NEWS ARCHIVES

2024

[SEP 30] Happy Monday everyone! A special shoutout to all the people who were affected by Hurricane Helene.  I hope everybody is ok - I can't even believe some of the photos I have been seeing. If anyone is in a position to help the victims of Helene, USA Today posted a list of legit charities that are accepting donations.

[SEP 30] The first order of business in Donna-land this week is the new Summer Fever Pick. For October we will be celebrating A Love Trilogy.

[SEP 30] Many of you may remember that there was a Donna Summer block party in Boston a little while back. For it someone painted a huge mural of Donna that is still there on the side of the Black Market in Nubian Square in Roxbury. WGBH Radio did a report on it recently which you can check out here. There are quotes from Mary in the report as well. If you go visit Boston, go see the mural - it's something like 50 x 60 feet!

[SEP 30] There is a new Book coming out on October 15 called Disco: Music, Movies And Mania Under The Mirror Ball by Frank Decaro.  [Amazon affiliate link]  This is a coffee table book that (among other things) includes an un released interview with Donna from 1999.  The author has a Facebook video where he does an unboxing of his copy of the book. It looks really nice.

[SEP 30] Donna's official YouTube channel has been posting HD remasters of her videos lately. The most recent one is for I Don't Wanna Get Hurt (which unfortunately doesn't actually feature Donna in it.)

[SEP 30] Speaking of official Donna sites... be very cautious on social media sites. There have been a ton of scammers out recently - mostly they are t-shirt vendors hawking unauthorized merchandise, but there have also been imposter accounts. The latest is an account on Facebook calling itself "Donna Summer" and claiming to be Mimi using her mom's name. It's NOT Mimi. Here's the deal.... when you are looking at accounts for Donna (or Bruce, or Johnnyswim, or really any celebrity) - look for that blue checkmark that indicates that the account is verified. If you are already following any (or all) of those artists, then be suspicious of new accounts showing up with their names. And in the case of family, NOBODY in Donna's family is going to randomly start posting under a new account with Donna's name. They will use their own name, or have whoever has the keys to the official verified account post there. Seriously, the scammers are out in force lately. Don't be taken in.

[SEP 30] Moving on to Johnnyswim,  the spring tour tickets are on sale now for the When The War Is Over Tour. (Tickets for the Christmas tour are also on sale now.) There are also VIP tickets available for the shows. Johnnyswim tickets (and the VIP packages) tend to sell out quickly, so if you want to go to one of these shows, better get your tickets now before they are gone! And if you have never seen Johnnyswim live before - GO! They put on a great show!

[SEP 30] In Bruce news, he's posted his latest Album By Album video. This one is about Ode To A Nightingale.  I think that's the last one except for the new one, Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty lies.

[SEP 30] That brings us to YouTube. Let's  watch some clips celebrating the new Summer Fever Pick.  SO we have the video got Try Me I Know We Can Make It, a live clip of Wasted,  and Come With Me and Could It Be Magic from Don Kirshner's Rock Concert.  As an added bonus - Donna and Barry Manilow live on Could It Be Magic because I love any excuse to share that video.  LOL

[SEP 24] Happy Tuesday all!  And Happy Birthday to Bruce who celebrates a little later this week!

[SEP 24] Let's start this week with some disappointing news. If you missed Bruce's announcement - he unfortunately had to cancel his upcoming tour dates due to a flare up of a nerve condition that causes debilitating pain when he performs.  The plan is to reschedule the shows, so watch for an announcement when that happens. In the meantime, if you have tickets for a cancelled show, contact your point of purchase.

[SEP 24] In other Bruce news, his new video for Under The Gun is out now on YouTube.  He has also posted a new episode of Album by Album - this one about Spirals Vol 2,  and just today he also added the 9th installment of the Brooklyn Dreams series Stages And Stories. This one covers the period after Heaven Knows.

[SEP 24] You can also catch Bruce in an interview for the Celeb Savant podcast available on Spotify and all the other places you get your podcasts. Please note that this was recorded before he had to cancel the tour.

[SEP 24] Moving on to Johnnyswim... They have a new single out called Los Feliz. Check  out the live performance on YouTube. This song is from their upcoming album,  When The War Is Over which is due out on February 7. (Pre-save it at your favorite music service.) With the new album comes new merch which can be pre-ordered on Johnnyswim.com.

[SEP 24] And I'm sure none of you will be surprised to learn that Amanda and Abner will be touring to support the new album. They have posted a whole bunch of spring 2025 dates on their website, and of course VIP packages will be available as well. They also have their Christmas tour coming up in December and Silobration on October 12.  Tickets for the spring tour go on sale Friday, and if you are on their mailing list (and you should be) keep an eye out for a message with a code for the presale which I believe starts tomorrow.  By the way, Johnnyswim is calling the Spring tour part 1... you know when there is a part 1, that means there has to be a part 2 in the works. So watch for an announcement of more dates.

[SEP 24] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's see, since I was travelling last week why not look at songs about different places. So we have  a liveandmore video for Driving Down Brazil, a lyric video for Tokyo,  a video for To Paris With Love, Sunset People from the 1980 TV special, a live performance of In A New York Minute, Don't Cry For Me Argentina from the Hot Summer Night concert,  and finally a lyric video for Denver Dream.

[SEP 13] Happy Friday all! (Friday the 13th - oooo spooky!  LOL)  Just a reminder - next week's update will be late because I will be travelling.

[SEP 13] Let's start off with Donna this week. As you know, Boston.com had a bracket to decide the most iconic artist from Boston.  You guys came through with your votes and Donna is the champion! You can take a look at all the voting along the way using this link.

[SEP 13] In release news, look for an expanded version of On The Radio hitting stores on November 15.  Amazon UK has it listed as a 2 CD or 2 vinyl disk set.  The US Amazon has a  listing for a colored (silver and gold) vinyl set also slated for November 15. [Both of those links are affiliate links that can potentially earn me money. Amazon says I have to make sure you know that.] Townsend Music Store is offering a multi-buy deal where you can get the regular vinyl and the cds for one price - $64.  Click any of those links for photos of the items and for the complete track list.

[SEP 13] Moving on to Bruce - he's been busy on YouTube this week. He uploaded episode 8 of Stages And Stories where the Brooklyn Dreams talk about touring. Then he posted a new Album By Album about Spirals Vol 1.  And then just this morning he released his new music video for Under The Gun.

[SEP 13] Now if live performance is more your thing, Bruce just announced that he will be playing at  the Black Oak Artists 4th Annual All Day Party on September 21.  That will be at Dee's Country Cocktail in Madison, TN. It's free and the party goes from noon to 8PM with Bruce slated for the 12:30 slot.  This in addition to the rest of the tour that starts on the 19th.

[SEP 13] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's do some live concerts this week. First up is  Italy 1977, followed by Japan 1979, Japan 1987, Japan 1991, Chile 1994, Night Of The Proms 2005, and  Long Island 2008.

[SEP 10] Guys - Donna is in the championship round of Boston.com's music brackets.  She's up against Aerosmith which is a great band... but they are not Donna.  LOL  As I write this, Donna is trailing by 182 votes. I think we can fix that! We only have 2 more days (until the 12th) so let's get voting!

[SEP 07]  Happy Saturday all! Just a quick note - I have an out of town visit planned  with a little friend who just turned 2, so the next 2 updates will be a little off schedule. Next week will probably be a day or 2 early, and the week after will probably be a little late. But this is the sort of sacrifice we have to make to teach the younger generation about Donna's music.  ;-)  (Oh and if there are any potential robbers reading this - me traveling does NOT mean my house is empty - so hands off my record collection!  LOL)

[SEP 07] Ok let's start with Donna. The new movie Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is using MacArthur Park in the soundtrack. Actually they use it twice - they play the Richard Harris version and Donna's version. (Listen for Donna over the credits.) Read about the music in the NY Times.

[SEP 07] UltimateClassicRock.com has an article about Skunk Baxter's guitar solo on Hot Stuff.

[SEP 07] Calling all mad voters out there... Boston.com is doing one of those bracket things of Boston music acts. The contest goes on until September 12 and as of this writing Donna is in competition with the band Boston to get to the next level.  The winner of that bracket will face off against either The Cars or The Pixies and then that winner will go to the championship.

[SEP 07] MSN.com just posted a short interview from the Hard For The Money era. It looks like it was part of the promo for the Disney anniversary special she did back then.

[SEP 07] The Photographic Art of Donna Summer by Harry Langdon is out now on Amazon [paid link] as I mentioned last week. I got my copy so I can talk about it a little better. Ok, it's not a big glossy coffee table book. It's on the thin side with a couple of typos ad the photos (in terms of the way they are printed in the book, not in terms of the talent of the photographer) is not always top notch. This is not the effort of a big name publisher, this is put out by a small publisher that tends to serve niche audiences. As to the content of the book - well there are a bunch of photos we've seen before (because of course, they are iconic!) and there are a bunch of cool behind the scenes photos from the On The Radio shoot. There are also some of Harry's memories about the various shoots. If you have even seen his YouTube videos - the text is like that. Just Harry reminiscing. I'm glad I have the book, but frankly some fans have been disappointed. I will admit that it is pricey for its size, but that's what happens sometimes with small publishers that serve very specific audiences.

[SEP 07] Moving on to Bruce Sudano. He's working on a video for Under The Gun from Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies. You can get a sneak peak on Instagram.

[SEP 07] Also in Bruce news, his latest video in the Album By Album series is up now on YouTube. This one covers 21st Century World. There are still more albums to go, so stay tuned to his YouTube channel.

[SEP 07] Just an FYI - there was a fake Bruce Sudano account on Facebook recently hawking t-shirts. I believe that account has been taken down now, but I did want to take the time to remind you that the only place to buy Bruce's merch online is BruceSudano.com. Also, Bruce's music account has a blue verification check. If you see his name and photo, but no blue check - beware! (Also, this situation is not unique to Bruce. There are lots of scammers out there, so be cautious of the links you click - not just on Facebook. I have seen this nonsense on popular YouTube channels too.)

[SEP 07] Oh, I forgot, there is one other legit place to get Bruce merch,  and that's at his concerts. And there are a few of those coming up soon. Go grab some tickets if you haven't already.

[SEP 07] Don't forget that Johnnyswim also has a show coming up soon. They will be in Annapolis for the Songwriter's Festival on September 12. Tickets are available here.

[SEP 07] That brings us to YouTube. In honor of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, let's look at Donna's music in movies.  First up, a video montage of Beetlejuice set to MacArthur Park.  Then we have the Romeo video from Flashdance, a clip of Hot Stuff from The Full Monty, On The Radio from the Foxes movie,  Down Deep Inside from The Deep,  and Ordinary Miracle from Let It Be Me. As a bonus, here's Donna on an alternate version of the Brooklyn Dreams'  Hollywood Knights from the end credits of the movie of the same name.

