Donna Summer: She could sing anything, anywhere, with anyone, at any time.

[OCT 4] Greetings all and happy October!  It's a new month so you know what that means everything is pumpkin spice, and Halloween and Christmas merchandise are competing for space in the stores... no wait. It means it's time for the new Summer Fever  Pick.  :-) This month we are living the fairy tale that is Once Upon A Time. I can't believe that album is just about ready to celebrate its 50th anniversary!

[OCT 4] SO I guess the big news this week is the Casablanca  Albums Collector's Set. It seems like everyone is talking about it. The God Is In The TV blog has an article about it, as does Forbes.  Socialite Life also has an article, and this one is more fun because it includes an interview with Christian John Wikane.  You guys know him from all the liner notes he has written for the various collector projects, and from the many online articles he has written abut Donna. (And other artists too - Christian is a very knowledgeable guy!)  So be sure to check that out.

[OCT 4] Then Grunge has an article about 5 disco hits that were bigger  outside of the US.  Donna is represented by I Feel Love.

[OCT 4] Moving on to Johnnyswim. They did their Live From The Backyard concert the other night and as always it was a lot of fun! The kids all put in an appearance too and I'm still trying to figure out how they all got so big!  LOL If you are in Swim Team, you can catch it in the videos tab on the Swim Team section of their site. There is also a new limited edition t-shirt while supplies last. That is currently available to everyone.  This concert was mainly Georgica Pond songs, but we also got a little sneak peek of their upcoming Christmas songs.  :-)

[OCT 4] Also in Johnnyswim news, as you probably know they will be part of the Moonriver 2026 cruise in November.  There is one small catch though. Amanda can only be there the first night before they leave port.  Something about the new baby can't be brought on the cruise, so she and Maceo will have their own adventures, while Abner will stay on the cruise and perform as Abner Ramirez and friends with some of the other performers on the ship. (Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors will be there, so you know Abner will be performing with them at some point.)

[OCT 4] Moving on to Bruce - he posted a Facebook Reel with him performing September In Your Eyes which is about finding new love (Francesca) after coping with the loss of Donna.

[OCT 4] That brings us to YouTube. This week, let's celebrate the new Summer Fever Pick.  So we start off with the rare promo album Selected Cuts from Once Upon A Time. (Audio set to a slideshow.) Then we have Donna performing Once Upon A Time on The Midnight Special,  Fairy Tale High live in Japan,  a rare short clip of Rumor Has It from the Live & More tour, a liveandmore video for Queen For A Day,  and finally A Man Like You  and I Love You performed on the Midnight Special.

[SEP 27] Happy Sunday all! I hope my  friends in the path of the big Nor'easter this weekend got through the storm ok.  Let me also wish a Happy Birthday (a day late) to Bruce Sudano. He celebrated that (and Dolly Parton Day - it's a busy weekend  LOL) by releasing his version of Starting Over Again to streaming. And by that, I mean his version from Fugitive Kind - well, more or less.  There was a slight edit done to the song to prepare it for streaming. Bruce talks about that on this Facebook reel. If you have the vinyl, or a digital rip of the original vinyl then you can go hear the edit that was made.

[SEP 27] Johnnyswim fans - this Wednesday, September 30, is Live From The Backyard Day. You have to be a member of Swim Team to tune in, so if you haven't joined this is the perfect reason to join.  It starts at 5pm Pacific Time, so 8pm Eastern,  1am London, and so on. You guys can calculate the time for your area. They will be preforming songs from Georgica Pond as well as some from their musical, One Day. And they have a post up on Swim Team where you can post questions for them to answer during the show.  So that should be fun too.  :-)

[SEP 27] In the land of Donna covers,  Alicia Keys performed a cover of I Feel Love at Vogue World: Milano the other day.  You can watch it here on YouTube.  It's a cool video, shot in a beautiful location. I'm obsessed with some of the camera shots! (Yes, I'm a geek. LOL)

