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I wrote Bad Girls because I had a friend who had an experience on a street on Los Angeles, on Sunset Boulevard. And police stopped her, and , and they were going to arrest her because they thought she was a 'bad girl' quote unquote. And she was a secretary at Casablanca records at the time. And I was really affected by it, and I really felt kind of appalled by the whole thing. And
Bad Girls started off as a social statement about prostitution really, and uh, became finally, at the time, my biggest hit.
- Donna Summer,
You Write The Songs September 13, 1986 |
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Dim All The Lights I wrote for my husband. I think I had had laryngitis and I sounded - so I sounded like Rod Stewart. And I figured I could give it to Rod Stewart to sing, you know. I ran into Rod at something we were doing, and I was so … petrified that I just couldn't say it. So I wound up singing it myself, and I'm glad cause it was a hit for me.
- Donna Summer,
The Hot Ones March 6, 1983 (radio) |
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The closest thing to a social comment on Bad Girls comes in "Sunset People," a sweeping, high-rise view of Hollywood. Against an icy refrain of "doin' it right — night after night," the song telescopes the nightmarish glamour world of the Sunset Strip—with its teenage prostitutes, billboards, foreign cars and star worship — into an evocation of pleasureseeking as cold as it is tantalizing. If there's a moral here, it's in the music's ominous suggestion of the boredom beyond glitter and in the lyrics' telegraphed equation of the disco ethos with Hollywood and hooking. "Sunset People" just might be the disco culture's "A Day in the Life."
- Rolling Stone, 1979 |
| On My Honor is a love ballad of some depth, exquisitely arranged to showcase the nuances of Summer's voice.
- The Daily News, 1979 |
| Summer reached the top as a disco singer, but
Bad Girls, her eighth album, defies anyone to confine her to such a narrow range. The 15 songs on the double album show the influences of disco, rock, soul, gospel, r&b, ballads and a few places in between that aren't on the map yet.
>- The Daily News, 1979 |
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<snip>… Her new album,
Bad Girls, is a giant step in a brilliant career that has already been marked by ten league leaps. In its sweep of fifteen songs - eight of which Donna had a hand in writing - she and her producers, Giorgio Moroder and Peter Bellotte, embrace new stylistic ground. They explore deeply melodic ballads while other cuts ass a rock-tinged edge to their solid platinum sound.
Hot Stuff opens the album with a raunchy pulse highlighted by the blazing guitar of Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, an original member of Steely Dan and now a mainstay of the Doobie Brothers. A bouncy, thirties, Dixieland feel infiltrates
Love Will Always Find You while on Our Love, Donna's steamy vocal, a gospel/R&B chant over swirling synthesizers, finds its roots in her very first singing experiences. The funky, get-on-up beat of disco still reigns supreme on
Bad Girls
but now serves as a foundation for many stylistic variations, from the hook-laden
Walk Away to the album's stunning portrait of Hollywood nightlife,
Sunset People. Side Three offers a change in mood with a suite of ballads that not only display Donna's voice at its most emotional and sensual but also show her power as an evocative songwriter. From
On My Own Again which opens the side describing romance as "a gambler's chance: through to the celebrative, rock-influenced closing cut,
My Baby Understands, Donna describes the shades and colors of love in a unique and tantalizing way…
<snip>
-
Bad Girls Press Kit 1979
*note: The song referred to as "On My Own Again" is actually "There Will Always Be A You". |
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The hottest female vocalist around is also prolific. This is her third consecutive double pocket set and considering the amount of product, Summer has remained consistently strong. "Bad Girls" represents somewhat of a departure in that the first two sides at least are more rock-oriented. Summer's vocals not only are more powerful and sexy but multi-dimensional. The music's strength carries over to all four sides. Based on a "bad girl" concept, Summer comes across in a seductive vein in vocal delivery and even through the album's graphics. Writers include producers Moroder and Bellotte, Brooklyn Dreams, Summer, Bruce Roberts and others. The musicians behind her supply her with pulsating and energetic firepower with some guest players also helping.
Best cuts: "Hot Stuff," "Bad Girls," "Lucky," "Can't Get To Sleep At Night," Dim All The Lights," "Our Love"
- Billboard Spotlight Review May 5, 1979 |
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And here it is: Donna Summer's seventh album in four years, "Bad Girls" (Casablanca) appears this week, a bountiful offering of fifteen A-side tracks (including four ballads) that's yet another step forward in a career already full of landmarks and triumphs. In this case, Summer and producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte don't drop a particular stylistic bombshell (as they had in each of Summer's first four albums): rather, they're catching the trend toward harder, rock and r&b oriented music on its upswing. In doing so they have drawn several crucial trump cards that establish "Bad Girls" as an immediate standard setter, both in terms of music and marketing.
- Brian Chin,
Record World May 5, 1979
read the rest... |
| Hot Stuff is the hottest song in the discos across the nation right now, and
Bad Girls has shot up to the top of the album charts. But Donna Summer, at 30, has done more than make a hit record here - she's pushed back the walls of her career and guaranteed that whatever she does from now on will get a lot of attention from more than just all those dancing feet out there.
- The Daily News, 1979 |
| But BAD GIRLS was a landmark in more than mere popularity and commercial success. The album was more soulfully sung, with more R&B horns and fewer strings, than previous disco discs. Its definitive production style (from the celebrated Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte), vision of a truly global pop music, and expression of a woman's outspoken, emotional and observant sides (the busiest co-writer is Summer, who wrote three songs solo and co-wrote five others) signaled a new era in music.
- Universal's press release announcing Bad Girls Deluxe |
| Every young diva who has followed, whether from R&B, pop or country, has been influenced by the BAD GIRLS of Summer.
- Universal's press release announcing Bad Girls Deluxe |
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Donna talking about
Bad Girls on the radio special Words & Music (1982). |
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Donna talking about
Hot Stuff on the radio special
Hollywood Live in 1982. |
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