Customer Reviews

Bad Girls

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This absolutely brilliant album gave Donna Summer at least four great hits, two of which occupied the No. 1 and 2 positions on the Billboard charts simultaneously for a couple of weeks in 1979 (Hot Stuff and the title track, both rock-influenced tracks with prominent electric guitar). But what's so truly excellent about it, is that there's no filler tracks here - every single one of these songs is tuneful and memorable. Amongst the lesser known classics, my favourites include the tender ballads On My Honor, All Through The Night and My Baby Understands that have Donna moving successfully into torch-song territory, and the soaring disco numbers Our Love, Journey To the Center Of Your Heart and the addictive Lucky - this last being one of her most powerful songs of all time which should have been released as a single way back. It must also be mentioned that this album gave Summer credibility amongst the rock crowd (Disco was much despised when this album was released) but I also loved her earlier stuff, especially the other concept album Once Upon A Time. Bad Girls has only improved with time and serves as an excellent showcase for Donna's songwriting and vocal skills as well as Giorgio Moroder's genius as producer.

It's somewhat unfair that "Bad Girls" (1979) gets praised simply as one of the finest disco albums ever when in fact it's an album that transcends disco and incorporates everything from rock ("Hot Stuff"), funk ("Bad Girls"), country ("On My Honour") and even electronica ("Lucky").

"Bad Girls" was made in 1979 and it's important to note the timing because this album was the template that many female artists of the 80s, including Laura Branigan, Irene Cara, Taylor Dayne, and yes, even Whitney Houston and Madonna, would use to build their own albums: intercutting pop/dance/rock tracks with ballads.

With the exceptions of Whitney and Madonna (and later Mariah Carey and Celine Dion), nobody could do it better than Donna. From the strong writing to the superb vocals, "Bad Girls" showcases Donna at her peak. Although up to this point Donna was well-known for her disco music, this album allowed her to break out into the pop/rock arena. Particularly "Hot Stuff" showed a grittier Donna, but unfortunately Donna never truly embraced rock and roll (or it did not embrace her) which is too bad because later tracks like "Cold Love" proved she could really rock.

There are disco-type tracks on this album but it never really feels like a "disco" album. It is entirely enjoyable on its own terms, and it set the stage for the 80s, a feat Donna and her producers rarely get credit for. Enjoy!

Now this is THE quintessential Donna Summer album! This is where Donna showed that she not only knew how to heat up the dance floor, but she could just as sure rock the house (and the charts) as well.

From its initial single "Hot Stuff", you knew you were in for something a little different from her prior offerings, and by golly, it worked! But besides showing that Donna could stand her ground on the rock scene as well as the discos and nightclubs, it also showcased Donna as a first class balladeer with songs like the beautiful "On My Honor", and the plaintive "All Through The Night". Of course as anyone knows, she just wouldn't be Donna if she didn't make you feel good (isn't that what it's all about anyway! )

The success of this album not only lies in the success of the hit singles ("Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls", "Dim All The Lights", "Walk Away", "Our Love") but also in it's seamless effort to keep the party going (a concept which was adoped again by greatest hits package "On The Radio"), flowing one song straight into the next. Of the album tracks, the most noteworthy lie in the form of the pure disco stylings of "Lucky" and "Love Will Always Find You" and the electronic glory of "Sunset People" (which appeared as the b-side to the "Our Love" single).

This album is a must, not just for people looking for great disco, but for anyone looking for great music! My recommendation over any other full-length original album in her career.

Donna should be commended for having the personal strength and courage to put out yet another disco album when disco started going out of vogue. Four songs retain a mostly disco feel: "Walk Away", "Dim All The Lights", "One Night In A Lifetime" and "Lucky". In addition, we have the pair "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls" that is heavily influenced by rock; other tracks are ballads.

This is a dashing disc for any disco freak, let alone freaks of both disco and rock.

If Donna Summer was the Queen of Disco, then this album was her coronation. On "Bad Girls," she and her producers stepped away from monotonous, monochromatic dance floor entries. It seems obvious that they set out to really make music; to really tell a story. This was the Age of Disco (1979), an age of pre-AIDS, do-whatcha-wanna-do excess. The envelope of free expression (sexually, that is) was being pushed to its very limits. This album plays like a soundtrack of that expression, from a female standpoint. (If you want to see how that era saw itself, watch two films: "Looking For Mr. Goodbar" and "Cruisin'"!) The songs are mini-masterworks. They delve into many areas, but they are neither preachy nor redundant. Feminism was gaining a much stronger voice in the overall pop culture during these times, and Donna Summer proved to be a fine spokeswoman for new ideas. The message she carries through a variety of moods and modes seems to be, "Hear me out before you judge me!" She is backed by strong musicianship, and the album had enough of a rock edge that the masses really bought into it. "Bad Girls" was a smash, topping the U.S. album chart for 6 weeks during that long, hot summer of '79. Donna meanders through all facets of the issues she tackles, defining sex and love, and listing the distinguishing factors between the two. On "Hot Stuff," she is on a manhunt, determined to "bring a wildman back home." The title cut shows the trade-off that some women are willing to make: submission for dollars! "Love Will Always Find You" shows that Donna still believes in The Fairy Tale. "Walk Away" demonstrates the struggle between dependence, independence, and co-dependence that can occur in human relationships. Donna was optimistic on "Dim All The Lights," believing she had found the perfect lover, and that love should lead to sex. But the next three songs find her in differing lights. On "Journey To The Center Of Your Heart," sex has clearly come first, and Donna is hoping she will find love at the end of the rainbow. On "One Night In A Lifetime," she doesn't seem to care WHAT happens after sex, only about its fruition. "Can't Get To Sleep At Night" finds our heroine in one relationship, but missing a past lover. Side three of the album featured ballads, all of them written or co-written by Summer. "On My Honor" expresses faith in the face of hopelessness. "There Will Always Be A You" is much in the same vein, focusing on how lovers tend to come back to one another. "All Through The Night" is probably the most tender song Donna ever wrote, and is a pretty expression of the restlessness of those times. "My Baby Understands" finds a woman glorying in the light of sexual and intellectual satisfaction. The last three songs are again upbeat. "Our Love" seems to be a personal message from Donna to her soon-to-be husband, Bruce Sudano; her belief being that love would last forever. "Lucky" finds her back in a night club, not really wanting to be there, but "getting lucky" for her trouble. "Sunset People" is one last look at the crazy, sleazy world of hustling that was Hollywood, as the 1980s beckoned. All told, Donna Summer informed us that sex is sex, and love is love. One often follows the other; one often takes the place of the other. And, it's hard to live without either one; damn near impossible to find both in a single other person. "Bad Girls" was a chronicle of our collective mindset, at a very volatile time in our history. Donna Summer spoke from a woman's perspective, but she had a lesson for all of us, about the human condition. We listened and we learned. We felt this album deep in our souls.