[SEP 27] I think that's it for this week, so let's move on to YouTube.  This week we have a bunch of random stuff culled from the sea of AI slop that infests YouTube these days.  (I'm pretty sure I could search any famous musical artist and be able to find at least one video about the other artists they hate and will never work with, at least one video with an AI generated team up with someone else, at least one tragic secret they hid from their fans, and of course the reel of what they would look like today - which is never accurate because the starting picture is wrong too! Ugh.) So let's start with a Suecase Hall video remembering Donna. It's a 40 minute mashup of music and interviews. Then we have a Project K Megamix which is a 17 minute medley of fun Donna tunes.  :-) In the land of um... unusual clips, someone put together a beginner's line dance for Hot Stuff. (And I bet you thought line dancing was only for country music?  LOL) And if you want something really weird, there is a video for the MacArthur Park Suite that uses video from various dances - the ballet (The Nutcracker I think), Irish Step dancing, flash mobs, precision marching.... it's very odd. And I share it because when I ran into it this week, I really thought the cold medicine I was taking was making me hallucinate. But no, it's real.  After that I have to leave you with something better.  LOL Donna's channel posted a "visualizer" for Autumn Changes.  It's the music of course, and for the video part it's just an animated background. Think like a classic Yule Log kind of video - only this is obviously Autumn themed.  (You know, a clever person with time on their hands could do this for the whole album. Autumn is done, you just need Winter, Spring,and Summer. )

[SEP 20] Happy Sunday all! Let's start off this week with Bruce. He posted an official animated video for A Girl Like You from Fugitive Kind on YouTube.  It's really cute - check it out.

[SEP 20] There is also an article on the Martin Cid Magazine website about both Fugitive Kind and Starting Over Again.

[SEP 20] Vinyl collectors - Donna's Four Seasons Of Love is being released on October 17 for National Album Day 2026 (and for the album's 50th anniversary. Yes we are old.  LOL) There are pre-order links here - but not all of them are working or me at the moment.  I'm not sure if that is due to my geographical location or because not all retailer made the links public yet.

[SEP 20] Johnnyswim fans - they are planning another Live From The Backyard event for Swim Team members. Look for that on September 30, and of course watch the Swim Team page for details.  Oh and for fans who are in London, keep an eye on the ads in the Tube. One Day posters have started appearing there in advance of the November 17 start date for previews.

[SEP 20] In the land of silliness, that AI Cookie Monster Instagram account has struck again - this time with Cookie Monster's version of the Once Upon A Time and She Works Hard For The Money album covers.  Take time to scroll through because they have so many spoofs of so many albums by not just Donna, but Madonna, Whitney, Prince, Cyndi Lauper, Beatles, Beach Boys.... it's hilarious!

[SEP 20] And for something else cute, a fan made a graphic depicting some of Donna's eras and posted it on Facebook.  It's really cute.

[SEP 20] I think that brings us to YouTube.  We'll start with a couple of podcasts. Phonogenics 101 does a podcast where they discuss albums track by track.  They've done Once Upon A Time (sadly not the Cookie Monster version  LOL)  They've also done I Remember Yesterday,  Four Seasons Of Love,  A Love Trilogy, Love To Love You, and Lady Of The Night.  (Hmmm do I see a pattern there? Gee I wonder what they will do next?  LOL) On Donna's official channel they have just added her performance of Last Dance from Night Of The Proms 2007. Oh and watch out for a recently uploaded clip from SCTV that claims to be "Barbara Sreisberg meets Donna Summer."  It's a funny clip with Barbara Streisberg bearing a striking resemblance to another Barbra we all know. LOL  But the Donna in the clip is not a take off on our Donna. She's actually the host of a talk show and she seems to be modeled on Dinah Shore.

[SEP 13] Greetings all and Happy Sunday the 13th! (Hmmm, that doesn't sound as ominous as Friday the 13th.  LOL) Let's start off with Johnnyswim. Tickets for their Christmas tour are on sale now.  So if they are coming to your area, grab those tickets! And of course the tickets for the 10th anniversary of Georgica Pond tour have been on sale for ages, and if you want to see one of those shows you better grab those tickets now if you can. Some of those date are already sold out.  On a side note, Johnnyswim posted a couple of pictures on Insta of Amanda in the studio with baby Maceo. Apparently some Christmas tunes are in the works.  :-)

[SEP 13] Moving on to Donna Land, Celine Dion has returned to live performing and her new show includes a cover of I Feel Love.  Somebody posted a short clip of it on Facebook.  (Hmmm, I feel like she was inspired a bit by this clip of Donna. Am I crazy? Don't answer that!  LOL)