[SEP 01] Happy Sunday all, and Happy September! (And Happy Labor Day to my American friends!)  It's a new month, so it's time for a new Summer Fever Pick. This month we look at Love To Love You Baby.

[SEP 01] First up - Harry Langdon has finally released his book of photos. It's called The Photographic Art Of Donna Summer- The Creation of Her Music Album Covers. You can grab it on Amazon [affiliate link] or you can just take a look at the sample pages available. I just ordered a copy and I can't wait for it to arrive!   :-)

[SEP 01] RollingStone did a 500 Greatest Songs podcast. The final episode covers I Feel Love and features an interview with Bruce in one of the segments.  (If you want to check out some of the other episodes, they are on iHeart Radio.)

[SEP 01] Speaking of Bruce, His latest episode of Album By Album is up and it covers The Burbank Sessions.  The new episode of Stages And Stories is also up. In this one, the Brooklyn Dreams discuss vocals and instruments.  He even posted a live clip today on Facebook of September In Your Eyes.

[SEP 01] Don't forget, Bruce's tour starts later this month, so grab your tickets if you haven't already. He's promising "special guests" for his New York show.

[SEP 01] In Johnnyswim news,  they will be at the Annapolis Songwriters Festival on September 12.  So go check that out if you are/will be in that area.

[SEP 01]  Here's a video I just ran into, even though it's over a year old.  It's one of those reaction videos where vocal teachers look at a singer's performance and offer their take on it. There have been a bunch with Donna's music, but I found one that looked at  Johnnyswim's live version of Touching Heaven.  The vocal coaches (there were 2 of them in this video) had a lot of nice things to say. (As well they should!  LOL)

[SEP 01] And that will bring us to YouTube.  This week we will look at clips related to the new Summer Fever pick.  So first up is a clip from the documentary with footage from the album release party. Then we have a video for the title track, the original ad for the album,  and a video of Donna talking about Love To Love You.  As a bonus, here's a clip of Donna rapping a bit of Love To Love You in the middle of Bad Girls back in 1999.

[AUG 25] Happy Sunday all! Can you believe August is almost over?  Where did the summer go?  Let's start this week with Bruce. His new single is out now in all the usual places. It's called My Blonde Italian Girl (and I assume her name is Francesca.  ;-) ) He's also got a lyric video for it on YouTube. Here's your fun fact about this song - the cover art was drawn by Bruce's 10 year old granddaughter (Brooklyn's daughter.)

[AUG 25]  Also in Bruce news - he's posted new videos in his 2 video series on YouTube.  Episode 6 of the Brooklyn Dreams Stages and Stories is all about Bad Girls,  and the newest Album By Album is about Angels On A Carousel. For those who don't remember (or who are new to Bruce's music), this is the album he wrote when Donna was sick.  Stay tuned to Bruce's YouTube channel for more videos next week.

[AUG 25] Moving on to Johnnyswim. They've been hanging around in Scotland this week working on a "secret project." (Watch Instagram for more details on that when the time is right.)  While they were there, aside from taking a bunch of photos that you can see on Instagram, they also recorded a video short for She Checks The Weather on location in Edinburgh.

[AUG 25] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, is On The Radio from VH1 Live & More Encore simply because I was out all day yesterday and that song was following me EVERYWHERE!  It was on the car radio when I left the house, in the store when I got there... Apparently the universe thought I needed to hear that particular song, so now you will hear it too.  LOL Then we have the Original Hits Disco Box Remix which is a nice medley of Donna songs, Donna's set at Night Of The Proms Belgium in 2005, and finally Donna's live set in Rotterdam.

[AUG 18] Happy Sunday all!  Let's start off with  Johnnyswim this time.  Their new single, She Checks The Weather, is out now in all the usual places.  For those who haven't heard the song yet (and it was their New Music Monday clip last week), spoiler alert: the song is "an ode to the battle of chronic illness."  I could explain the story behind the song to you, but let Amanda do it...  Check her post on Instagram.

[AUG 18] In Bruce news - he's been posting videos again. He's got a short on the couch clip on Facebook.  But of course he's also added to both of his YouTube series.  Album By Album looks at Life And The Romantic,  and Stages And Stories recounts the Brooklyn Dreams move to LA.  Look for more uploads this week.  :-)

[AUG 18] Oh and one more thing this week.  You may have run into images on social media of Vice President Harris exiting a record store with a record in her hand.  In the original photo she is holding an album by Charles Mingus. HOWEVER - the photo has become a meme and people change that album to pretty much anything they want.  (You can do it pretty easily in a program like Photoshop, or there is even an online meme generator that will swap in a different album for you.) It's fun to play with, but just keep in mind that of you run into the photo and Kamala Harris is holding up a Donna Summer album, it is unfortunately fake.  But I would like to think that the only reason she wasn't holding one of Donna's albums is because she already owns them all!    Should I reach out to her people and find out?  (Dear Harris for Prez people, I don't care about stupid trivial issues like economics, foreign policy, border security, healthcare, civil rights, etc, etc... all I want to know is if the candidate is a Donna Summer fan!  LOL) But on a serious side note, yes it's election season here in the US again. So if you are a US citizen who is eligible to vote, make sure you are registered, educate yourself on the issues and the candidates, and then in November (or October if your area has early voting) get your butt out there and vote for the candidate who likes Donna Summer... I mean, who aligns best with your vision for the country.  ;-) Remember, if you don't vote, you can't whine about the results later.

[AUG 18] Ok, it's time for YouTube.  First of all - hey YouTube. It's really rude to throw me an AD for the 10 Annoying Songs Of All Time when I search for Donna.  For a second I thought they were going to claim that Donna was on that list and I would have to declare war on the YouTuber.  And I don't want to do that... I'd have to go out and buy tar and feathers... LOL  Anyway, moving past the ad, let's look at some early clips of Donna.  First up Black Power from 1970.  (It's from a TV show so there is an action sequence in the middle of the song.)  Then we have a short clip of Nickelbag Annie,  Donna with Family Tree in 1974 (and yes there are some shenanigans with her voice there),  Something I'd Like To Tell You  and Time For Change by Cool Drive Union (Donna's vocals - her sister Linda's photo), If You're Walking Alone (as Donna Gaines), and finally a trippy little ad for Afri-Cola.

[AUG 11]  Greetings all and happy Sunday! First up this week, we are getting a Christmas Spirit vinyl edition this year. It's listed at a number of places as a preorder. Here's the Amazon link  [affiliate link] showing a release date of October 4.

[AUG 11] In remix news, fanmixer Q has made a mix of Donna's cover of Reflections from Divas 2000. Because of copyright issues, YouTube won't let him post it there, so you can catch it on Facebook.

[AUG 11] Moving on to Johnnyswim... (BTW - Happy birthday Amanda!) The latest New Music Monday is up for your listening pleasure. This one is called She Checks The Weather. It's a beautiful ballad featuring lead vocals by Amanda. I think tomorrow they should be due for another episode of Say Grace.

[AUG 11] Also in Johnnyswim news, they are gearing up for a Christmas tour this December. The dates are on their website, and if you are subscribed to their newsletter (and you should be if you are a fan!) you should have received a code to get your tickets early.

[AUG 11] In Bruce news this week, he just did the Celeb Savant podcast. The episode is a tribute to Donna. You can find that podcast in all the places you get podcasts, but here is the link I used when I listened.

[AUG 11] On YouTube, Bruce has added to both of his series. Album By Album talks about Rainy Day Soul. Stages And Stories talks about the Brooklyn Dream album Music, Harmony And Rhythm. Look for new episodes of both series later this week.

[AUG 11] Don't forget that Bruce is on tour this fall. Tickets for Boston just went on sale, so grab them now if you are or will be in that area.

[AUG 11] I think that brings us to YouTube. Since we are saying goodbye to the Olympics tonight, let's see if we can dig up some more clips that go with the theme of Paris. So we have the WaWa Radio Edit of To Paris With Love. Then we have a stampyourfeet video for Donna's studio version of La Vie En Rose (from the Tribute to Edith Piaf CD)  , the French version of Whenever There Is Love , and From A Distance (recorded for the 1996 Olympics) . As a bonus we also have Johnnyswim's Paris In June  and Bonsoir. Thank you Paris for a great Olympics!  And finally since the next Summer Games will take place in Los Angeles, check out Donna's waitress cameo in Frank Sinatra's LA Is My Lady.

[AUG 4] Happy Sunday all! It's a new month, so you know what that means. It's time for the new Summer Fever Pick. For August we are going back to the first album - Lady Of The Night.

[AUG 4] Let's start off with Donna this week.  Smooth Radio decided to post their ranking of Donna's hits. I'm sure none of you will be surprised to see that I Feel Love topped the list.

[AUG 4] In remix news, fanmixer Q has made 2 new mixes of the song clips for Addiction that Nathan DiGesare posted a few years ago. He's got his Garden Of Eden mix, and his Garden Of E-Dance mix.

[AUG 4] Moving on to Bruce, he's also posted some videos this week. On Facebook look for his live version of Bad Girls. Then on YouTube, he's added to both of his video series.   Album By Album covers the Joe Bruce & 2nd Avenue album.  And the Brooklyn Dreams series Stages And Stories covers their debut album.

[AUG 4] I think that brings us to YouTube.  I think in honor of the new Summer Fever Pick we will do some Lady Of The Night clips.  So let's start with the title track from TopPop, then we have The Hostage from Van Oekel's Discohoek, a lyric video for Virgin Mary, and as a bonus, a lyric video for Denver Dream.

[JUL 28] Greetings all - and happy Olympics to those who follow it!  Let's start with Roxbury, MA. They  just held a Summer Of Love Block Party celebrating Donna.  Channel 7 in Boston had a short interview with Omega Red, and check out the beautiful mural in the accompanying photo!  Also, Taihisha shared an Instagram reel about the block party.

[JUL 28] Speaking of Donna, as you know it's the 45th anniversary of Bad Girls. (That's not possible! I bought it when it came out and I'm only 29.... again... and again... and again...  LOL) Anyway, Bruce did the You,Me, And An Album podcast and they talked about Bad Girls.  (My link brings you to Spotify, but you can find it anywhere you get your podcasts.)

