 10 from the
critics (with 31 reviews in) and a verified audience score of 4.3 out of
5 with fewer than 50 ratings in.
USA Today actually did a "fact checking" article about the film, but
their fact checking consisted of asking Tim Bogart about some of the
stories portrayed. And then there is
Victor Willis of the original Village People (he was the cop)
and he is NOT happy with the film at all. (Some of that MIGHT be sour
grapes because Village People was not really included in the film. And
Billboard Magazine has an article with Bogart's rebuttal. ) All that
being said, I will probably go see the movie - if not in theaters, then
when it hits streaming. And for those who would like to check out
the soundtrack, it's on
Spotify (among other places.)
[APR 2] For those interested in the artist portraying Donna in Spinning
Gold,
DMagazine.com interview Tayla Parx on what it was like to portray
Donna.
[APR 2] For those interested in the artist portraying Donna in Spinning
Gold,
DMagazine.com interview Tayla Parx on what it was like to portray
Donna.
[APR 2] Johnnyswim fans - their show In The Kitchen With Abner And
Amanda will hit TV screens on April 9 on the Magnolia Network. It
has been available via the Discovery + app for awhile now, but if you
haven't been able to catch the show yet, not is your chance. (They make
some really yummy looking stuff - I don't recommend watching it when you
are hungry. LOL)
[APR 2] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's look at some clips related to our new Summer Fever Pick. First up, I Remember Yesterday live in 1977. Then we have a fan video for Back In Love Again, Love's Unkind live, Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over) from a TV appearance, and the alternate recording of Can't We Just Sit Down. And finally, I Feel Love live in 1977.
[MAR 26] Greetings all! Let's start off with movie news - nope not the
documentary (yet). The Neil Bogart/ Casablanca Records pic
Spinning Gold officially opens Friday (March 31). Of course there
is publicity in the run up to the release.
Variety has an article,
Yahoo has one, and of curse there is the
Spinning Gold YouTube channel that has a spotlight on
Donna clip. Even Spotify has a couple of songs from the
soundtrack already including
Last Dance by Jeremy Jordan and Tayla Parx.
[MAR 26] Now in documentary news, the film played at CPH:DOX in
Copenhagen this week. Out of that came an
interview with Roger Ross Williams. Then we have a
Daily Beast review from the SXSW showings.
[MAR 26] Boston - save the date! The annual Donna Summer Disco Party
will be Friday June 16 from 6 to 9 pm at City Hall Plaza. They will have
the roller skating rink. :-)
[MAR 26] In Brooklyn Sudano news (that isn't the documentary LOL),
she is in a Lifetime movie called Every Breath She Takes that aired
today, and will re-air on April 1. (You can also see it on demand on
Hulu, SlingTV, Philo and frndly.)
[MAR 26] In Bruce Sudano news,
DailyPopNews.com posted a nice review of Make The World Go Away.
HollywoodDigest.com also posted a nice review. Don't forget his
UK tour
with the Zombies starts in just a couple of weeks.
[MAR 26] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up is a new clip from
Suecase Hall called
A
Donna Summer Sampler. It's a really nice compilation (almost 22
minutes!) showing some of the many sides of Donna. It's
really well done, so check it out. For other clips, let's look at
Some Donna unplugged. So there is
On
The Radio from 1994, the unreleased
So
This Is Lonely, an acoustic version of
Bad Girl,
Anyway At All,
Worth The Wait, and of course the version of
Dim All The Lights from Live & More Encore that starts off "unplucked".
[MAR 19] Happy Sunday all! As you know the documentary played last
weekend at SXSW. That resulted in a couple more reviews - one from
Variety, and one from
Quelle Movies. We also got some promotion from Brooklyn and
Roger Ross Williams on
Deadline.com and
Hollywood Reporter. Look for Love To Love You Donna Summer to
also hit the
Sarasota Film Festival on March 31 and the
Hot Docs festival in Toronto which runs April 27 to May 7.
[MAR 19] In release news, The 40th anniversary edition of She Works Hard
For The Money is officially available for buying or streaming at all the
usual places.
[MAR 19] In Johnnyswim news - Abner is taking a short break from social
media, so Amanda is using this opportunity to cook up a birthday
surprise for him. Check out her
Instagram post and then contribute to her project. She's got a
really cool idea.