[SEP 13] In the land of books, as you know there is the Song By Song book coming next month. But if you are looking for something now to read then  take a look at FINDAGROOV Reviews The Songs Of Donna Summer.  This one covers more than just the official albums. Check the sample at Amazon [PAID LINK - yup, gotta say that] - it starts with  the music from Haare and then works through the other musicals before it even gets to the Lady Of The Night tracks. Then it adds extra stuff like some of the unreleased tracks you see on YouTube, and some of the live covers. I bought it last year - it's over 600 pages of songs with (thankfully!) an index at the end.  :-) It is available as both a regular book and an ebook so you can pick whichever works best for you. (Does it mean I'm old because I'm really enjoying the ability to change font size in ebooks?  LOL)

[SEP 13] I think that brings us to YouTube.  Let's do some live covers this week.  First up, Georgia On My Mind live in 2004. Then we have Nights In White Satin,  Send In The Clowns, In A New York Minute, and finally The Impossible Dream.

[SEP 6] Happy Sunday all!  Let's start off with Johnnyswim this week because they currently have a Labor Day  sale going on their site, and for a limited time they have handwritten song lyrics available for select songs. It looks like all the available  lyrics are in Abner's handwriting, probably because Amanda has been a little bit busy as you may have seen in their social media the last couple of days.  :-)  So let me take this opportunity to say Welcome to Maceo Adrian Ramirez.  And kudos to Johnnyswim for the clever use of AI to hide the baby belly.  :-)

[SEP 6] Moving on to Donna land, we have a couple of things going on.  First up is a new book coming October 30. It's called Donna Summer Song By Song it will cover every song Donna released in her career.  You can check it out on Amazon [PAID LINK - I have to say that], but it will also be available in plenty of other places as well.

[SEP 6]  On October 2 we can expect the  7cd or 10 lp Casablanca Boxset (1975-1979). You can check out the details here, and as always, the colored vinyl looks really nice.  :-)

[SEP 6] Boston's Mayor's Office of Tourism, etc posted a brief video clip on Facebook from last month's Donna Summer Disco Party.

[SEP 6]  For those of you into crossword puzzles, Donna was the answer to 33 across in the New York times puzzle for August 30.  The clue was NORMAN REEDUS and you had to anagram it. And for those of you who like to see something silly, there is an Instagram account that uses AI to substitute Cookie Monster for the actual artist on various album covers. This is their version of Bad Girls, but look around the feed, they have a bunch of funny ones.

[SEP 6] I think that brings us to YouTube.  This week we are celebrating the Summer Fever Pick. So we start with the title track live in 1977. Then we have Love's Unkind live,  Take Me live, and Can't We Just Sit Down live.  And finally, we can't end without a little I Feel Love.  This is the video they made just a couple of years ago.

[AUG 30] Greetings all. I know this has been kind of a tough week for so many of us, but let me take care of regular business first then I'll come back to this topic.  So let's start with, we have a new Summer Fever Pick since it's practically September. This month we are looking at I Remember Yesterday.

[AUG 30] As you know this week Boston had its annual Donna Summer Disco Party.  So far the only reports I've seen about it are from the Boston Globe - which is behind a paywall.  But if you are a subscriber, or have a sneaky trick to bypass the paywall, the here's the link.

[AUG 30] In the land of articles, American Songwriter has posted their 4 Donna Summer songs that make them want to dance. (Only 4? Amateurs!  LOL)  Just once I'd like to see an article like this that ignores the hits and picks out the most obscure deep cuts. LOL

[AUG 30] Also in the land of articles, if you are old like me and get the AARP magazine (or if you are a member you can access it online), the August September 2026 issue (Danny Devito on the cover) has an article on disco and of course Donna's photo is right there front and center. :-)

[AUG 30] Bruce Sudano fans - he has another single from Fugitive Kind streaming now. It's Pretenders and it features Donna prominently on backing vocals.  (It's not quite a duet but it's not far from one.) Bruce posted a reel on Facebook about the song.

[AUG 30] Moving on to Johnnyswim... they have added the Connie's Chicken video to the SwimTeam page.  Also, their son Joaquin has a band called Forfront and they have a couple of songs out on Spotify now.  Not bad for kids who are what? I think Joaquin is 11 or 12 now? Something like that.   Way to go kids!  :-)