[JUL 28] American Songwriter published an article the other day about I'm A Rainbow.  It's not a long article but it does have quotes from Bruce.  He says in the article that had the album been released when it was recorded it probably would have been edited down from a double album to a strong single album.  So you know what that means right? It's time for the fans to argue over which songs would have stayed and which would have been cut.  LOL

[JUL 28] As long as we are talking about Bruce - he's got new videos up.  He has episode 2 of his Brooklyn Dreams series up. This one is called Rose's Candy Store.  He has also added a new video to his Album By Album series and this one is about Fugitive Kind.

[JUL 28] Moving on to Johnnyswim, they are having a Christmas in July special on their website. Currently, select apparel is 20% off the original price.  That makes it a great time to show off your love for team Swim.

[JUL 28] Also in Johnnyswim news, they will be performing in Annapolis this September so the Star Democrat has posted a short interview to promote the show.

[JUL 28] I think that brings us to YouTube.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm all in on the Olympics (the only time I follow sports  LOL)  so let's pick some clips that kind of go with that theme.  So first up has to be To Paris With Love. Then we have La Vie En Rose live in Paris, Stamp Your Feet (the Stor Dubine animated video), and The Power Of One (stampyourfeet's tribute to Mohammad Ali).  Finally as a bonus, One Of A Kind (with alternate vocals) because I have some vague memory of some sports show using the song years ago - and because of course I like versions of songs with extra vocals. LOL

[JUL 21] Greetings all!  Let's start off with Johnnyswim. Their latest Songs With Strangers is posted, but they did it a little differently this time.  They still wrote a brand new song within an hour, but this time they did it with an old friend of theirs who has co-written with them before. The song may even be on the new album that they say they will be finishing this week.

[JUL 21] Also in Johnnyswim news, as you know they did an interview for CBS Mornings hat I posted last week. Well, CBS posted a web extra (that I think is just about as long as the original piece.) In this video they talk about how they came up with Johnnyswim.  Supposedly this story is the truth - but they have been making stuff up for 18 years, so who knows?  LOL (This one does sound plausible and involves Donna, so check it out.)

[JUL 21] Moving on to Bruce - he's been really busy lately!  He's got videos all over the place. On Instagram he posted a bit of Ball Of Fire - a song he co-wrote back in 1969.  And on Facebook he posted some work he did with his Italian band debuting Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies, and a video of Bad Girls that he did recently with the Brooklyn Dreams.

[JUN 21] Take a good look at Bruce's YouTube channel. (And subscribe if you haven't already.)  He's been posting a lot of videos lately - I would call them "getting to know you" videos. There is a series called Album  By Album which so far has episodes on How It Started, and Alive 'N Kickin'. Then the other day he posted a video called How The Brooklyn Dreams Met. It's listed as episode 1, so look for more on that in the future. Also, that one is not just Bruce talking. That's one of the videos they filmed when the guys got together recently.

[JUN 21]  Bruce was also on the Let Christy Take It podcast yesterday.  You can find that on Spotify and all the other places you can grab podcasts.

[JUN 21]  Finally, don't forget that Bruce is on tour this fall. Tickets for Nashville just went on sale Friday.

[JUN 21] I think that brings us to YouTube.  Since this update seems to be Bruce-centric, let's do some clips of Donna and Bruce.  So we have them unplugged on Regis & Kathie Lee with On The Radio, unplugged with So This Is Lonely, and live with Worth The Wait. Then there is the Motown Medley with the Brooklyn Dreams, Donna interviewing them on Bandstand, and Donna just being silly with Bruce making an appearance toward the end of the video.  As a bonus, here is  a soundcloud audio of Donna and the Brooklyn Dreams on an alternate version of Hollywood Knights.

[JUL 14] Happy Sunday all! I guess we'll start with Johnnyswim this week. They have just released a new single called Frank Gehry.  You can watch the video for that on YouTube, And of course you can stream the song on all the usual sites.  Also, Team Swim has been in the studio working on their 5th album - so that is something to look forward to!

[JUL 14] As long as you are streaming, catch Johnnyswim's segment on CBS Morning from the other day.  And also check out the latest episode of Say Grace where Amanda makes Pasta alla Norma.

[JUL 14] Congrats to Bruce on getting 100,000 streams of Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies!

[JUL 14] Bruce posted a couple of new videos this week.  The first one is on YouTube and is called Album by Album and it features Bruce talking about his early days in Alive 'N Kickin'. The other is on Facebook and it has Bruce performing So This Is Lonely.  Some of you may know that song from Donna and Bruce performing it on BBC Radio many years ago.

[JUL 14] I think that brings us to YouTube.  This list is partly inspired by current events here in the US... so first up is Let There Be Peace. Then we have Donna's covers of Let It Be, and New York Minute.  And finally To Turn The Stone.  As a bonus,  Bruce's American Sunset seems fitting this weekend.

[JUL 6] Greetings all and happy Saturday!  It's a  pretty quiet week with the holiday here in the US. First up, Bruce posted a video of he and Randy performing Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies on Facebook.  And don't forget Bruce is gearing up for a tour in September.

[JUL 6] In Johnnyswim news, look for their new video for Frank Gehry on YouTube.  Monday we should be looking for a new episode of Say Grace unless they opted to take a well-earned break for the holiday weekend.   :-)

[JUL 6] That brings us to YouTube. I think this week we will look at Donna's musicals. So first up is the demo for I Will Live For Love from the unreleased musical, Dreamway Express. Then we have Begin Again and No Ordinary Love Song from the unreleased musical Ordinary Girl. Going back in time to Donna's time in Germany we have a Suecase Hall video for Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In from Hair, O segn Gott mein Seel from Godspell, and How I Feel from The Me Nobody Knows. 

[JUN 30] Happy Sunday all! Tomorrow is the start of a new month, so you know what that means - time for the new Summer Fever Pick.  This month we celebrate Donna and musicals.

[JUN 30]  As you know, Thursday was Donna Summer Day in Boston and it looked like everyone had a great time!  Mary Bernard was on hand to sing a few songs again this year and she posted some video on her Facebook page.

[JUN 30] Boston.com asked Donna fans to submit their favorite songs and to share their memories.  The results of their poll are posted online now.  Over 900 people responded to the poll with Last Dance coming out on top.  MacArthur Park took the second spot tied with I Feel Love.  They also shared a bunch of quotes from fans from around the world. (I spotted a familiar name or two in there.  LOL)

[JUN 30] In Bruce news, London Mums Magazine posted an interview with him about Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies. In it he mentions that he may have some dates in Italy with his Italian band in March.  But of course, he'll be touring here in the US throughout the month of September.

[JUN 30] I think that brings us to YouTube. Since Thursday is Independence Day here in the US (and tomorrow is Independence Day in Canada) let's go with that theme. So first up is Donna's video for  State Of Independence and a clip of her talking about the song.  Then we have Donna singing God Bless America, The Star Spangled Banner, and Livin' In America.  Fun bit of trivia, there is a radio station that my friend listens to in her car all the time. At noon they always play something patriotic. and several times when I've been in the car with her, they have played Donna's version of The Star Spangled Banner.   :-)

[JUN 23] Happy Sunday all! And Happy 45th Anniversary to the Bad Girls album.  (Yes, we are all old!  LOL) In honor of the anniversary, Bruce posted a Facebook video of him and the other Brooklyn Dreams, along with Pete Bellotte, talking about the Bad Girls album.

[JUN 23] Don't forget that Thursday June 27 - just a few short days away! - is Donna Summer Day in Boston.  As usual the party takes place at City Hall Plaza from 5 to 9. Members of Donna's family will be there, along with a DJ spinning tunes all evening.  It's free, so if you are in the area be sure to check it out.

[JUN 23] Speaking of events this week, Bruce fans will want to catch him this Tuesday June 25 on Folk Project's Streaming Tuesdays. The show is free, but you do need to get a ticket to watch and you will have 24 hours to rewatch it at your convenience.

[JUN 23] Moving on to Johnnyswim news, their latest Songs With Strangers is up.  This one is called It Starts With A Step Or Two and it was inspired by a story about a fan who had a "missed connection" with another fan at a recent concert.

[JUN 23] In other Johnnyswim news, they have been working on a film that they are producing. It's called Stages and keep an eye on Instagram for updates.

[JUN 23] I think that brings us to YouTube.  Let's celebrate the anniversary of Bad Girls this week. First up,  a 12 minute version of Hot Stuff/Bad Girls with the extra Hot Stuff adlibs included. Then we have a short of Donna singing My Baby Understands, a Suecase Hall video for There Will Always Be A You, and Sunset People from the 1980 TV Special. And finally, we started with Hot Stuff, so let's end with it too - Hot Stuff/Bad Girls from a UK TV appearance.

[JUN 16] Greetings all and Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads and father figures out there.  Let's start off with Donna Summer Day in Boston. As you know that takes  place on June 27, and in honor of the day Boston.com is asking readers to pick their favorite Donna Summer song.  They have a pretty extensive list to choose from, or you can write in something else.  They also ask you to share a favorite memory of Donna's music or performance.  If you participate, your contribution may be included in a future article.

[JUN 16] Now if you want to see a list that has already been ranked - For Women First ranked 11 of Donna's songs. It's a pretty standard list of Donna's hits - no surprises there.

[JUN 16] Moving on to Bruce. He just did a podcast called A Breath Of Fresh Air where he gets to talk about... pretty much everything.  LOL  They go from his early days as a kid playing the accordion, all the way up to Talkin' Ugly Truths, Tellin' Pretty Lies.  There is a bunch in there about his time with Donna too.  The show runs for almost an hour so give yourself time to listen.

[JUN 16] Bruce was also live on his couch again on Facebook. This time he sang a song he wrote back in 1973 about his then-girlfriend.  The song is called Nancy Goldstein.

[JUN 16] And Don't forget Bruce will be performing  for the Folk Project's Streaming Tuesdays on June 25.  The show is free to watch, but you do need to get a ticket. (And you will be able to rewatch it for 24 hours after the event.

[JUN 16] Johnnyswim fans -  the latest Say Grace is posted on YouTube. This week Amanda makes Connie's Chicken Soup. (Looks yummy!)  I think next up should be Songs With Strangers.

[JUN 16] That brings us to YouTube.  A clip of Love Shock live  from Montecatini Italy 1987 started making the rounds of social media lately, so let's start with that.  That same user posted a bunch of other clips from that show including Last Dance/Do You Wanna Dance, The Impossible Dream, Jeremy, and Celebrate Me Home.  And in honor of it being Tony night, here is the cast of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical performing at the 2018 Tony Awards. 

[JUN 9] Greetings all and happy Sunday! First up is an interesting find.  A fan discovered an album from 1973, recorded in Munich, by a group called Emergency. It's called Get Out To The Country and if you look at the album cover art, you will see that the band thanked Donna and Linda (no last names given) for backing vocals on the tracks Take My Hand, The Flag, and Little Marie.  Clearly they are referring to our Donna and her sister Linda. The album is available on Spotify if you want to check it out for yourself.  Also credited on the album are Viet Marvos and Juergen Koppers - both people Donna worked with in her early days.  Very cool find!