[MAR 19] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up - a
fan made video celebrating the documentary. And in honor of the 40th
anniversary release of She works Hard For The Money, let's look at Donna
performing the title track (along with the interview)
on
Johnny Carson. Then we have Donna and Onetta talking about the
creation of the song in the film
Off The
Menu, and She Works Hard For The Money from the
Broadway musical.
And finally
a
video that includes the Unconditional Love Love and an interview
from UK Breakfast TV.
[MAR 12] Happy Sunday all! And Happy Oscar night to the movie fans
out there. Let's start off with movie news this week. Love To Love
You Donna Summer is playing the SXSW Festival as we speak. So far
I have seen 1 review come out of the event and that was from the
Austin Chronicle. Brooklyn is at the SXSW festival, of course,
along with her sister Mimi. Getty Images has a
bunch of photos from the event.
[MAR 12] Johnnyswim fans - they have added the
Catbird
Festival in Bethel NY to their list of concerts. That takes place
August 19 to 20.
[MAR 12] That brings us to YouTube. Since it's Oscar night - let's
look at some movie related clips. First up, Donna singing
Last Dance at the Oscars, followed by
Paul Jabara winning the trophy for Best Original Song. Then we have
Donna singing
Papa Can You Hear Me at the 1984 Oscars. Up next is a compilation of
clips of Donna from the movie
Thank God It's Friday,
No
Ordinary Miracle from the film Let It Be Me (audio only), and
The Power Of One from Pokemon the Movie 2000. And here's a rare
bonus from the Brooklyn Dreams. It's called
You Got Me
Believing (written by Donna and Bruce) and it can be heard over the
end credits of the movie Foodfight. The link goes directly to the song,
but you can watch the whole film on YouTube if you really want to..
I warn you though, the film is not well regarded. The featured review on
IMds gives it only 1 star and I have a feeling that the reviewer would
have given less if they could. LOL
[MAR 4] Greetings all and Happy Saturday! It's a new month so it's time
for a new Summer Fever Pick. This
time we are looking at Four Seasons Of Love. That seems pretty
appropriate right now because I swear I have experienced all four
seasons over the last couple of weeks. I think Mother Nature is
off her meds.... LOL
[MAR 4] Let's start with the documentary. That will be
playing at SXSW on March 11, March 12 and March 15 in Austin.
So if you are in that area, check it out. And I am sure that
following those screenings, we will have more reviews.
[MAR 4] In other movie news, Spinning Gold - the story of Neil Bogart
and Casablanca hits theaters on March 31. In preparation, they have
released a second trailer for the film which you can
watch on YouTube.
[MAR 4] And finally in movie news, the film Magic Mike's Last Dance,
which used Last Dance so prominently in the trailer, actually does NOT
use the song at all in the film. The fan who reported that also
was not overly fond of the film itself but, of course, everyone's taste
in movies is different.
[MAR 4] On to the music now - in the category of "how did I get so old?"
LOL She Works Hard For The Money was released 40 years ago.
And like the other albums that have hit the big 4-0 already, there is a
digital deluxe release. You can
read the press release here, but I will tell you now
that the release is the original 9 tracks plus a remix and an
instrumental each for the title track and for Unconditional Love.
Along with the digital deluxe release, Donna's YouTube channel posted a
remastered version of the
She Works Hard
For The Money video. The video is much cleaner and more
vibrant and has none of the issues we had with the state Of Independence
remastered video. The news show Nightline even had a little piece
announcing the digital release for the 40th anniversary. Pretty
cool!
[MAR 4] Bruce Sudano fans... or perhaps I should say UK Bruce fans... he
will be performing with The Zombies in various locations in the UK from
April 18 to May 5. The dates and venues are listed on
Bruce's
website and if you want to go grab your tickets now because some
venues have sold out already. I saw him open for the Zombies here
some time before COVID and it was a good time!
[MAR 4] That brings us to YouTube. Well, why not celebrate She Works
Hard For The Money? First up the title track performed at the
1984 Grammys. Then we have
Unconditional Love at Disney, audio only clips for
Do Believe ( I Fell In Love) and
Love Has A Mind Of Its Own. And finally a video slideshow for
He's a Rebel - one I included because this is the most bizarre
slideshow I have run into. I don't think there is one
Donna-related photo in the whole thing! LOL
[FEB 26] Greetings all! Well, the Berlin Film Festival went well and we
got a bunch of reviews for the documentary out there. Before I get
to what the pros have to say, there were some fans at various screenings
and they said that the theater was packed, that the film was very
moving, and that Brooklyn and team should be very proud. From all
accounts, the documentary is about the woman behind the music as opposed
to being about the music itself. So now in no particular order, here are
some of the reviews that have surfaced already:
Hollywood Reporter,
POV,
Little White Lies,
In Review Online,
Eye For Film, and
Deadline.com.