[AUG 30] Moving on to the weirdness of the week.... as I'm sure you all know by now Dolly Parton passed away on Tuesday. (And here I thought she was indestructible - someone please wrap our other beloved divas in bubblewrap or something!) Like the rest of the world, I am devastated.  I have been a fan of Dolly since probably about the same time I became a fan of Donna.  I never followed her as closely, but her music has been a part of my life since I was a teenager.  Singer, songwriter, actress, and more importantly a damn good person.  Some say she could have been a billionaire if she didn't keep giving away money to those who need it more.  Her Imagination Library has provided so many free books to so many young children - including a little 4 year old who is particularly special to me.  For a woman whose exterior was notoriously fake (hair, nails - she would joke about that), her heart was absolutely real.  She may be the only person in the world who was genuinely loved by all.  In fact one of the archival interview clips I saw recently had the interviewer (was it Barbara Walters? I forget) if Dolly would want to run for President.  Dolly demurred saying that she thought there had already been enough boobs in the Whitehouse.  LOL So now you are saying, "Isn't this a Donna Summer website? Why and you blabbering about Dolly Parton?"  Well, there is a connection and I'm sure most of you know what I am getting at. Bruce and Donna wrote a song called Starting Over Again. Dolly recorded it and had a hit with it.  :-)  Which brings me to....

[AUG 30] ... YouTube. This weeks clips honor Donna and Dolly together (sort of.)  We start with the Mac Davis Show clip everybody has been posting in Donna circles this week  - a gospel medley with Donna, Dolly, Mac and Tom Jones.  (Although there are a number of photos of Donna and Dolly together at events, this is the only video I have ever seen where they sang together.)  Then we have a mashup of Does He Love You featuring Donna, Liza Minelli, Dolly, and Reba McEntire. Moving on we have Starting Over Again: Donna on The Tonight Show, Bruce and his guitar, and Dolly live on the CMA Awards - sorry the sound is a little rough on this clip.  Then we have Bruce talking about the song - part 1 and part 2.  (Fun fact - Bruce recorded Starting Over Again for his Fugitive Kind album. He mentioned in a comment about the release of Pretenders, that Starting Over Again would be released to streaming in about a month. ) And finally on my YouTube list - Donna singing Smile live, because I think we need to hear it now.

[AUG 30] And finally, I would have loved to find a verifiable quote from Donna about Dolly for this update, but I did run into this quote from Dolly about Donna when Donna passed: She was the disco queen, and will remain so. I knew her and found her to be one of the most likable and fun people ever.

[AUG 23] Happy Sunday all! Can you believe it's already August 23? You know that that means, right? We are only 5 days away from the annual Donna Summer Disco Party in Boston.  It runs from 5 to 9 PM in City Plaza Hall. There will be music spun by DJ Vince1, lights, disco ball, and of course skating. The event is family friendly and free to enter. And you can usually spot members of Donna's family there.  (Sometimes they even perform!) If you are in the Boston area, go check it out. It's a fun way to spend a Friday night.  :-)

[AUG 23] In other news, Grunge.com counted down their top hits of 1977. You should not be surprised to learn that I Feel Love is on that list.  :-)

[AUG 23] Johnnyswim fans if you are looking for a little November vacation, don't forget the duo is playing the Moon River at Sea cruise again this year November 11 to 15.  Drew Holcomb And The Neighbors will be there too so I would imagine you will see the 2 acts team up for a song or 2 at some point.  :-) (Ring The Bells!)

[AUG 23] Also in Johnnyswim news, they have moved their New Music Monday performance of Hollywood to Swim Team.

[AUG 23] I think that brings us to YouTube.  Since we have the Donna Summer party happening in Boston, let's make that our theme this week.  First up, a playlist from Donna Summer Day 2022 with performances by Mary, a short clip of Mary from 2018, and Omega Red doing Angel in 2015.  Moving on to clips of the diva herself (I mean Donna, not Mary  ;-) ),  we have Hot Stuff live in Boston 2010,  MacArthur Park and Last Dance from Dick Clark Live Wednesday, I Feel Love from Live & More Encore, and in a nod to the documentary, and  If There Is Music There from Live & More Encore.  Ok the law is I can't leave you down, so let's add Donna and Barry Manilow on Could It Be Magic.  :-)

[AUG 16] Greetings all! It's a quiet week as summer is winding down here in the US and kids are getting ready to go back to school.  I want to start off with an important message. Today Bruce shared on social media that his email (his personal one - not the brucesudanomerch one they use for the mailing list) has been hacked.  So if you get an email from him that says "you're invited" - DO NOT click the link inside. (Better to not even open it!)  It's a phishing scam. You click the link in the email, it brings you to a shady site that asks you to login with your email password, Microsoft ID, etc. And/or they might ask you to download a file. Then, you are officially hacked too. Yay - what a way to spend the weekend... not.  LOL If you clicked on one of those shady links, go change your passwords NOW and if possible, set up 2 factor authentication.  And if you want more info, just Google "you're invited email scam".

