Bad Girls (Donna Summer album)

Background

Since the release of her breakthrough album which contained the sexually suggestive "Love to Love You Baby", Summer had been nicknamed "the First Lady of Love" in the press and her record label wanted her to keep this image, despite the fact that she was never truly comfortable with it. Several years later, Summer became addicted to prescription medication and reportedly suffered a mental breakdown at her California home in 1979; shortly afterwards, one of her sisters and backing vocalists in her band took her to a church in Los Angeles and Summer reconnected with her faith. Upon her recovery, Summer set to work on her new album with long-time partners Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, as well as various others she had not worked with before. By this time, although disco music was still popular, other styles such as punk and heavy metal were also doing well on the charts, so the team decided to incorporate a rockier sound into some of the songs. Other songs had a more soul/R&B feel to them, and in all it was probably Summer's most diverse album to date. The fusion of rock and disco was particularly evident, and synthesizers were used to augment the sound for a more electronic and dance oriented electro music in the first two songs on the album - "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls", which also became the first two singles to be released from the album. Both were huge hits and made number one on the American singles chart. The former also won Summer a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and became popular again in the 1990s when it was featured in The Full Monty and again in the film The Martian. "Dim All the Lights" was the third single and also became a huge hit, peaking at number two in the U.S.

Release and reception

The album became her best-selling studio album, being certified double platinum for sales in excess of 2 million copies in the U.S. by 1993 (double albums are certified per disc by the RIAA rather than per complete unit). It also became her second consecutive number-one album in the U.S., also spending three weeks at number one in Canada on the RPM 100 national albums chart. As well as the aforementioned Grammy Award for "Hot Stuff" (Best Female Rock Vocal Performance), the song "Bad Girls" was also nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. "Dim All the Lights" was nominated for Best Disco Recording and the album itself was nominated for Album of the Year.

Bad Girls would be Summer's final studio album for Casablanca Records, who ended 1979 with the release of a greatest hits double-album. For her next studio album, Summer wanted to branch out into other formats of music but since she and Casablanca could not come to an agreement on her musical direction, Summer opted to sign a new deal with Geffen Records, the then-new label formed by David Geffen. Her first album with Geffen Records was more rock/new wave oriented. In the meantime, Casablanca chose to release more singles from the Bad Girls album into 1980: "Sunset People" and "Walk Away", the latter of which became a moderate hit reaching the top 40. Casablanca/PolyGram also released a special edition compilation entitled Walk Away - Greatest Hits 1977-1980, which featured a selection of her hits from the Bad Girls period and the preceding years. In 2003 Universal Music, owners of the Casablanca/PolyGram back catalogue since 1998, re-issued Bad Girls as a digitally remastered and expanded deluxe edition.

Sales

There are different sources that have the album selling over 15 million copies worldwide (but these are unofficial). The RIAA site list the album as having sales of (1,000,000) sold as of May 3, 1979. This is most probably due to Casablanca Records never having the album re-certified and the label being absorbed by Polygram Records in 1980. Although the RIAA presented Summer with a Triple Platinum sales award in 1980, images of the award can be viewed on the web.

Deluxe edition

In 2003, Universal Music re-issued Bad Girls as a digitally remastered and expanded deluxe edition.

Musicians

Production

Weekly charts