| Released: April, 1979 (Casablanca) Produced by: Giorgio Moroder & Pete Bellotte Peak on the US Billboard 200: 1 (6 nonconsecutive weeks*) Peak on the CashBox 200: 1 (5 nonconsecutive weeks) |
| Side One | Side Two |
|---|---|
| Hot Stuff Bad Girls Love Will Always Find You Walk Away |
Dim All the Lights Journey to the Center of Your Heart One Night in a Lifetime Can't Get to Sleep at Night |
| Side Three | Side Four |
| On My Honor There Will Always be a You On My Honour All Through the Night |
Our Love Lucky Sunset People |
*Bad Girls battled Supertramp's Breakfast in America album for the top spot during the summer of 1979 before Get the Knack was released.
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| Billboard, May 5, 1979, p. 78 |
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| CashBox, May 5, 1979, p. 15 |
Robert Christgau (Village Voice)
You tend to suspect anyone who releases three double-LPs in eighteen months of delusions of Chicago, but Donna is here to stay and this is her best album. The first two sides, four songs per, never let up--the voice breaks and the guitars moan over a bass-drum thump in what amounts to empty-headed girl-group rock and roll brought cannily up-to-date. Moroder makes his Europercussion play on side four, which is nice too, but side three drags, suggesting that the rock and roll that surfaces here is perhaps only a stop along the way to a totally bleh total performance. Me, I still love my Marvelettes records. A-ed. note: Mr. Christgau writes a C plus review then gives the album a grade of A minus? That's why I love the guy's reviews.
| U.S. Billboard charted singles: | Hot 100 | Disco | R&B | AC |
| Hot Stuff | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| Bad Girls | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Dim All the Lights | 2 | 1 | 13 | 44 |
| Walk Away | 36 | 35 |
| 22nd Annual Grammy Awards | ||
| "Hot Stuff" | Best Female Rock Vocal Performance | Won |
| "Bad Girls" | Best Female Pop Vocal Performance | Nominated |
| "Bad Girls" | Best Female R&B Vocal Performance | Nominated |
| "Dim All the Lights" | Best Disco Recording | Nominated |
| Bad Girls | Album of the Year | Nominated |
To call this thing a concept album about prostitution might be a stretch, but let's go there anyway. It's easier to call it a concept album about sex. I was twelve when this released so both sex and prostitution were things we didn't discuss at our house (I was a preacher's kid). That made this forbidden music which made it that much more attractive to me, naturally.
The first LP (sides 1 & 2) is a great stand-alone album that sees disco moving to a slightly harder sound - Giorgio Moroder sure knew what he was doing. Tracks are carefully segued with no breaks just like a good DJ would mix it, so there's no need to skip any of those tracks. In addition to the three hits ("Bad Girls," "Hot Stuff," "Dim All The Lights"), I'm particularly fond of "Journey to The Center Of Your Heart" and the funky chorus of "One Night In A Lifetime." We're not as lucky with side three which bogs down with ballads. Not that Summer can't pull off a good ballad, but that's not why I buy her music. Side four gets us back with a return to the more synth-oriented sound that hearkens back to "I Feel Love." The album ends with the wonderful but overlooked "Sunset People."
I didn't own this album when it was released. I mistakenly thought there wasn't much need to own it since I could hear the hit songs on the radio (bad pun intended). A single album (sides one and two with "Sunset People" subbed in for "Love Will Always Find You") would have easily rated a grade of A+, but I had to dock the thing a few points for side three.
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| "Ma’am, who is this Queen of Disco?" (SNL, 4/15/2000) |
The first LP (sides 1 & 2) is a great stand-alone album that sees disco moving to a slightly harder sound - Giorgio Moroder sure knew what he was doing. Tracks are carefully segued with no breaks just like a good DJ would mix it, so there's no need to skip any of those tracks. In addition to the three hits ("Bad Girls," "Hot Stuff," "Dim All The Lights"), I'm particularly fond of "Journey to The Center Of Your Heart" and the funky chorus of "One Night In A Lifetime." We're not as lucky with side three which bogs down with ballads. Not that Summer can't pull off a good ballad, but that's not why I buy her music. Side four gets us back with a return to the more synth-oriented sound that hearkens back to "I Feel Love." The album ends with the wonderful but overlooked "Sunset People."
I didn't own this album when it was released. I mistakenly thought there wasn't much need to own it since I could hear the hit songs on the radio (bad pun intended). A single album (sides one and two with "Sunset People" subbed in for "Love Will Always Find You") would have easily rated a grade of A+, but I had to dock the thing a few points for side three.
Note: much of this post's content has previously appeared on this blog. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
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