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Apparently, the best dance music has come out of Boston. Donna Summer’s 1977 smash hit “I Feel Love” was named the best dance song of all time by Billboard staff. The track, which was included on Summer’s fifth studio album “I Remember Yesterday,” has been regarded as one of the most important records in pop music history. “History (and this list) tells us that dance music — in the literal, platonic sense — existed before ‘I Feel Love.’ But dance music, as we know it today — the heaving, the sweat, the communing, the ecstasy (pun intended), the cultural shorthand and culture unto itself, and to some, even a religion — that, arguably, was realized in the spring of 1977, when Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, and Pete Bellotte recorded “I Feel Love,’” Billboard wrote of the song. The song’s lyrics were inspired by a lengthy call between Summer and her psychic who told the “Queen of Disco” who she would spend the rest of her life with — and she did. Summer was married to her husband Bruce Sudano up until her death from lung cancer in 2012. “On paper, those lyrics aren’t much. But isn’t that what being in love is like? To be so enraptured, intoxicated, liberated, that any attempts to truly articulate it feel inadequate? But oh, to hear them on the song!,” Billboard wrote. The outlet also praised “the genius” of Moroder and Bellotte for crafting the iconic song. Billboard said the producers/songwriters “yielded something that hadn’t really been heard in a pop song before: a continuous, sequenced electronic bassline and washes of synths. It’s uncomplicated, but unstoppable; otherworldly, but we feel it, know it, deeply.” The outlet continued, “In combination with Summer’s vocals — organic and sensual — its electronic precision transcends those past limitations of human expression. The result is timeless — both in the sense of standing the test of time, and the sensation of being lost within it, suspended of it. And what is it to dance to music if not that?” Summer was born to parents Mary and Andrew Gaines on Dec. 31, 1948 in Boston, her biography states. Her mother said Summer started singing “from the time she was little.” “She literally lived to sing,” Mary Gaines said, per the biography. “She used to go through the house singing, singing. She sang for breakfast and for lunch and for supper.” Summer attended Jeremiah E. Burke High School where she starred in musicals and was very popular. In 1967, when she was only 18 and weeks away from graduating, Summer auditioned for and was cast in a production of “Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical” in Munich, Germany. Despite her parents’ disapproval, Summer flew to Germany to participate in the play. She stayed in Munich and performed in several other musicals. Summer also worked in a recording studio where she sang backup and recorded demo tapes. While still in Munich, Summer recorded her 1974 debut solo album, “Lady of the Night.” The album yielded a major European hit, “The Hostage,” but failed to crack the U.S. market. She later broke into the U.S. music scene with her 1975 sophomore album “Love to Love You Baby” and its title track, which topped the U.S. Dance Clubs chart. Summer would go on to record a string of ’70s and ‘80s dance hits including “Last Dance,” “Hot Stuff,” “Bad Girls,” “On the Radio” and “She Works Hard for the Money.” She notched a Top 40 single on the Billboard Hot 100 every year from 1976 to 1984, according to Billboard. Overall, Summer sold more than 100 million records worldwide, many of which have been certified gold or platinum in the U.S. The singer scored 16 No. 1 hits on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart, four chart-topping singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200: “Live And More,” “On The Radio: Greatest Hits: Volumes I & II” and “Bad Girls,” which remains her biggest selling album of her career. Summer is also the recipient of five Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.