Ever since I was 12 years old in 1975, I began to love Donna Summer when she had her first Top 10 smash "Love to Love You, Baby". I been her fan during the Disco Years. This collection that she released in 1979, makes Donna one of the hottest performers in music history.

Anyone who does not have this album in their music collection, must consider owning this BAD GIRL. Donna really cooks on the title hit, Hot Stuff, and makes people dance on Dim All The Lights.

The team of Moroder and Belotte has done an excellent job producing this classic. I've got to admit, I'll always be her fan until the day I die.

I'm still lost in the 70's, but I'm adding more of Donna's music to my Disco collection. I have this album, and you should, too. Disco Rules!!!!

Her final album for Casablanca, and not probably but DEFINITELY her best! This album contains four massive hits: "Hot stuff", "Bad girls", "Walk away" and "Dim all the lights". Note that the first four tracks are "continuous play", so do tracks 5 to 8. But there is also a ballad side ("All through the night" is my favourite) and the album ends with three more progressive cuts, including the six-minute-plus peak-hour tune "Sunset people". You will play this one on and on...

Ever since 1975's orgasmic "Love to Love You Baby", critics have been anxious to write off Donna Summer has a one-hit wonder. But by 1979, with numerous platinum records to her credit, Summer clearly became bored with the disco medium and decided to demonstrate her range with the ambitious BAD GIRLS. Originally a double album, this record boasts over 75 minutes of some of Summer's best work. Years before Michael Jackson and Prince fused dance and rock, Summer delivered "Hot Stuff". And preceding Blondie's "Rapture", Summer rapped with "Bad Girls", the title track about Hollywood prostitutes. BAD GIRLS is an amazing record. In its original 2-record format, Summer varied her music with one side of pop-rock tracks, one side of ballads, and an entire disc devoted to Eurodisco that has recently become in vogue again with the London underground sound. Aside from the variety and the restrainted production by Giorgio Moroder, we have at the center of BAD GIRLS, Summer's incredible voice moving deftly from rock to pop to the velvety-smooth orgasma that was her trademark. Forget those Madonna records and pass on "Let's go Barbi", BAD GIRLS was dance music at its best. END

Call it whatever you want - disco, funk, soul, rock, pop - BAD GIRLS is Donna Summer's best album, and noting that she had a run of four multi-platinum DOUBLE-ALBUMS (who else can say that in music history?), that's really sayin' something. Bottom line: even through I love punk to house to electro to country to soul and all in between, BAD GIRLS is probably the album that I've played the most out of any other title - why? There's not one weak cut on this ambitious, flawless, varied opus, as Donna (armed with Moroder's peerless production/studio skill and great hooks) tackles disco, ballads, rock, country, and even proto-house (New Order stole OUR LOVE to make BLUE MONDAY, hello?!) and never misses a beat or breaks a sweat. Is there a better voice in all of pop music? I can't think of it, I'm gonna go listen to DIM ALL THE LIGHTS again and twirl around in the dark.

In the late 70's, Double-length albums were still regarded as epical significance, and Donna Summer churned 'em out on a regular basis!

Just as the CD Cover says, it's over 70 minutes of music, which in Compact Disc terms is crammed to the gill. I still own the LP and pull it off the shelf, since I'm so used to that format it was a little bizarre at first to see the tracks listed straight down with no mention of "Sides". But ah well, that's my typical self.

The album was produced by Disco's dynamic duo of Giorgio Moroder and Peter Bellote, and the backing music is of the high quality you'd expect from them, nothing more/nothing less.

The one-two Sass punch of "Hot Stuff" and the title track gets things started. Both were smash hits back in the day. Trailing behind is the cheerful and jazzy "Love will always find you". Side A ends in the form of "Walk away" which boasts a down-trodden bass intro.

Romantic stand-out "Dim all the Lights" is an alltime favorite of mine. "Journey to the Center of your heart" is laced with a gospel-style chorus, reflecting her roots. "One Night in a lifetime" is a full medley of horns and old fashioned piano with a great chorus, it is severely overlooked and underrated in the Donna Summer catalog. The Bass/Organ combo of "Can't get to sleep at night" provides likewise joys.

"Lucky" sports a relaxing vibe, and A smooth flow accompanies the closing track "Sunset People", an ode to the west coast

"Bad Girls" represents a remarkable value, I highly recommend it.