[JUN 9] Reminder: the annual Donna Summer Disco Party is taking place on Thursday June 27 from 5 to 9 pm at City Hall Plaza. It's always a good time with great music and appearances by members of Donna's family. If you are (or will be) in that area, go check it out.

[JUN 9]  That brings me to another reminder, but this is for Bruce fans. He's doing the Folk Project Streaming Tuesdays on June 25. That event is free, but you still need a ticket to watch.  You can get one here.  The show is at 7PM Eastern time, but you have 24 hours to rewatch it before it's gone.

[JUN 9] Speaking of Bruce, don't forget he's touring in support of Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies this fall. He's got a number of US dates in September. Ticket info for all of them are available on his site. He's also been posting on Instagram about the tour.

[JUN 9] Moving on to Johnnyswim.  They are filming a movie. And part of that involves filming in Chattanooga and Nashville this week and next. Fans are invited to come to hear some tunes and see some scenes. The events are free but limited, so you have to RSVP. And you have to keep an eye on Instagram for more announcements. Here's the link to the Chattanooga announcement (It's an Instagram reel so it may disappear) which takes place Tuesday June 11 at 6:30 PM.  You have to  RSVP to find out the location the location.  The Nashville info is still to be announced.

[JUN 9] Also, don't forget that tomorrow is Monday so there should be a new episode of Say Grace coming. It should be the second part of the one she did last month. I think she was planning to male soup from the leftovers of the chicken she made.  This past Monday was New Music Monday and they released a new video for the latest single, Alchemy.

[JUN 9] I think that brings us to YouTube.  This week I'm sharing a few of the random things I've been checking out this week. First up, Donna on SiriusXM Artist Confidential with Science of Love, and Last Dance.  Then we have I'm A Fire live at Jones Beach,  I Love You from The Midnight Special,  and finally On The Radio from a David Foster & Friends concert in October 2011 - so yeah, one of her last appearances.  :-

[JUN 1] Greetings all and Happy Pride Month! Since it's a new month, you know it's time for a new Summer Fever Pick. So this month we are looking back at Donna's last album - Crayons.

[JUN 1 ] First up this week - you may have been hearing Hot Stuff a lot lately. That's because Pepsi is using the song in their latest TV commercial - which seems to be playing a lot around here.

[JUN 1] Bruce Sudano fans - remember that poll Americana Highways had for favorite album of March 2024? Well, Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies came out on top! Congrats Bruce! Also, don't forget that Bruce is hitting the road this fall, and doing a streaming performance on June 25 for  Folk Project Streaming Tuesdays. Tickets for all these events are available on Bruce's website.

[JUN 1] Johnnyswim fans - they have released a new single called Alchemy. Yes, it's the song you herd on New Music Monday a few weeks ago and now it's a single you can streams/buy in all the usual places.

[JUN 1] Pete Bellotte fans - MBW has interviewed him for a series about  the world's greatest songwriters.  In it, Pete talks about working with Donna and Giorgio, among other things.  It's not often we get to hear from Pete, so this is definitely worth the read.

[JUN 1] That brings us to YouTube. Let's celebrate the Summer Fever Pick this week.  So we have a 2010 interview, a 2008 interview with ET,  the studio videos for Stamp Your Feet and The Queen Is Back, a stampyurfeet video for Crayons,  Nathan's video for Fame, Donna being silly in 2008, and the unreleased track, Run With It.

[MAY 26] Greetings all! This weekend here in the US is Memorial Day weekend where we honor our fallen service people. It's also the start of our summer (Summer?  ;-) ) season here, so let the warm weather fun begin!  First up this week, a new release of the track Black Power.  You may remember that this was a song Donna performed on a 1970 German action show called 11 Uhr 20. The song has been reissued as an EP on Spotify (and all the other usual places) with the English version we all know, a German version, an instrumental version and one other instrumental track. The EP is called Black Power/Minotti On The Run by the Peter Thomas Sound Orchester and Donna Summer.

[MAY 26] In other Donna news, Kelly Rowland starring in a biopic on Donna is back in the news.  People posted an article where they talked to Brooklyn about the potential casting. Just a reminder, Bruce has said that the family is looking to do a limited series instead of a biopic.  So as Brooklyn says in the People article, "We'll see what the future holds."

[MAY 26] This week  The Grammys hosted the Grammy Hall Of Fame Gala in which I Feel Love was honored. Vibe has photos of Andra Day performing in honor of Donna.  Entertainment Tonight posted a video on YouTube with various clips from the evening. I Feel Love is at about 53 seconds. Andra Day posted a shorter video on YouTube, but the sound is better quality there. And Getty Images has photos from the red carpet of Brooklyn and Brian Edwards.

[MAY 26] Johnnyswim fans -  their latest Songs With Strangers is up.  It's a song called Irrevocable and it's a beautiful ode to an adopted child. Also, team Swim is promising a new live performance video for their song Alchemy on Friday. In the meantime, you can see a short of them performing it live at The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, and of course they made a video of the song (in the snow!) for New Music Monday a few months ago.

[MAY 26] Bruce fans -  he has added more dates to his fall tour: Portsmouth, NH, Burlington, VT, and Somerville, MA. You can also catch him on June 25 for FP Streaming Tuesdays. You do require a ticket for this event, but the tickets are free. The show starts at 7PM Eastern time, but there is a 24 hour rewatch window.

[MAY 26] Bruce also posted a couple of videos on Facebook. First is a jam he and the band did during rehearsals.  The other is Starting Over Again  from Folk Alliance International.

[MAY 26] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's celebrate the Summer season this week.  So  of course we have to start with a clip of Summer Fever live in 1995.  Then we have Bad Girls/ Hot Stuff (from the Nobel Peace Prize Concert) - I don't know about you, but they pretty much defined my summer of 79.  Then there is Sand On My Feet  (live in NH) which just feels like summer here on Long Island (even though it was written in Florida LOL), and of course there is a full concert from Jones Beach, NY 2008. On Long Island, Jones Beach is THE summer concert venue. It's outdoors at the beach with the stage literally out in the water, and for me it usually meant an afternoon at the beach followed by the concert (and a sunburn! LOL) in the evening.  If you timed it right, you could hear soundcheck from the parking lot.  I miss seeing Donna there. Finally, in honor of Memorial Day I'll leave you with Let There Be Peace in the hopes that one day no one will ever have to make that ultimate sacrifice.

[MAY 19] Greetings all! So let's start with some good news. The lawsuit with Kanye has been settled. Apparently they reached an agreement on May 3 and now it's down to the paperwork. We'll probably never know the details of the settlement though - many times stuff like that is put under seal.

[MAY 19] As you know, I Feel Love is being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in a Gala event that is being held Tuesday May 21 in Los Angeles.  So I expect we may see some photos on the wire services later this week from the event. If you are in LA, keep an eye on your local news in case they do a puff piece on the event.

[MAY 19] An article in The Daily Kos has decided that many of us will want/need a "mental health break" this year. So to that end, they have an article addressing that. The author has decided that their solution is to start their day with a great song and this particular article recommends Hot Stuff.

[MAY 19] Amo Mama has an article celebrating 8 deceased female celebrities "who passed on their beauty" to their daughters.  This article includes Donna and Brooklyn and has several photos of each of them plus a couple with the 2 of them together. (There is also a photo of Donna with Mimi because I guess the person who found the photos got confused.  Yes, a celebrity is allowed to have more than one daughter! LOL)

[MAY 19] Moving on to Bruce - he's heading out on tour this fall. He'll be hitting Austin, Houston, Baton Rouge, Mobile, Nashville, and New York all in September.  Ticket info is on Bruce's website.

[MAY 19] Johnnyswim fans - the latest Say Grace episode is up. This week Amanda makes Connie's chicken in the first of 2 parts. The next Say Grace will be soup made from the leftover chicken.

[MAY 19] That brings us to YouTube. First up, Donna's girls remember her for Access Hollywood. Then we have the official video for Love to Love You, Donna, Seal and David Foster from 2010,  Donna and the Brooklyn Dreams with a Motown Medley and Heaven Knows from the same show, Bruce talking about Donna from an interview done a couple of years ago, and If There Is Music There from VH1's Live & More Encore.

[MAY 19] And finally, yesterday was my MS Walk and it was a great success! The weather held, we had a really nice walk, and thanks to you guys, we raised a bunch of money for a great cause. Hopefully one day, we'll have a cure.  So thank you all for your support. Like Donna says on a certain album - you really are, you're the greatest!

[MAY 12] Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and mom figures out there! OK, remember the Christie's auction a few months back? Well, one of the lucky winners happens to be the Museum Of Fine Arts in Boston. They got a couple of dresses and a couple of pairs of shoes - some of which are currently on display as part of their Dress Up exhibit that goes on until September 2.  WBUR talked specifically about Donna's dresses in a piece about the exhibit.  So Donna's dresses are in a museum that also houses  things like paintings by Picasso, Rembrandt, Renoir, and classic sculpture by the Greeks and Romans... in other words this is a real fine art museum and I find it so cool that Donna is represented there, even if it's just a couple of dresses.   :-)

[MAY 12] Moving on to Bruce, catch him on YouTube talking to JamTV about Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies.  Bruce speaks in English (with Italian subtitles) but the rest is in Italian.  You can also catch Bruce in a Facebook Reel celebrating the anniversary of Closest Thing To Perfect. And he's got another Facebook video celebrating the 15th anniversary of  Life & The Romantic.

[MAY 12] Johnnyswim fans, check out the article  from Relevant Magazine where Abner and Amanda talk abut marriage advice.  (Married 15 years - in Hollywood years isn't that something like 100?  LOL)

[MAY 12] Last week I said we were due for an episode of Say Grace - I forgot that there were 5 Mondays in April, so I got ahead of myself. So last Monday team Swim was still promoting Hollywood for New Music Monday.  Tomorrow should be Say Grace.

[MAY 12] I think that brings us to YouTube. As you know Friday will mark 12 years without Donna.  So I'd like spotlight a few of my favorite clips.  So we have (in no particular order) Love Is The Healer from VH1 Divas 2000, Mimi's Song from The Tonight Show, MacArthur Park from Live & More Encore, Be Myself Again live, and Worth The Wait live.  I could list about a million more, and yes that would include some Christmas music - but since it's May I will spare you that!  LOL I will end with my very favorite clip - Dona and Barry Manilow having way too much fun with Could It Be Magic.  (Thank you team Manilow for originally sharing that clip 13 years ago.)