[AUG 16] Moving on the better things....  In Donna-land, FiftyPlusAdvocate.com posted a short article about She Works Hard For The Money. Nothing that we don't already know, but it's always fun to see Donna's songs getting some love from the media.  :-)

[AUG 16] And in Johnnyswim news, they have added a few videos to the Swim Team page recently. You can find Songs With Strangers episode 4 there along with Swim Or Die episode 4.  And then there is Amanda's (and Paloma's LOL) "Get Ready With Me" makeup video.  Look for Luna to make an appearance in the second half of the video.  I'm not a makeup girl, but watching the littles get into it was fun.  :-)

[AUG 16] That brings us to YouTube.  Let me start with something that cracked me up. It's an AI slop reel that claims to show what Donna would look like today vs what she looked like in 1977.  So the today image is umm... let's say  not accurate.  LOL But that's only because the 1977 image is also... ummm ...not accurate.  So if you want to see the aging of an AI created person, here it is.  LOL  (I really wish I understood the point of the video if the starting image is wrong. Oh yeah... clicks. ) On to real clips now.  LOL  Last week I shared some Festival de Viña clips for you. Well now the channel has posted the whole  45 minute show.  Then we have a repost of Donna singing a bit of Hot Stuff on Sharon Osbourne's show (with a special guest appearance by Brooklyn.) Next is a VH1 interview to promote Donna's autobiography (the sound is a but fuzzy in places though),  and an NBC Weekend interview also promoting Ordinary Girl: The Journey.  And finally, since I kept running into a bunch of AI slop videos of Donna and Giorgio in the studio,  here's the real Donna and the real Giorgio out of the studio doing Carry On.

[AUG 9] Happy Sunday all! Let's start off in Australia this week.  :-)  DNA magazine (issue 319) has an article about Donna. If you run into the magazine in your journeys grab a copy. Unfortunately, you can't read the article online - at least not for free. As an extra bonus - there is a lot of masculine eye candy in the magazine.  ;-)

[AUG 9] American Songwriter just posted an article about Love To Love You that pulls a lot of info from an interview Donna did with NPR.  Now, the article says it was a 2023 interview..... ummm.... no, NPR didn't use a Ouija board or a psychic or anything.  LOL It was actually a 2003 interview that got reposted in 2023.

[AUG 9] Bruce Sudano fans - check out his latest interview  for Mescalina.it. It's in Italian of course, but it's so easy to translate webpages these days.  :-) And this is worth the read. Also, don't forget that his single A Girl Like You from Fugitive Kind is now streaming at the usual places.

[AUG 9] I think that  brings us to YouTube.  This week let's look at some recently uploaded clips. So first up is a video of the Cats Without Claws album press kit. Then we have Last Dance from Night Of Proms 2005  uploaded to Donna's official channel, and 3 clips on the Festival de Viña Chile channel: This Time I Know It's For Real,  Breakaway, and On The Radio.  And finally, the Olympic Games & Olympic Figure Skating channel has reposted Alysa Liu's gold medal skate to MacArthur Park.

[AUG 2] Greetings all and Happy August! Since it's a new month you know what that means. Time for the new Summer Fever Pick. This month we look at Four Seasons Of Love.

[AUG 2] In the land of Donna, Economic Times chose Donna for their quote of the day: "I don't care if I'm beautiful; I don't care what I am on the outside..."

[AUG 2] Bruce fans, check out his latest video on Facebook where he compares the version of Talking Ugly Truths Tellin' Pretty Lies from the album of the same name, with the sketch version from Sketchbook. If you haven't compared on your own yet, definitely take a look at this video.  Also look for the first single from Fugitive Kind, A Girl Like You,  to hit the streaming services on August 7.

[AUG 2] Johnnyswim fans - if you haven't checked out Swim Team lately, they have added Swim Or Die episode 3 and the granola episode of Say Grace to the video collection.

[AUG 2] And that brings us to YouTube. This week we are celebrating the Summer Fever Pick.  So let's start off with Summer Fever live in Brazil 1995.  Then we have the video for Autumn Changes, followed by Winter Melody live in Italy 1977,  and finally Spring Affair from Disco Circus.

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