All Systems Go (Donna Summer album)

Background

After establishing herself as the top-ranked American female recording artist of the 1970s, Summer had broken out of her contract with Casablanca Records in 1980 to sign with the newly established Geffen Records, the label founded by David Geffen. But her album The Wanderer - Geffen's inaugural release - had disappointed David Geffen by falling somewhat short of the success level of Summer's previous Casablanca releases.

Geffen executives had elected to shelve a double album project (later released as I'm a Rainbow) she was working on with her longtime collaborators Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, an album Summer had expected to be her next release in 1981. Summer instead was assigned to work with Quincy Jones and the resultant Donna Summer album was released in 1982; also to fall short of Summer's '70s success level. Although it featured the Top 10, Grammy-nominated "Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)" single.

Geffen was displeased to learn that Summer legally owed her previous label Casablanca another album. Polygram Records had already owned 50% of Casablanca and it had previously purchased the other 50%, owning the company outright. Polygram notified Geffen Records and Summer that she still owed them another album per her contract with Casablanca. The Michael Omartian produced She Works Hard for the Money album was given to Polygram to satisfy the agreement and Polygram released it on its Mercury Records label in 1983. Ironically, Summer's return to the Polygram fold netted what would become her biggest album of the entire 1980s. The title song garnered her a Grammy nomination.

Owing no more albums to Polygram, Summer's next release was on her current label Geffen. Cats Without Claws, also produced by Omartian, was released in 1984 but failed to go gold and it did not repeat the success of its predecessor. Three years would pass without the release of any new material from Summer. During 1984, Summer would suffer under the rumours that she was homophobic. It was a known alleged rumour in the gay community, with her records being burned in the street of the San Francisco gay village 1984. In March 1987 Act Up was formed, the group took direct aim at Summer for the alleged anti-gay remarks. They picketed concerts and asked radio stations not to play her music; what had been before, just a rumour in the gay community was now being spread into the mainstream media. Some believe that it impacted her record sales and airplay in the mainstream pop market.

The album

The album was Summer’s first release since her 1984 album Cats Without Claws. In 1986 David Geffen hired Harold Faltermeyer, to produce the album at Donna's urging. The objective was a tough FM-oriented sound, Harold Faltermeyer had just finished the scores for the movies Fletch and Top Gun. Donna was adamant that it should have a stronger R & B influences on it. After the album was completed, Geffen heard the cuts and liked them but his executive team didn't think there were enough songs that could be deemed as singles. They had another song they wanted Harold to produce, but he was already working on other soundtrack projects. The song was “Dinner With Gershwin”, and Richard Perry was hired to produce it with track writer Brenda Russell. Harold was surprised that nobody on the Geffen team heard the potential for singles on "Fascination", "Voices Cryin Out" or "Thinkin' Bout My Baby". "We had other song completed for All Systems Go that didn't make the final cut. Like Money Talks, which I was surprised they passed on, and there are a couple others that would have completed our original version for the album, before "Dinner With Gershwin" and "Bad Reputation" became substitutes. The decision was made afterward by executives who were looking for a radio hit for 1987, and not something that would perhaps last beyond then".

Summer was credited as co-writer on seven of the nine tracks.

Release and aftermath

In the US "Dinner With Gershwin" became Summer's last Top Ten R&B hit and reached #48 on the pop charts. It gave Summer her highest UK chart placing (#13) since the '70s, also reaching #13 in Ireland and #43 in the Netherlands.

All Systems Go became the first album by Donna Summer to fall short of the Top 100 on Billboard's album chart, peaking at #122 and dropping off completely after six weeks. It also failed to reach the UK Top 75.

"Only The Fool Survives" with Mickey Thomas was the second single released from the album. In the UK, "All Systems Go" reached #54.

Personnel

Charts