[MAY 12] Finally, my MS Walk is Saturday and you guys have come through for me once again! You guys are amazing!  I'll be wearing one of my Donna shirts that day and as always, I will be thinking of her as I walk past the amphitheater and remembering all the great shows she put on there.  (Like this one.)

[MAY 5] Greetings all and Happy Cinco de Mayo for all who are celebrating (or who are reposting that old meme with the jar of mayo in a sink.  LOL)  It's the start of a new month so it's time for a mew Summer Fever Pick. This month we are looking back at Live & More Encore.

[MAY 5] So let's start off with Grammy news. As you probably know, I Feel Love is being inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame at the gala being held on May 21. What I didn't realize is that makes Donna the first female solo artist to be inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame AND receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in the same year.  I just wish she was still here to enjoy it.

[MAY 5] In another bit of interesting news, Billboard posted an article about how RuPaul's Drag Race causes songs to increase on-demand streaming of the songs that are used on the show.  In Donna's case, This Time I Know It's For Real got over a 180% increase in streams the day after it was used on the show, and Dim All The Lights earned over a 96% increase the day after it was used.

[MAY 5] Moving on to Bruce, he recently did an interview with Billboard about Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies. Although the album is the primary focus of the interview, the conversation did also touch on the lawsuit with  Kanye West over I Feel Love. RollingStone also picked up on that part of the interview.

[MAY 5] Johnnyswim fans - their New Music Monday video is up. They recorded a video for Hollywood - one of the Diamonds outtake tracks that was brought back for the anniversary release.  Tomorrow is Monday, so if they are not still recovering from the Diamonds events, Abner's birthday, and Luna's birthday (what a packed week!) they should be posting an episode of Say Grace tomorrow.

[MAY 5] I think that brings us to YouTube.  In honor of the new Summer Fever Pick,  let's look at clips from Live & More Encore. First up, the whole VH1 special.  Then we have the video for I Will Go With You, and a live version of the song from Queen Latifah's show.  And then there is Love Is The Healer live on The View, and the Thunderdub mix of the song as well. (That one has extra spoken lyrics.)

[MAY 5] And finally... my annual MS walk is rapidly approaching! Thank you to all who have supported me, both this year and in all the previous years.  If you are interested in donating, my link is here. But I also accept positive thoughts/prayers/good wishes for all who are dealing with this disease.  To quote Christina Applegate, "FU MS."

[APR 28] Greetings all! And a belated Happy Passover to those who celebrated! First up, some people have been getting their copies of the Japanese Singles Collection.  One fan posted an unboxing video, so you can see what it looks like if you haven't gotten yours yet.

[APR 28] Forbes posted its list of the best 30 disco songs.  Donna made the list several times.  :-)

[APR 28] And speaking of great songs... Donna's bad Girls album turned 45 this week.  (Yes we are all old!  LOL) In honor of the occasion, uDiscoverMusic posted an article about Bad Girls.

[APR 28] Those of you planning to go to the Donna Summer Disco Party in Boston this year - the date will be June 27, and it will be at City Hall Square once again. They are advertising special performances from Mary and Omega Red, with DJ Vince1 taking charge of the rest of the music for the night.  So if you want to go, start making your plans now.

[APR 28] Bruce Sudano fans - Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies is now available on cd and vinyl in all your favorite places such as Amazon. (paid link) Also, you can still vote in the  Americana Highways  poll for favorite album of March.  Voting ends on May 5.

[APR 28] Johnnyswim fans - our favorite duo has been spending this weekend celebrating the 10th anniversary of Diamonds. Part of that celebration includes an auction of some artwork on Johnnyswim.com. The auction closes tomorrow April 29 at 7:30 PM CST. A portion of the proceeds will go to St. Jude's Children's Hospital. And while you are on their website, if you are looking for a limited edition vinyl of Diamonds X, that's the place to get it.

[APR 28] I think that brings us to YouTube.  First up, a new Suecase Hall video spotlighting Donna's country side. Then in honor of the 45th anniversary of Bad Girls we have the title track on The Tonight Show, Hot Stuff from The Dinah Shore Show, Dim All The Lights live in 1995, Sunset People from the 1980 TV Special, the Bad Girls demo that was used in the documentary, and the Bad Girls demo from Bad Girls deluxe. As a bonus we also have Bruce's version of Bad Girls, and outtakes from the 1980 TV Special. (I love those outtakes!  LOL)

[APR 21] Happy Sunday all! I just got back from a week visiting with my little 20 month old friend and I have to say that after a week of Baby Shark, it was a REAL pleasure to come home to my Donna music!  LOL! (My little friend is cute though - her musical taste will develop.) So I guess we should start with Johnnyswim.  Their latest Songs With Strangers is up. It's a song called Fireflies that's a nostalgic look back at home, and it's really nice. Coming up tomorrow should be Swim Or Die where Abner makes merch - unless they are crazy busy with the Diamonds anniversary.  That is this weekend coming up, so get ready to party Nashville!

[APR 21] Also in Johnnyswim news - Diamonds X is available NOW for your streaming pleasure. It's got all the original tracks plus a whole bunch of commentary and  two previously unreleased tracks: Hollywood, and Keep Me Around.

[APR 21] Moving on to Bruce...  Congrats on getting over 2.5 million views for Talkin' Ugly Truth Tellin' Pretty Lies!

[APR 21] Also catch Bruce (with Randy Mitchell)  on No Depression Session where he gets to perform 3 songs and talk a little about them. The ones he did are How'd You Get Here, Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies, and Starting Over Again.

[APR 21] Don't forget, Americana Highways is still accepting votes for  your favorite albums of March 2024. Bruce is currently killing the competition!

[APR 21] I almost forgot! It was Record Store Day yesterday, so a number of people grabbed a copy of  Many States Of Independence.  It comes as a beautiful blue vinyl edition.

[APR 21] I think that brings us to YouTube. Why not go with the State of Independence mixes.  So we have the New Bass Mix, the DJ Dero Vocal mix,  the N.R.G. mix, the 12" Millennium Mix (with Martin Luther King),  the Murk Club Mix, the Creation Mix, and the Jules & Skins Vocal mix.

[APR 12] Happy Friday all!  Let's start off this week with a video that just started making the rounds (in various forms) on social media today. I'll link you to the YouTube one because it's longer.  It is a video of Donna's "abandoned" house in Tennessee.  Now the first thing you need to know is that Donna had at least 2 houses in Tennessee  over the course of the years that she lived there.  The first one was bought by Tommy Shaw of Styx a number of years ago.  There was a TV show called Flipping Out that showed the Shaws touring the house in one of the episodes. And you can see photos of the house from AFTER the Shaws put their mark on it on the Nashville Lifestyles site.  Donna's other house is the "abandoned" one.  You can see a little bit of the interior of that house in an interview clip for CBS Morning News. And you can see Donna and Amanda in the kitchen here.   I keep putting "abandoned" in quotes because if you watch the video, the house is in pretty decent shape for an empty house, and it still had power. Yes the windows are boarded up, but that's what you do with an empty house that is not destined to be occupied. According to the YouTuber, the house is going to be demoed and replaced by a housing development. That checks out because the property shows as being sold to a company at the end of 2022.  Plus there are online news stories from 2021 talking about rezoning the properties on that street. (And no, I'm not going to provide the address here.  Even though it's easy enough to Google if you really want to, and the family obviously doesn't live there anymore, I still feel like I'd be doxxing them if I gave out the address. I know it's silly, but what if one of you has secretly invented time travel and decides to go back and harass Donna?  LOL)

[APR 12] Moving on to Bruce... Americana Highway is asking readers to vote for their favorite albums from March 2024. Bruce is on the list of choices.  :-) You can vote for him and up to 2 others on their website until May 5.  Bruce was doing really well in the poll when I last looked.  :-)

[APR 12] Johnnyswim fans - the latest episode of Say Grace is up. This week Amanda made granola.  Monday should be Songs With Strangers I believe - IF they have time to do it. Abner and Amanda are gearing up for the 10th anniversary celebration of Diamonds in just a couple of weeks, so they are a bit busy at the moment. :-)

[APR 12] Speaking of Diamonds - Johnnyswim is putting out a new vinyl edition of that album that includes an archival interview from 10 years ago where they talked about what they hoped the album would mean to everyone in 10 years. This will be a limited edition release. Only 1000 will be printed and the first 500 will be autographed. It will be offered to people going to the show at the Ryman first. So if you are a ticketholder to that show, watch for an email with details. The rest of us should just stay tuned. The new vinyl is pretty! Abner posted a video of it on his Facebook.

[APR 12] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's start with a fun one from Ms Mojo listing 20 songs that people think are by someone else. I Will Survive is on the list, as is Don't Leave Me This Way. LOL (Those are by Gloria Gaynor and Thelma Houston if you don't know. Oh and mark my words if you watch The Masked Singer - the Clock is Thelma.  That's my guess and I'm sticking to it.) Moving on to the land of fun videos, someone on YouTube posted a video for a DIY version of Donna's Four Seasons Of Love album cover. Also in the land of fun videos. I love the animated videos of Stor Dubine and since I haven't posted them in awhile, let me share them now: Does He Love You,  I Got Your Love,  and Stamp Your Feet.

[APR 06] Greetings all and happy Saturday!  Let's start off this week with Bruce. He finished up his Italian dates and is now doing the On The Blue New Horizons Cruise to be followed next week with dates in Fort Lauderdale and Clearwater.

[APR 06] Also in Bruce news, he did an episode of the Caropop podcast. They talked about a whole bunch of things, and Bruce even mentioned Donna MAYBE getting into the Songwriter's Hall Of Fame. (Fingers crossed!)

[APR 06] In Johnnyswim news, they are gearing up for the 10th anniversary of Diamonds at the end of this month. They still have some of their Take The World packages available, and they have added a little extra to that package. There are also still some regular tickets to the Ryman on the 29th.

[APR 06] In other Johnnyswim news, they skipped New Music Monday this week because they are prepping for  the shows at the end of the month.  They should be due for an episode of Say Grace on Monday, but that may be on hold until after the Diamonds celebrations. But that would make this a really good time to check out their previous videos. Or if you have MAX, go check out The Johnnyswim Show  (2 seasons of that - plus Home On The Road, plus In The Kitchen with Abner and Amanada) streaming there (and on Discovery+/Magnolia).

