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FranLovesBetteD — 13 years ago(July 08, 2012 12:16 PM)
Well, thank you for such a nice, detailed answer! The CDs are arriving in about 10-12 days, and I'm eagerly waiting for them! Donna was such a wonderful artist, and I'd love to own everything she did in the '70s and early '80s. Too bad that her I'm a Rainbow album got out of print. My most favorite song of hers is in it: Romeo, just like another that I love: Melanie.
I guess I'll have to end up buying I Remember Yesterday from iTunes, even though I'm from the "old school" and prefer to own the material thing, I mean the CD, and don't want to buy one that is used, LOL.
I just hope that some DVD including all of her videos will be released some time, as well. I've been watching them on YouTube, but I'd love to see them in HD and on TV!
Animal crackers in my soup
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop -
pvd295 — 13 years ago(July 09, 2012 07:54 AM)
OK - this is trivia for the old folks like me who were a teenager when most of her 70s music was out (I think Beekham is from my generation? : ) )
"Greatest Hits -'On The Radio' - Volumes 1 & 2" was first released as the double LP (though oddly no gatefold cover like 'Bad Girls' or 'Live and More'). It was the beautiful purple/fuchia art-deco cover and released in November, 1979 (in time to capitalize on 'No More Tears' and the Christmas season). Trivia
The inside of the album jacket contained a wall-size poster of Summer. It was about three feet long and two feet wide. It was an out-take from the photo session. I still have mine (though with a few rips in the creases and tape marks over it) tucked inside the jacket cover.
The album was later released as 2 separate records in December 1979/January 1980. The original cover photo was cropped, and "Greatest Hits On the Radio Volume 1" had (I believe) a white border around it, while "Greatest Hits On The Radio Volume 2" had a gray border around it. Volume 1 had most of her hits from 1975 - 1977 with the single edit of 'On The Radio', while Volume 2 had 1978-1979 hits, with the extended version of 'On The Radio'.
I never bought the two separate vinyl records, so I don't know if they used the full edits of the songs or the shortened edits like on the double LP (beckham, anyone - any info?). Though they were more moderately priced than a double LP, I don't think the separate editions sold as well as the double LP. I remember seeing them in stores until the mid 80s, when the CD revolution began. To my knowledge, the separate volumes were never released on CD.
Also, when Summer left Casablanca for Geffen in early 1980, Neil Bogart was none too happy and had something planned to steal Summer's thunder away from Geffen. When she released the highly anticipated album 'The Wanderer' in October 1980, as well as the title track as the first single that same month, Bogart released another hits package from Summer called "Walk Away: 1977-1980 Collector's Edition".2000 It was a dreary black cover with gold lettering, and became known (purposely) as 'The Tombstone Cover' since this is exactly what it looked like (it was a subtle hint from Bogart to let Summer know her career was 'dead' without him at the helm and she 'walked away' from her contract with Casablanca). It contained Summer's hits from 1977-1980, with the extended versions (unlike the previous 'GHOTR-V1&2') of most of her songs, including the single 'Walk Away' from her 'Bad Girls' LP.
'Walk Away' didn't do well at all on the singles chart ( I think it peaked in the 60s), as 'The Wanderer' rose to #3. The album 'Walk Away' didn't do that well either, I believe just grazing the Hot 100 albums, while 'The Wanderer' peaked at #13.
You could say this ploy by Bogart completely backfired on him.
Paul Ryan's proposal is a budget that goes against the teachings of Jesus. -
FranLovesBetteD — 13 years ago(July 09, 2012 08:41 AM)
Thanks so much for sharing! I'm 33, but grew up listening to Donna's songs, especially from the She Works Hard for the Money album, which my older sister owned on vinyl and I still treasure very dearly.
Over the years, once I started to go dancing at nightclubs and such, I began to know more of her work, and loved all of her songs. Every Saturday night (I'm talking about late '90s, early '00s) the nightclub I used to go to would play "Bad Girls", "Hot Stuff" and "I Feel Love", which was my most favorite given its ethereal, hypnotic atmosphere. I haven't gone to dance in a few months, but I'm sure most nightclubs around here are still playing his songs even more often now, after her passing.
As for the compilations, I first thought of getting "Greatest Hits -'On The Radio' - Volumes 1 & 2", but I noticed that it includes edit versions more than anything else, just like "The Journey". I think I might purchase both in a near future because of its beautiful art-covers though!
Animal crackers in my soup
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop -
3_Beekman_Place — 13 years ago(July 09, 2012 12:07 PM)
Yea i guess I am the same generation as you pvd, cause I remember all that too! Though I remember when On The Radio was split up and sold in 2 seperate albums the cover borders were gold and silver, not gray and white. I also have the poster that came with the double album. She was in a white outfit and (ironically) smoking a cigarette through a holder! One thing I noticed on the poster and album (and you can google images "Donna Summer on the radio poster" and see it) was that Donna must have been barefoot because the shoes look like they were added later and look "cartoon-ish"!
