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INTRODUCTION

‘Donna Summer is one of the most underrated singers in the history of pop music’ -  Dick Clark

LaDonna Adrian Gaines was born on New Year’s Eve, 31st December 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Andrew Gaines & Mary Ellen Gaines (née Davis).

Donna was the third of seven children, six girls and one boy, and in her autobiography, Ordinary Girl: The Journey, she described her mixed heritage as ‘something like African, Indian, and Dutch-Irish’.

‘I was raised in a three family house that was like an orphanage,’ said Donna. ‘Besides the seven kids in my family, there were eight children on the two other floors of the house. We always had the best back yard in the neighbourhood - all the others would come to our house to play.’

As a young girl, Donna joined the Grant A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) Church’s junior choir. ‘I never wanted to do anything but sing,’ she said. ‘And that’s all I ever tried to do well. I was never a good student - unless my parents said that I couldn’t sing unless I got this or that grade. Then I studied.’

The church choir director refused Donna’s pleas to sing a solo, ‘because when I screamed, I screamed loud. I just wasn’t getting it out right. So that’s when I would go to my parents’ bedroom to do breathing exercises, and listen to Mahalia Jackson records.’ Finally, aged 10, she got her opportunity to sing in public for the first time, when the Grant A.M.E. Church choir’s soloist was taken ill, and her mother volunteered Donna to sing in her place. Donna sang a popular Christian gospel song, I Found The Answer.

Seven years later, during her last year at high school, Donna joined a rock band. ‘I was in a rock ‘n’ roll band called the Crow,’ she said, ‘not to be confused with Counting Crows. You can guess who the crow was - I was the only black one in the group - we were kind of in the vein of Janis Joplin. We wrote songs with very hippy, kind of psychedelic lyrics.’

After she turned 19, Donna travelled to New York with the Crow, where she - but not the other band members - was offered a recording contract by RCA. The band cut a few demos for RCA in August 1968, but Donna was spared having to make a difficult decision when a friend introduced her to Bertrand Castelli, the Broadway producer of the musical, Hair. She auditioned to join the cast, and was offered the role of understudy to Melba Moore - but Donna wanted to be onstage, not watching from the wings.

When she was offered the chance to join the cast of one of three European productions of Hair, Donna plumped for Germany ahead of England and France, as her father had served in Germany during World War II, and both her parents spoke fluent German. She accepted a six month contract without telling her parents; when he found out, her father was furious, and he only agreed to his daughter travelling abroad after he had spoken at length to Bertrand Castelli.

On 28th August 1968, three months shy of her twentieth birthday, Donna boarded a plane bound for Munich, Germany. Six months later, she re-signed for another 18 months, and travelled from Berlin to Vienna with the cast of Hair. On her return to Vienna, she performed on stage in two more musicals, Porgy And Bess and Showboat.

In Vienna, Donna met an Austrian actor called Helmuth Sommer - the pair had actually met before, briefly, when Donna joined the Berlin cast of Hair, at the same time Sommer was in the choir. Donna was offered a lead part in the Hamburg production of The Me Nobody Knows, and Sommer joined the cast as well; the two grew closer, and eventually became lovers.

Together, Donna and Helmuth joined the cast of Godspell, and toured through German speaking countries with the musical. They went on to do a show in Italy, called The Black Experience, but neither enjoyed the experience and when the show closed, they returned to Vienna – and married. Their daughter, Mimi, was born in Munich on 16th February 1973.

The marriage didn’t last. ‘It was simply that he and I come from very different backgrounds,’ said Donna, explaining why she and Helmuth split up, ‘and we never really got to know each other well enough to stay together, but we’re still good friends.’

Donna was contemplating how she could juggle her career and being a single mother, when a friend told her about a producer, who was on the look-out for new voices. His name: Giorgio Moroder. Donna sang a few songs from Hair, and other shows she had appeared in, for Moroder and he liked what he heard. Donna sang on demos for Three Dog Night, and although she wasn’t really looking to get into the business at a recording level at the time, she cut three solo songs with Moroder and his partner, Pete Bellotte.

Moroder took the songs to the MIDEM international music festival in Cannes, France, and sold all three. One, The Hostage, became a Top 10 hit in several European countries. The follow-up, Lady Of The Night, was also a hit in several countries.  However, it wasn’t until early 1975 that Donna came up with the one line that would change her life: ‘I’d love to love you.’

Moroder immediately had Donna cut what she thought was a three minute demo of Love To Love You, which he took to MIDEM in January. At the music festival, he met Neil Bogart, founder and owner of Casablanca Records.

Bogart liked the demo, and he took it home with him and played it at a party - over and over again, such was the demand. After sitting on the demo for a while, Bogart contacted Moroder - and asked for an extended, twenty minute version of the song; and Bogart insisted the only person who could sing the song was whoever had sung the demo.

So Love To Love You Baby, as the song was re-titled, was born - and Donna was on her way to becoming an international superstar.

This book follows the same format as the previous For The Record books I have written/co-written with Chris Cadman, and documents Donna’s career under a number of headings:

• Part 1: The Songs.

• Part 2: The Albums.

• Part 3: The Home Videos.

• Part 4: The Musicals, Films & TV Shows.

• Part 5: The Concerts.

• Part 6: The Autobiography

• Part 7: Chartography & Chart Runs.

• Part 8: USA Discography.

• Part 9: UK Discography.

I wholeheartedly agree with Dick Clark: Donna is one of the most underrated singers in the history of pop music. She is my no.1 female singer of all-time, and I have thoroughly enjoyed researching and writing this book about her music ~ I hope you enjoy reading it.

Craig Halstead.

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