[APR 06] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up, a 1975 radio ad for Electronic Industries Association.  (I never heard that one before!)  Then we have another short with Donna talking about The Carpenters, Donna's 1979 appearance on 20/20, Donna on the Eddie Rabbit TV special,  a 1989 interview for ABC News, and finally almost 9 minutes of I Feel Love goodness.  :-)

[APR 06] I'll be going away next weekend for about a week so I'm not sure if the update will be a little early, or really late. So don't worry if I miss a week.  :-) (And if any house robbers are reading this -  I may be going away, but my house will not be empty. The rest of the family is staying home to wait on my pets and guard my Donna collection.  LOL)

[MAR 31] Greetings all! And Happy Easter to those who celebrate. Tomorrow starts a new month, so it's time for the new Summer Fever Pick. For April we will be experiencing some Mistaken Identity.

[MAR 31] As you probably know, March is Women's History Month. So SiriusXM's 70s on 7 wrapped up the month with a countdown of  the top 20 female vocalists as voted on by their listeners. Donna came in at #5 behind Fleetwood Mac (on the list because of Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie),  Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton John, and Karen Carpenter. You can probably still find that on the SiriusXM app.

[MAR 31] Donna was also spotted this week on uDiscoverMusic.com in a article that tells the story behind She Works Hard For The Money.

[MAR 31] In remix news, fan mixer Q has made a new Mellow mix of I'm A Fire.

[MAR 31] Bruce Sudano fans - check out his new interview with Vents Magazine. And Florida - don't forget that Bruce has a couple of dates coming up in your area.

[MAR 31] Johnnyswim fans - the last episode of Swim Or Die is up now on YouTube, and tomorrow look for their next New Music Monday at 1PM Pacific Time.

[MAR 31] Here's a family member I don't get to talk about often ... This week, Linda Gaines was inducted into the New England Music Hall Of Fame.  Congrats Linda!

[MAR 31] I think that brings us to YouTube. Let's look at clips related to the Summer Fever Pick. First up, a 1991 concert from Japan (with the blonde wig!) Up next is the video for Work That Magic, a liveandmore video for Fred Astaire, another liveandmore video for Get Ethnic, a tv performance of Heaven's Just A Whisper Away, and the club mix of When Love Cries.

[MAR 24] Happy Sunday all! Let's start off this week with I Feel Love. It was just announced that this song has been officially (and FINALLY) inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame!  This is the first time since 2021 that any songs (or albums) have been inducted into the Hall Of Fame and this year's inductees will be honored at a gala/concert on May 21 in Los Angeles.

[MAR 24] Singersroom.com has compiled its list of  the 15 best disco songs. Of course Donna is on the list - albeit a bit lower than I would have put her.  ;-)

[MAR 24] Bruce Sudano fans - he is currently in Italy and still has a couple more concerts coming up this week.  Then he's off to Florida to play a few shows there. Meanwhile, check out his latest, Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies which is available in all the places you can get music.

[MAR 24] Johnnyswim fans -  Their latest Songs With Strangers posted Monday. It's a song called Bright Side. Tomorrow they will post a new episode of Swim Or Die where Abner is making posters that will be available for purchase tomorrow.  As always, their videos (and the merch) drop at 1 PM Pacific time.

[MAR 24] I think that brings us to YouTube. First up is actually a clip of Liza Minnelli promoting her album, Gently. But she talks about singing with Donna fairly early on in the interview.  Then we have a fan video of With Your Love using footage of Donna singing the song combined with clips from Thank God It's Friday. In honor of the Hall Of Fame - we have a VH1 piece on Donna where David Bowie talks about Brian Eno's reaction to I Feel Love. And of course we have to look at The Story Of I Feel Love. (Gotta love the quote from Pete where he says "we never really thought about it being anything special - just a track on an album."  The song has a lot of longevity for "just a track..."  LOL)

[MAR 24] And finally - just a reminder to you guys, I am walking for MS again this year. If you'd like to donate, my link is here. But if money is tight, I'll be happy if you spare a moment to send out good thoughts/prayers for the people who are dealing with MS.  You guys are awesome.  :-)

[MAR 17] Happy St Patrick's Day all! Let's start with the confusing news. LOL  So we were expecting a 3 disk (2 CDS and 1 DVD) release of Japanese singles this month. That got cancelled. Now CDJapan is listing the Japanese Singles Collection as a 4 disk set (3 CDs 1 DVD) with a release date of April 24.  Let's see what happens. :-)

[MAR 17] In other release news, Anyway At All has hit the various streaming services as an EP with the  Endless Summer Medley and the Masters At Work 86th St Radio Edit of I Feel Love.  Look for that in all the usual places you find music to download.  And while you are looking for that, you can also find new mixes of She Works Hard For The Money for Peloton.  There are 4 DJ John Michael Peloton mixes - the original remix, the extended remix, the instrumental and the club version.

[MAR 17] Moving on to Bruce Sudano.  He has announced a couple of performance dates in Italy for this month. If you are in the area (or will be) go check him out - I'm sure he will be spotlighting songs from the new album.

[MAR 17] We also have a few new articles out. Look for an interview with Bruce on JustListenToThis.co.uk,  an interview in Extra Music Magazine (in Italian), and Bruce posted a question and answer from Blog Della Musica on Instagram. (I didn't find the whole interview yet, so  that may be coming soon. ) Bruce is also going to be on Radio Popolare on Wednesday March 20 at 3PM (local time).

[MAR 17] In Johnnyswim news, this past Monday they posted the latest episode of Say Grace where Amanda cooks chicken and grapes.  Tomorrow should be an episode of Songs With Strangers.  videos usually drop at 1pm Pacific time.

[MAR 17] That brings us to YouTube.  In honor of the new digital releases, we have The Endless Summer Medley, Anyway At All live on Leno, the I Feel Love MAW 86th St mix, and the DJ John Michael Peloton mix of She Works Hard For The Money.  There is also a channel called Blue Raja that has posted a bunch of Donna instrumentals. And finally, something silly I ran into.

[MAR 9] Happy Saturday all! I guess we should get the bad news out of the way first. As you know we were expecting a Japanese Singles collection release this month.  According to CDJapan, that release has now been cancelled (although not all vendors have realized this yet.)  While no reason for the cancellation is given, I'd assume that it's a rights issue and they couldn't get all the necessary clearances. But that is just a guess.

[MAR 9] Moving on to the good stuff...  :-) The International Press Academy recently held their awards and they gave Brooklyn an Honorary Satellite Award for her directorial debut with Love To Love You Donna Summer.

[MAR 9] In Bruce news, Talkin' Ugly Truth Tellin' Pretty Lies has been added to the Soul Jazz and Blues playlist on Spotify (among others  :-) ) and Make The World go Away has hit 1 million views on YouTube.

[MAR 9] Bruce's album is still getting media attention too. Look for an article on Foxy Lady Ascolta (it's in Italian but Google can translate it if you need to),  KTLA has a review, and Vents has a review too.

[MAR 9] Johnnyswim fans - for New Music Monday they shared a song called Keep Me Around written in their early days. There is actually a video from 15 years ago with them singing part of the song. And if you head to Instagram, you can watch Amanda singing I Could Be A Florist. This Monday keep an eye out on YouTube for the next installment of Say Grace.

[MAR 9] I think that brings us to YouTube.  Since this is Oscars weekend, let's start with some clips of Donna at the Oscars.  First up, Donna singing Papa Can You Hear Me in 1984, and the tribute to Ethel Merman from the same show.  (Look for Donna to come out at 3:53.) Then we have Donna's performance of Last Dance from 1978, and Paul Jabara accepting the trophy for the song.  For something completely different, the Get To The Hook podcast talks about the lawsuit against Kanye and  "The Lawsuits That Changed Music."

[MAR 3] Happy Sunday all! It's a new month, so you know it's time for a new Summer Fever Pick. This month we are celebrating Another Place And Time.

[MAR 3] Let's start today with Johnnyswim because tickets for their show at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville next month are on sale now! And they will sell out fast! There is also new limited edition merchandise out. Check out Johnnyswim.com for either merch or tickets (or both!) And then tomorrow look for a New Music Monday video to drop on YouTube.

[MAR 3] Bruce Sudano fans - Talkin' Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies is officially out now - at least the streaming version. Catch that at all the usual places (Amazon, Apple, Spotify, etc). The CDs and vinyls are available for pre-order. And of course there is a new video out too. The title track is available to watch on YouTube now.  It's a fun video - among other things, Bruce plays chess with himself. (Which is probably cheating to be honest...  LOL) And I know I've said this before, but if the album cover looks familiar it's because it was taken from one of Donna's paintings.

[MAR 3] Leading up to the album release, Bruce posted a video on Facebook where he tells the story behind the track, Two Bleeding Hearts, and another video where he talks about the album cover.

[MAR 3] Of course a new album gets reviews! See what Goldmine, CrypticRock.com, and Americana Highways have to say.

 [MAR 3] You can also see Bruce on the National R&B Celebration - On The Sofa with Esther. That is available on Facebook.

[MAR 3] Moving on to Kanye news... it's official. He's being sued by Donna's estate.  There are a bunch of articles out there, but Rolling Stone actually has a couple of quotes from Bruce, and Billboard has a couple of quotes from the estate's lawyers. And people, THIS is why if you are going into entertainment as a profession you need to hire a lawyer even before you hire a manager!

[MAR 3] And finally this week -  as many of you know, Mary has a Facebook group for the fans. Well recently (and I don't even know how this could happen), some random person nobody knew became moderator of the group. That person blocked a bunch of posts and a bunch of members.... Now Mary's daughter is left to sort out the mess. (Thank you Shani!) So if you were in the group and you got booted out - reapply. If you applied and got rejected, reapply. If you posted something that vanished, don't take it personally and repost it if it is still relevant.  It's a family over in that group and it's a crying shame that someone broke in and messed up the place.

[MAR 3] That brings us to YouTube. Let's look at some videos to celebrate the Summer Fever Pick. So first up is the Another Place And Time Megamix. (Don't freak out about the Minnie Mouse vocals in the beginning, they don't last too long. LOL) Then we have the CD+G version of the title track, Breakaway live from São Paulo, This Time I Know It's For Real from Letterman, and the video for When Love Takes Over You.

[FEB 25] Happy Sunday all! Let's start with the Japanese Singles collection coming to Amazon (paid link) on March 1. It looks like a 2 cd plus 1 dvd set along with  booklet. Then we have a 1989 profile on Donna,  a SAW Legends Of Pop feature on Donna, and Pete Waterman speaking about Donna the day after she passed away.