I wonder what was up with BOTH Neil Bogart and David Geffen. I have never really heard any negative stories about Donna from any Hollywood people except these two! (Although she had trouble with producers SAW and no follow-up to Another Place.. happened). I think Donna loved to write songs and wanted to sing those songs. She only seemed to come into conflict when it was about her music and image. I've only heard nice things about Donna by others. In fact, Donna worked with Neil's son on her last album Crayons and his wife, Joyce Bogart wrote a lovely tribute to Donna after she died. It seemed like some men wanted to control her and her "Sex Goddess-ness!". Strange since isn't Geffen gay? lol I never heard the "tombstone cover" story but that makes perfect sense knowing the cover of Walk Away (that was always one of my fav cuts from Bad Girls). I know he was insisting she owed him more music and Casablanca/Mercury/Polygram/Universal Music sure re470leased more "Hits" collections than we needed! lol Karma hit both Bogart and Geffen Bogart with the Walk Away mess and Geffen with his shelving Rainbow and the Quincy album and then Donna scoring her biggest 80's hit (She Works Hard..) for her old label the following year! HA! -
pvd295 — 13 years ago(July 10, 2012 11:57 AM)
Though I remember when On The Radio was split up and sold in 2 seperate albums the cover borders were gold and silver, not gray and white.
Now I'm confused so I did a bit of searching
There are sellers on ebay and other auction sites selling these rare vinyl records. Some are still factory sealed, some are not.
Some have BOTH Volume 1 and Volume 2 in the silver (what I called gray) borders. Some have BOTH Volume 1 and Volume 2 in the gold border (which I don't recall at allI just remember there were two different colors, and one was the gray/silver).
Can it be Casablanca released the two separate albums in both borders - making it four different choices for the buyer (S/G; G/S; S/S; G/G)?
Or were there different colored borders/releases in different countries/continents?
OK Beekmanthis is your assignment which may become a 'Mission Impossible!'
One thing is certain
All of them have Volume 1 begin with the 'short version' of 'On The Radio' and end with 'Last Dance'.
All of them have Volume 2 begin with 'MacArthur Park' and end with the long version of 'On The Radio'.
Neither album is/was available on CD.
Paul Ryan's proposal is a budget that goes against the teachings of Jesus. -
Mayville97 — 13 years ago(December 13, 2012 02:21 PM)
I'm not sure if anyone mentioned it, but try getting the VH1 DVD/CD compilation. It's a live set she did and she does some of her classics and her voice is perfect, as well as the bad. Sound quality is super.
Donna Summer - VH1 Presents: Live & More Encore! -
3_Beekman_Place — 13 years ago(December 14, 2012 07:12 PM)
After thinking about is for a bit, I think it was the double lp for about a year. But I also think sometime around Christmas they broke it up into the silver and gold bordered ones to lower the cost. I don't remember them being full on glossy silver & gold but maybe Casablanca got cheap as the years went on and when they went to budget price lps they just printed white borders. I don't know who makes these kind of decisions (most likely someone at the record co.) but I always said I could do a 100% better job!. All the nice images of Donna from that time, they could have made vol. 1 the original On The Radio cover and the picture from the poster as vol. 2! or even changed the back to a song list and put the back cover artwork from On the Raido (Donna in vintage car) as the cover of vol. 2! It's obvious at Casablanca they only wanted to squeeze every last dollar from her with as little cost as possible!
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pvd295 — 13 years ago(January 04, 2013 09:40 AM)
You could be 100% right. They may have released it as separate volumes by the Fall of 1980, when Summer had released 'The Wanderer' and trying to capitalize on that publicity.
Don't forget, just a few months prior (in the Spring of 1980, when Summer went with Geffen) they released 'Walk Away', with the black album cover which (I say
purposely
) looked like 'a tombstone'. It was billed as the 'collector's edititon' and covered her singles from 1977-80. They also released "Walk Away" as a single back then (with no success) a year after it's parent album ("Bad Girls") was released. The album went nowhere, since fans already had all those songs.
I guess they figured one more shot - let's do two single albums of GH ?
"I prefer fantasy over reality TV - like Fox News" - B.Streisand -
WarpedRecord — 12 years ago(May 25, 2013 11:08 PM)
Good point about the "Walk Away" compilation looking like a tombstone, and what kind of name is "Walk Away" for a greatest-hits package anyway? Though I must say that is one of my favorite Summer songs, and it should have been a major hit.
I much prefer to have Donna's music in the context and sequencing of the original albums, though I also have many of those compilations because of the remixes, packaging and other flourishes. I love the fact that the songs on the first three sides of the "On the Radio" compilation are mixed, so there's no gap between the tunes. I also think the 12-inch compilation "The Dance Collection" is superb, but I suspect most folks buying that would already have the original albums. -
pvd295 — 12 years ago(July 06, 2013 08:54 PM)
I must say, I kind of enjoyed all her 80s albums more than her 70s albums (which I do love) because her Geffen era gave her a chance to experiment with more styles. The only albums I don't love are from the 90s - "Mistaken Identity" and "Christmas Spirit".
"I prefer fantasy over reality TV - like Fox News" - B.Streisand