[FEB 26] I forgot to mention above that one person who saw the
documentary revealed that it used a previously unheard demo of Bad
Girls. Just to clarify - it was not the one that came out on the Deluxe
edition of Bad Girls. There are a couple of photos online from the
Berlin Film Festival - you can access them
here. (And yes, that is Mimi with Brooklyn in one of the
pictures.) Next stop for the documentary is the SXSW festival -
screening times are listed
here. And of course it will start streaming on HBO/HBOMax in May.
(If you don't have a subscription to those services, you can usually
grab a free trial. Or you can subscribe for a month and then turn it
off.)
[FEB 26] There is a new YouTube channel out there called
Donna Summer Discography. It is a fan created channel focusing on
rare and out of print singles and compilations.
[FEB 26] In the everybody is a fan category, I just found out about this
song by Collaborati called
When Donna Sang
Last Dance. The song is about a relationship that started when the
couple danced to Last Dance. There are also some sly references to other
Donna songs sprinkled in the lyrics.
[FEB 26] Johnnyswim fans - the duo is reuniting with Drew Holcomb and
the Neighbors (under the name Goodbye Road) for the
Moon River
Music Festival on September 9 in Chattanooga, TN. The festival is
already sold out (That was QUICK!) but you can sign up for the waitlist.
[FEB 26] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, a video
called
How Donna Summer Changed Pop Music Forever. It's about I Feel Love -
of course. :-) Then we have a video of the
released demo for Bad Girls set to a slideshow of photos. And here's
one for all you wig fans - someone on YouTube
recreates the On The Radio wig all while talking about Donna's
career. And if you want to hear something really weird, a guy who
claims to communicate spirits in the afterlife posted a video where he
says that
Donna says her name in her own voice. If you can hear it, you have
better ears than I do! LOL After that, I have to leave you with
something good - how about Donna at the
Royal Albert Hall
in 1987 as broadcast on Capital Radio?
[FEB 19] Happy Sunday all! As you know, the
Berlin Film Festival is happening now with the Love To Love
You Donna Summer documentary due to be shown on Tuesday, Wednesday and
Friday. Brooklyn is there - she posted a photo of herself on
Instagram enroute. There are a few German fans going as well, so
hopefully we'll get some fan reports soon. I imagine we will get
to see a trailer sometime too, but I don't know if they will hold back a
public release of the trailer until closer to the HBO air date.
[FEB 19] Record Store Day hits the UK Saturday April 22. They usually
have some sort of Donna something available, and this year it will be
celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Hard For The Money tour with a 2
lp clear vinyl release of
A Hot Summer Night.
[FEB 19]
GoldDerby.com has picked its top 20 songs of the 70s. Bad Girls is
Donna's contribution to the list.
[FEB 19] Bruce Sudano fans - check out his interview with
NeuFutur.com. In it, he mentions that he is finishing up his new
album called, Talking Ugly Truth, Telling Pretty Lies. (Now that
is an intriguing title. :-) )
[FEB 19] Also in Bruce news, he recently made an appearance at open mic
night at The
Sugar Bar in New York City. The whole show was
streamed on Facebook. Lots of very talented people performed, but if
you don't have over 3 hours to watch the whole thing, then you can
find Bruce at the 33:50 mark with Two Bleeding Hearts - a duet with
Valerie Simpson (of Ashford and Simpson fame!) It's a beautiful song -
make sure you check it out. And then look for a special sneak
appearance by Mary Gaines Bernard at the 2:24:15 mark with a little bit
of On The Radio.
[FEB 19] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's take a
look at some duets today. First up is Enough Is Enough. I could
have picked the version with Barbra. I could have picked the one with
Tina Arena. I could have even found one of the live versions with Mary.