[FEB 25] In other release news (of a sort), Donna's official Instagram posted a "new" clip of Donna at the piano singing My Baby Understands. If you saw the documentary, you will recognize that this clip was filmed at the same time as the one they used of Two Kids Playing In An Alleyway.   :-)

[FEB 25] As some of you have probably heard, Beyoncé came out with a country song. In fact, she is being hailed as the first African-American woman to hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.  Why this matters on a Donna Summer page is that because of the attention Beyoncé is getting for this, some people have figured out that Donna was the first African-American woman to co-write a number 1 country single.  That song was, of course, Starting Over Again that was taken to #1 by Dolly Parton back in 1980. The NY Post published an article the other day talking about this.  It's nice to see Donna getting her props.  :-)

[FEB 25] Larry Flick (you remember, "There are divas and then there is Donna Summer")  wrote a beautiful article on substack the other day remembering Donna. It's a piece about their friendship and it reads as a wonderful love letter to Donna.  This one should definitely be on your "to read" list.  :-)

[FEB 25] Back in Kanye news again.... The saga of his song Good (Don't Die) is not over yet.  Having pulled the song because of allegations of unauthorized samples (and yes I'm trying to write this in an innocent until proven guilty kind of way  LOL) , Spotify has put the song back.  I suspect some lawyers are going to be earning some serious money soon.  Ugh. I would also like to point out that while I don't think there is a huge amount of money in streaming (for the artist that is...), there is some money involved.  So take that info and act as you see fit.

[FEB 25] Moving on to Bruce. He performed at Folk Alliance last week, and one of the songs he did was Starting Over Again. You can see the video on Facebook and make sure you listen to his introduction to the song.

[FEB 25] Also in Bruce news, his album Talkin' Ugly Truth Tellin' Pretty Lies is out on March 1. (It's also available for pre-order at RecordStoreDay.com.) Check out his video plugging the album on Facebook.

[FEB 25] In Johnnyswim news, their latest Songs With Strangers is up on YouTube. It's a song called Good Enough For Me.  Tomorrow they should be posting a new episode of Swim Or Die where they make merchandise which will be available on their website.

[FEB 25] That brings us to YouTube.  First up Q's Reflected remix of Reflections.  Then we have Donna singing Starting Over Again, and a short clip of her in the studio singing the same song.  Up next is the My Man Medley/The Way We Were live in Japan, Donna on the Rosie O'Donnell Show, and finally, a video looking at the Kanye situation.

[FEB 18] Happy Sunday all! Let's get the annoying stuff out of the way first. Kanye West.  As you know, he has been accused of using Donna's I Feel Love without permission.  Well, since that came out last week, Spotify has removed the song in question, and so has Apple. (Actually Apple deleted the whole album for a time, but I wonder if they had to do that to remove the track?)

[FEB 18] So in fun news,  some of the Grammy red carpet footage with Bruce and the girls turned up. They were asked about a potential biopic and Bruce said they were actually looking into a doing a limited series instead because that would give them more room to explore Donna as a musician and as a person.  There are no emojis big enough to represent the grin on my face at the thought of a limited series!

[FEB 18] Record Store Day 2024 is coming up on April 20 and this year's Donna release will be a vinyl called Many States Of Independence.  This is a 12" single with 8 mixes of State Of Independence. You can see the full list on the Record Store Day website.

[FEB 18] Moving on to Bruce - he just released his acoustic version of Bad Girls with his Italian band.  Catch the video on YouTube, and the single in all the usual places (Spotify, Apple, Amazon, etc). And don't forget, his new album, Talkin' Ugly Truth Tellin' Pretty Lies is due out on March 1 - which is right around the corner.

[FEB 18] In Johnnyswim news, individual tickets for their upcoming show at the Ryman on April 29 are on sale now. Grab them while you can! They will sell out fast! This is part of the Diamonds 10th anniversary celebration, and most of the VIP tickets are sold out already.

[FEB 18] They have also released a new single - Como Fue (which they did on a new music Monday) backed with Tomar El Mundo (which is the new Spanish version of Take The World.)  And yes, I'm showing my age when I say one song is backed with another.  LOL You can find both tracks in all the usual places you get your music.  Oh and a bit of trivia for you - the cover art features Abner's parents on their wedding day.  (Abner looks so much like his dad!)

[FEB 18] I think that brings us to YouTube.  First up Donna's acoustic versions of On The Radio and Bad Girls.  Then we have an unreleased song, So This Is Lonely, the rehearsal footage of I Don't Wanna Work That Hard,  and Worth The Wait live.

[FEB 18] And finally - I am doing my MS Walk again this year. If you are interested in donating, my link is here.

[FEB 11] Happy Sunday all! Let me start with one time sensitive item for Johnnyswim fans before I move on to Donna. They are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Diamonds this year in Nashville on April 27 to 29. Now regular tickets for these events are not on sale yet, BUT there are VIP packages on sale NOW that are selling out fast. All the packages get you access to all 3 shows and each package has some amazing perks to go with them. (A tour of Nashville guided by Johnnyswim anyone? ) Check out the packages here, and if you are interested don't wait to make your purchase! They will all be sold out before you know it.

[FEB 11] On to Donna and you all know the big news is that she was given her long overdue Lifetime Achievement Grammy. Now, that was not televised as those awards were given out at a special ceremony the day before the Grammy Awards. (Although, all the winners of the Lifetime Achievement and other Special Merit Awards were announced on the main broadcast. Having said that, camera phones are everywhere, and yes there is video footage from the Saturday ceremony. Bruce posted the footage of him and his daughters accepting Donna's award on YouTube. There has also been a video filmed by Brian Edwards (that also includes the video that was shown at the awards ceremony) circulating all over Facebook. LPJ_IS_KOOL has posted that video on his YouTube channel.

[FEB 11] If you want to see photos from Grammy weekend, Getty Images has some from Special Merit ceremony, and some from the Grammy red carpet.  I would like to point out that on Grammy night, Amanda wore one of her mom's dresses. And at the Special Merit Awards, Brooklyn wore one.  Now I just want to clarify that the dress Brooklyn wore was altered, so it looks a little bit different on her than it did on Donna. The neckline was adjusted a but and she wears it shorter than her mom did. But it IS Donna's dress. That had been confirmed multiple times. The family was also interviewed on the red carpet - I know some people saw it on the LA feed, but I haven't found any interview on YouTube yet.  Oh, and if you want to see the program for the 2024 Grammys, you can view it here. There is a page in there for Donna.

[FEB 11] Half the fun of watching the Grammys this year was watching Amanda's and Brooklyn's Instagram accounts. (And it is unfortunate that the stories go away after awhile.) You never saw any of them on camera during the Grammy broadcast because they were way up in the high seats. Some posts that are still there though are Brooklyn's post with a bunch of photos, and Amanda's post where she talks about how her mom never displayed her awards.

[FEB 11] In other Donna news, She is on the cover of the February edition of Arte Magazine in Germany.

[FEB 11] In less fun news, Kanye West has been accused of sampling songs without permission. Apparently Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne have issued a cease and desist for use of a sample from a Black Sabbath song, and today Donna's estate posted that I Feel Love was used despite them actually denying permission to use it.  Bruce posted this on his Facebook page, and it was on Donna's Instagram stories as well. (It's also being reshared all over Facebook - if you are in any of the Donna groups you won't be able to miss it.) You can read more at Stereogum.com, Deadline.com, Billboard.com and probably a whole bunch of other places.  Genius.com has a clip from the song in question, Good (Don't Die).

[FEB 11] Let's go back to Johnnyswim again.  They are performing in Los Angeles on Valentine's Day and it looks like the show will be streamed on VEEPS.com. You have the option to buy a "ticket" to the show for 14.99, or you can buy a monthly subscription that gives you access to all the other things VEEPS offers. Also they will have a new video up on YouTube tomorrow. This time it will be an episode of Say Grace, so prepare to start drooling over the food!  LOL

[FEB 11] Moving on to Bruce... On February 16, he is releasing his acoustic version of Bad Girls.  He posted a reel on Facebook to announce it. Check that out here.

[FEB 11] I think that brings us to YouTube.  Let's start with the official video for I Feel Love because that is the song in the news right now. Then we have Macarthur Park live  in 1978,  Last Dance from 1978, Hot Stuff from Dinah Shore, Love To Love You Baby, She Works Hard for The Money live at the Grammys, the videos for This Time I Know It's For Real and I Will Go With You, and Dim All The Lights from Live & More Encore. And if you are wondering why I picked those clips - well all of them (and more) were used in the video the Grammy Awards showed when they gave Donna the Lifetime Achievement Award.  :-)

[FEB 2] Happy Friday all! It's a new month so that means it's time for the new Summer Fever Pick. This month we are looking at All Systems Go.  (And if the groundhog was right this morning, we are All Systems Go for  an early Spring this year!)

[FEB 2] It's pretty quiet this week probably because it's Grammy Week. As you know, Donna will be given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the non-televised Special Merit ceremony tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon. Hopefully she (and the other recipients) will get a mention on the Grammy Awards Sunday night.  UMG congratulated their winners on the UMG Instagram page.

[FEB 2] In the Donna's music is everywhere category, Hot Stuff was used prominently in the Netflix show, Griselda.

[FEB 2] Johnnyswim fans - on Monday they posted the new song Alchemy for New Music Monday.  Go check it out now it you missed it. I think they are due for another New Music Monday this week... (January had 5 Mondays, so they had an extra one.)  An don't forget you can see them live in Los Angeles on Valentine's Day where if you are lucky, you might get to hear the new songs live. You will also be able to grab some of the merch they made in their Swim or Die video.

[FEB 2] I think that brings us to YouTube. It's Grammy week, so let's go with that.  First up, Donna opening the 26th annual Grammy Awards with She Works Hard For The Money. Next up is Donna winning Best R&B Vocal Performance for Last Dance, Donna and Andy Gibb presenting Record Of The Year, and of course Donna's medley of Song Of The Year nominees with Kenny Rogers.

[JAN 27] Happy Saturday all! Let's start with Donna. iHeart Radio is doing their music awards on April 1. They are asking fans to vote for their favorites in the various categories and Love To Love You Donna Summer is nominated for Favorite Onscreen. You can place up to 50 votes per day, and it will let you put in all 50 for the same thing at the same time if you want to.

[JAN 27] In the land of Donna Summer is educational now (LOL), actress Da'Vine Joy Randolph told The Daily Show that she listened to Donna's interviews to learn how to do a Boston accent for her role in The Holdovers.

[JAN 27] Bruce Sudano fans - catch him on tour with The Zombies April 11 and 12 in Florida.  I've seen him on the bill with The Zombies before and it's always a fun show.

[JAN 27] Bruce also added his live on the couch version of Better Than This to his YouTube channel. So if you didn't catch it on Facebook, catch it on YouTube. Also, keep an eye out for new videos. Bruce posted on Instagram that they are filming something.