But this time I am sharing the
version with Westlife. Then we have the suet with Liza Minelli,
Does He Love You, Donna with Seal on
Crazy and On The Radio, and Donna with Joss Stone on
Try A Little Tenderness. And finally Donna's duet with Dave
Koz on
A
Whole New World. I know some people might not see that as a duet
since Donna is the only vocalist, but I have always felt that Dave's sax
IS his voice on that song. So I count it as a duet.
[FEB 19] And finally, I am walking for MS again this year. I'll be
walking at Jones Beach on May 20 with as many of my teammates as I can
gather. My
link is here, and if you happen to notice I'm not the captain
this time, it's only because my friend was more organized than I was and
signed up right before I did - so she became captain. (It doesn't matter
- we have always been a rabble! LOL But we get the job done!) Thank you
all for your support - be it financial or just good wishes. You guys
have always been amazing all these years.
[FEB 12] Greetings all and Happy Valentine's Day (a little early).
As you know the documentary about Donna premiere's very soon in
Berlin at the film festival. So I hope that means a trailer for the fill
will turn up very soon. In the meantime, a couple more news
outlets have posted about the documentary. There is no new info, but you
can read the articles at
MixMag.net,
NME.com, and
AmericanSongwriter.com. Also, the documentary was previewed at Sir
Lucian Grainge's pre-Grammy showcase.
HitsDailyDouble.com has a photo with Bruce and Brooklyn at the
event.
[FEB 12] In other news, long time fans Andrea Angeli Bufalini and
Giovanni Savastano have written a book about Donna called Donna Summer:
La Voce Arcobaleno. Da Disco Queen A Icona Pop. As an extra bonus,
there is a preface by Pete Bellotte. It is currently available for
pre-order on the
Italian Amazon website. It is currently ONLY available in Italian,
but I am sure if the publisher has enough demand, it will eventually be
translated into other languages. (And even if it's not - the photos
alone may make it a worthwhile purchase for fans. ;-) )
[FEB 12]
Yardbarker.com has posted its list of the best double albums of all
time. The first one on the list is Bad Girls. :-)
[FEB 12] Bruce Sudano fans - Bruce has posted another
live song on Facebook. This one is about getting lonely on the road.
[FEB 12] As you know Bruce just performed for the On The Blue Cruise,
and
Goldmine has posted their report about the line up of
performers.
[FEB 12] Johnnyswim fans - they put a bunch of
merch on sale
last week for Valentines Day. There is still some stuff left, but
it's going fast.
[FEB 12] I think that brings us to YouTube. Since it's Valentine's Day
this week, I guess our theme should be love. So let's start with
Whenever There Is Love, followed by
Love Is The Healer. Then we have
Love On And On, and
I Got Your Love.
And of course we can't forget
Love To Love You, and
I
Feel Love. Since today is Superbowl Sunday here, let's throw
in
Stamp Your Feet as a bonus. For those of you enjoying the game
today - I hope it's a good one!
[FEB 4] Greetings all and happy Saturday! I hope my east coast friends
are all staying warm! This sudden blast of cold is quite the shocker
after being so unseasonably warm most of January. So first up -
it's a new month so that means it's time for a new
Summer Fever Pick. This month we are doing A Love Trilogy - not a
bad choice for Valentine's Day. :-)
[FEB 4] Now for the BIG news of the week. Love To Love You Donna
Summer is the name of the bio Brooklyn (and company) has been working on
for....? It feels like forever. LOL It is making its debut at the
Berlinale film festival in Berlin this month. (It runs February 16
to 26.) Then it comes to
SXSW in Austin next month. (That runs March 10 to March 19.) And
then.... look for it to hit
HBO and HBOMax
in May! Now I know not everybody has HBO. But the cool thing is
that you can usually get a free 7 day trial. HBOMax is also currently
one of the channels that is available if you have Amazon Prime. I
also assume that at some point the bio will be available for sale. Tina
Turner has a bio on HBO Max a couple of years ago, and I see that
available for sale or rent now on Amazon. Looks like we will have a
great summer... I mean Summer ;-) to look forward to!
[FEB 4] Also in documentary news, look at the writeups in
Vibe and
RollingStone. May can't come soon enough!
[FEB 4] In other news,
Newsbreak.com has an article about No More Tears (Enough Is Enough).
[FEB 4] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's celebrate the new
Summer Fever Pick. First up, a video for
Try Me I Know We Can Make It. Then we have
Wasted (with lots of bubbles that just gave me an idea
for my own photography LOL) from a TV appearance, a live
performance of
Come With Me, and
Could It Be Magic from TopPop. And finally Donna & Barry on
Could It Be Magic just because I will use any excuse to play this!
LOL
[JAN 29] Happy Sunday all! Let's start off with Stock Aitken and
Waterman this week. They have been the subject f a UK Legends Of
Pop documentary.
Part one is here and
part two is here. Donna's work with them is covered in part
two, but I recommend watching both while you can. There is a good chance
they could get region locked or out right removed for copyright. In
other SAW content, a viewer poll selected the top SAW tracks - This Time
I Know It's For Real took the top spot. But more importantly when
the TV show ran
the clip, they included some extras - like extra demo vocals that
were not used in the finished track. (You can see the extra vocals in
the SAW documentary too.) AND there is a
podcast on Spotify talking about This Time I Know It's For Real. So
lots of good stuff this week for SAW fans.
[JAN 29] Musical fans - Summer: The Donna Summer Musical is coming to my
home theater - The Gateway in Bellport NY. (I have been going there
since I was a kid, and I have been a season ticket holder for I
can't even guess how many years now.) Tickets are
on sale now for the June 16 to July 16 run. Casting is
something we won't know until much closer to show time. But keep an eye
on their
Facebook page - sometimes in the run up to a show they thrown
in some behind the scenes video of rehearsal or whatever. I will
say that the Gateway theater is pretty small so there really isn't a
terrible seat in the house. Middle is always better than the sides
- but that's true most places. (I already know I'm there June 17
with my mom, so if you see me feel free to say hi. I might even sneak in
some other nights as well. I'm on the verge of early retirement so I
might have some extra time on my hands around then. :-) )
[JAN 29] Bruce Sudano fans -
Vents Magazine gave his latest single, Make The works Go Away, a
really nice write up.
[JAN 29] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's celebrate
Donna's work with SAW this week. First up is This
Time I Know Its For Real live on Live & More Encore. Then we have
Love's About To Change My Heart from Club MTV, the video for
When Love Takes Over You,
I
Don't Wanna Get Hurt from TOTP, and
Breakaway live in Brazil.
[JAN 22] Greetings al! The big news this week is Bruce's new
single/video. It's called Make The World Go Away. You can check it
out on
YouTube and all the usual places. And I highly recommend that you
do. It's got a nice grove to it that just sucks you in. I could
definitely see some radio play in this song's future.
[JAN 22] Also in Bruce news,
he will be
performing on the On The Blue Reunion Cruise (sailing out of
Miami) this coming Saturday January 28.
[JAN 22] In other news,
Collider.com listed 7 musical movies debuting this year.
They included Spinning Gold even though that's not technically a
musical. But it should include a bunch of music from the various artists
on the Casablanca roster.
[JAN 22] In Brooklyn Sudano news... sort of... finally info about
season 2 of Cruel Summer is available. As you know Brooklyn
was in the original 2021 season, and although it was decided
almost immediately that there would be another season, no actual details
have surfaced until now. Unfortunately, they have decided that the
series will be an anthology so that means new cast, new location and new
plot for season 2.
[JAN 22] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's do some
interviews for a change. First up - a
20 minute segment
from 1987 courtesy of the UK's Sky TV. Then we have the 1978
interview with
Rona Barrett, a
Signed Media
interview from Donna's later years,
Part 1 of a
1994 VH1 interview followed by
Part 2, a
2008 interview for
On Time TV,
and finally a 2003
unedited interview with ET.
[JAN 15] Happy Sunday all! Let's start off with an announcement from
Bruce. He has a new single/video coming out Friday January 20
called Make The World Go Away. (It will be available at all the
usual places.) If you are on Facebook, you can see the single's
cover art on
Bruce's page. Go look at it because the cover art all by
itself is powerful. Can't wait to hear the song!
[JAN 15] In the everyone loves Donna category, Barry Manilow had been
touring and one fan who caught the show in Fort Lauderdale reported that
Barry paid tribute to Donna during the show. He started playing
Could It Be Magic and then noted that Donna covered it as a dance song.
(For those who don't know, Barry's original version if a ballad.)
Barry joked that when he first heard Donna's version he wasn't sure he
liked it. But then it went to number 1 and he loved it. LOL
He followed that with his own dance version of Could It Be Magic.