[JAN 27] Johnnyswim fans - Monday is right around the corner, so you know what that means - a new YouTube video. Last week they did Swim Or Die which featured Amanda and Abner making a ton of new t-shirts, etc some of which is still available for sale on their website. (Some stuff sold out already - you gotta be fast!) I believe this week should be New Music Monday (unless they take a week off because there are 5 Mondays in January.)  Usually new videos drop at 1PM Pacific time.

[JAN 27] I think that brings us to YouTube.  First up, a clip I never saw before of Donna presenting at the American Music Awards.  This one is from 1976  when Donna was only really know for Love To Love You.  Then we have a 1976 clip of Donna performing Lady Of The Night on TV,  the video for Try Me I Know We Can Make It, Could It Be Magic from The Midnight Special, and a 1976 performance of Love To Love You Baby.

[JAN 21] Happy Sunday all! I guess first up is an article out of the UK  from Far Out Magazine called Donna Summer's  5 Favorite Donna Summer Songs.  It looks like they got the list from a 2018 article from LongIslandWeekly.com which in turn was pulled from an interview they did in 2008.

[JAN 21] You Radio is an on demand radio streaming service with a ton of different stations to choose from. They have one that is exclusively Donna Summer music. And unlike other services where a "Donna Summer radio" would give you songs by Donna and other similar artists, this one really is ALL Donna.

[JAN 21] In the land of AI is taking over everything  (god help us),  there are a couple of AI Donna clips out there on YouTube.  Now I have experimented with AI visually in Photoshop and have found that the results can be less than stellar. So I wasn't expecting much from these clips when I listened to them. The first is I Will Survive and to me it sounds like what AI thinks would happen if Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor had had a child together...   LOL The other AI cover is Padam Padam. That one isn't bad actually. But having said that, I'm really not into the whole "let's use AI to make new material from a dead artist." AI  is fun to play with, but it can never recapture that special spark that makes an artist who they are. (And yes, I know that when AI takes over, that will put me on the hit list from our robot overlords. LOL)

[JAN 21] Moving on to Johnnyswim. Tomorrow is Monday, so look for a new YouTube video from them at 1PM Pacific time.  This will be an episode of Swim Or Die and will feature them making new merchandise. The merchandise will drop on their website the same time the video goes live, so if you see something you like, you can grab it.  And speaking of stuff you can buy, They have handwritten lyrics available for sale that will ship in time for you to give them as Valentine's Day gifts.  You pick the song, and if you want it written by Amanda or Abner. I think that's a cute idea for a couple that has a special Johnnyswim song.  Oh! And I almost forgot - they will have signed copies of Diamonds available for the 10th Anniversary of the album.  But here's the cool thing. They will be signing a bunch of empty album jackets that will then be sent back to the factory to be filled and sealed. So the autograph will exist under the plastic, making it a true collector's item. Keep an eye on their site/socials for details.

[JAN 21] In other Johnnyswim news, Amanda and Abner are on the January 17 episode of a podcast called 50 Fires: Money and Meaning.  In it they discuss... money.  LOL  (Obviously - it's in the title of the podcast. LOL) But more specifically, it's about their attitudes to finances and how you make that work in a relationship because let's face it- n two people have exactly the same ideas when it comes to finances.

[JAN 21] Moving on to Bruce Sudano... (the holidays are over and everybody is busy now! YAY!)  So as I have mentioned before, his new album comes out March 1. It's called Talkin' Ugly Truth, Tellin' Pretty Lies and there is a trailer for it on YouTube now.  Also on YouTube, we have a blast from the past with the Joe, Bruce and 2nd Avenue track, We Can Have It All. (Be sure to read the description for the story behind that.) This is the first time the video for the song has been made public.

[JAN 21] Bruce was also on a podcast recently called Out In The Hamptons. Go listen to the whole thing, but one interesting little tidbit that came out was that Bruce has recorded his own version of Bad Girls and that will be released on February 16.  Bruce also talks about a bunch of other things - the Donna documentary, the anniversary of Heaven Knows, the new album...

[[JAN 21] And finally, Bruce has some new representation. He is signed with Black Oak Artists now, so if you are looking to book him that's where you go. Hopefully that means more shows this year!

[JAN 21] That brings us to YouTube. This week I have a bunch of long form clips. First up is Donna live in Japan from 1979. This is an audio only clip is NOT the same as the 1979 Japanese TV video - it's actually much longer than the video and is taken from a different performance. Then we have a 1995 VH1 8-Track Flashback featuring Donna, a 55 minute medley of Donna's hits, and a new upload of Donna's 2008 concert at Jones Beach.

[JAN 13] Happy Saturday all! So we are still getting articles about Donna's Lifetime Achievement Award.  Star Tribune has one, ThatGrapeJuice.net has one, and DJMag.com has one, just to name a few. Now I want to be absolutely clear on this - the Lifetime Achievement Awards are handed out the day BEFORE the Grammy Awards. So all we will see on the main broadcast is a brief mention between awards.

[JAN 13]  Bruce Sudano fans - he was live on the couch on Facebook again this time with his most recent single, Better Than This.  Look for Bruce's new album, Talkin' Ugly Truth, Tellin' Pretty Lies, on March 1.  You can read a little about the album on  BroadwayWorld.com. You can see the cover image here.  (And yes, you do recognize that painting.  we last saw it at the Christie Auction of Donna's stuff.

[JAN 13] Fans of Bruce's older music will be interested in the Goldmine interview with Bruce and Joe Bean Esposito marking the 45th anniversary of Heaven Knows.

[JAN 13] In Johnnyswim news, as you know they have taken on a number of projects.  All of them will be on YouTube and all of them will fall on Mondays. So the first Monday of the month is New Music Monday.  They did that on January 1 with the new song Frank Gehry.  This past Monday, they posted the cooking video Say Grace where Amanda made fried chicken and mac and cheese. ( Fair warning on that one - if you have one of those smart home speakers that answers to Alexa.... well, Amanda set timers for her cooking a couple of times n the video using one of those speakers, and the one at my house heard her on the video and tried to set the same timers. LOL Sure Alexa heard Amanda, but that bitchy little speaker in my office has trouble hearing me when I tell her to turn on the lights!  LOL ) Next Monday will be Songs With Strangers. I think they filmed that yesterday to post on Monday. And then the 22nd they will do Swim Or Die which is where they make merchandise. They have already posted on their Instagram stories that they received the blank shirts, etc and the equipment they need to print them and they have started the work.  The first batch will include shirts that say "Johnnyswim is my girlfriend's favorite band".  They plan to roll out the merchandise online January 22 and they will have some at their Valentine's concerts as well.

[JAN 13] Johnnyswim is also working on a couple of special songs for Valentine's Day. They are doing their own version of the Cuban song Como Fue, and Abner is trying to translate Take The World into Spanish.

[JAN 13] I think that brings us to YouTube. This week let's celebrate the Summer Fever Pick. So first up we have a stampyurfeet video for the title track - featuring lots of cats.  LOL  Then we have Supernatural Love from a 1984 appearance on French TV, the extended mix of Eyes, the official video for There Goes My Baby,  I'm Free from a TV appearance, and a 1984 performance of Forgive Me.

[JAN 5] Greetings all and Happy Friday! And Happy Birthday Brooklyn! So yes, it's Friday. That's earlier than usual for the weekly update...  Hmmm? Could there be NEWS? Nah...   LOL  But seriously, it was announced today that Donna is being (FINALLY) honored by the Recording Academy (aka the people who hand out the Grammys) a Lifetime Achievement Award during Grammy week.  Now, the Grammy Awards themselves are given out on Sunday, February 4, but Donna's honor is part of the Special Merit Awards that are given out the day before on February 3.  You can see more info on the Grammy site.  Rolling Stone also has an article, as does UDiscoverMusic.com, and of course Billboard.  And I am quite sure there will be more articles as the hours go by.  :-)  I can already tell you that my Facebook feed is jam packed with posts celebrating the news.  Gotta love that!  What a great start to 2024 - which, incidentally, is the 50th anniversary year of the release of Lady Of The Night. I think I will spend tonight playing my Donna tunes! (Ok, that's not too different from other Friday nights... but I will have a bigger grin on my face this time.  LOL)

[JAN 5] The other big news this week is Johnnyswim. Now you guys all know that they are no stranger to hard work - in fact they tour so much that I was convinced at one point that there was no way they could possibly remember where their house is. LOL  Well, their big news isn't a tour (yet), but they have a lot coming up.  First of all, after an 8 year break, they have reinstated New Music Monday.  The first one is up now and it's a song called Frank Gehry.  Look for New Music Mondays on the first Monday of every month.

[JAN 5] You can also look forward to more Johnnyswim cooking with Say Grace, The Test Kitchen. These will be shorter "more chaotic" cooking segments.  They are also reimaging Songs With Strangers. You may remember that during COVID, they would write songs based on a conversation they'd have with someone who was a stranger. It was a really creative idea that generated some great songs, so they are going to do that again. You can sign up for a chance to be one f those strangers on the Songs With Strangers website.

[JAN 5] Johnnyswim is also back to creating exclusive merchandise. Once a month they are going to turn their driveway into a "clothing factory" to produce new merchandise.  And I will warn you right now, when you see new merchandise you like - GRAB it! That stuff always sells out fast!

[JAN 5] And finally, can you believe it is the 10th Anniversary of Diamonds? (Yeah, I know 10 years doesn't sound like much to us older Donna Summer fans who are currently celebrating 50, 40, 30, etc anniversaries of albums. But 10 years is a big deal too.) In April, Johnnyswim will be releasing a special edition vinyl of the album, and there will be a big celebration in Nashville from April 27 to 29.  So you guys all know what you have to do now. Subscribe to Johnnyswim's YouTube channel to catch all the new videos, and follow their Instagram for announcements and fun stuff.

[JAN 5] I think that brings us to YouTube.  Well, in light of the Lifetime Achievement Award, I think we should look at Donna's Grammys. She had 18 nominations and 5 wins.  So in chronological order, she picked up trophies for Best R&B Vocal Performance Female for Last Dance, Best Rock Vocal Performance Female for Hot Stuff,  Best Inspirational Performance for He's A Rebel, Best Inspirational Performance for Forgive Me, and Best Dance Recording for Carry On. (You can look at all Donna's nominations on the Grammy site.) And as an extra bonus, here is Donna performing the song of the year nominees with Kenny Rogers, and Donna opening the Grammys with She Works Hard For The Money.  (*Fun fact - back when I started this website - when it was just an experiment on AOL to see how hard it would be to create a webpage - the first bit of news I posted was that Carry On was nominated for a Grammy.)

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.

 Even older news