I imagine it sounded
like this - only without a duet partner. (I could play that
clip forever! I'm not even exaggerating. LOL)
[JAN 15] Speaking of people who love Donna - Lisa Marie Presley was a
big fan. She unfortunately passed away this week and I would like to
extend my condolences to her family, friends and fans. Another one
lost too soon. Stampyourfeet put together a
video tribute to Lisa Marie that starts with her comments about
Donna.
[JAN 15] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, a
roughly 30 minute piece called The Untold History of Disco. Yes,
it has Donna in it - how could it now? LOL But more interestingly,
it traces the rise and fall of the genre and the legacy it left behind.
Then we have Donna's live version of
Could It Be Magic from 1994. After that is Donna's complete
2005 performance at
Night of The Proms in Belgium and clips from Donna performing with
the Nashville
Chamber Orchestra, (Gotta love donna with an orchestra!) And then
just for fun, we have the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra taking a stab
at
Hot Stuff. (The conductor seems to be having a blast!)
[JAN 08] Greetings all and happy Sunday. SO the beginning of the
year means it's time for websites to start ranking ... well just about
everything. LOL Let's start off with
Rolling Stones' highest rated disco albums of all time. They
put Bad Girls at #3. Let the debating begin. LOL
[JAN 08] Then Smooth Radio ranked the
top 30 female singers of all time ranked in order of pure vocal
ability. (So they say.... get ready for the debate. LOL)
They put Donna at #21 - right between Diana Ross (#22) and Stevie
Nicks (#20). While I disagree (in some cases pretty strongly LOL) with
the order they places these artists, I do have to give Smooth
Radio credit for covering a pretty decent range of time with artists
like Billie Holiday on one end and Beyoncé on the other end.
[JAN 08] Back to Rolling Stone - they have ranked the
200 greatest singers of all time (male and female). And here's
an interesting point the article makes - they are ranking singers and
not voices. So it's less about the voice the artist has/had and
more about what they do/did with it. That would explain (sort of)
how Axl Rose could rank higher than Barbra Streisand. LOL Donna
came in at #122. You notice I keep joking about people debating these
lists, in the case of this article, the debate went further than the
comments section and social media. My local paper posted an
article about reactions to the Rolling Stone article. Mostly it is
complaints about artists who were omitted from the list - with a very
Long Island perspective. (Hey, they left Billy Joel off the list. Billy
Joel is to Long Island is what Springsteen is to New Jersey. LOL) The
article is here, but it is behind a pay wall. I have to admit that I
have a hard time taking most of these lists seriously - so much is
subjective especially when you are trying to compare acts from multiple
eras and from multiple genres. I mean, how can you really compare
Axl Rose to Barbra? Or Loretta Lynn to Ozzie Osbourne? They are SO
different that comparison is pretty much meaningless. But the
debates can be fun.
[JAN 08] I think that brings us to YouTube. In honor of the Summer
Fever Pick, let's take a look at the Love To Love You album.
First up, Donna talking about
Love To Love You.
Then we have a performance of the title track from
The Midnight
Special, a Suecase Hall video for
Whispering Waves, a lyric video for
Pandora's Box, and a lyric video for
Virgin Mary
(which was included on some European versions of the album.) Finally,
here's a bonus version of
Pandora's Box from Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (sung by Storm
"Duckling Donna" Lever).
[JAN 01] Happy New Year all! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. There
is really nothing going on this week except for an
article posted on Yahoo looking at Donna's best songs - with the
emphasis on her disco classics.
[JAN 01] Moving on to YouTube, we have a sort of random selection
this week. First up is a video look at
Donna's Billboard Top 200 Albums chart history. Each album is
presented as a graph and it's pretty cool to see "the Bad Girls
era" when Live & More was still on the top 200, Bad Girls joined it, and
then On The Radio joined both - so we had 3 albums going at once.
:-) It was also pretty cool to see a bunch of albums pop back up on the
chart in 2012 - a couple of weeks after Donna went home. Also on
YouTube is the latest from Q - it's the final offering of his Other Side
Of The Rainbow project and it's his
Forever Donna mix of I Need Time. We also have a 1978
appearance on the
Merv Griffin Show promoting Once Upon A Time. And finally we
have a clip I don't remember from Top Of The Pops with Donna performing
State Of Independence.
[JAN 01] Oh, I almost forgot - the new
Summer Fever Pick is up. This month we celebrate Love To Love You.
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