Released November 23, 1979 Recorded 1979 | Format 7" single, 12" single Length 4:05 | |
B-side "There Will Always Be a You" Genre Pop, Disco, Adult Contemporary | ||
"On the Radio" is a song by American singer and songwriter Donna Summer, released in late-1979 on the Casablanca record label. It was written for the soundtrack to the film Foxes and included on Summer's first international compilation album On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II. It was released as a single and became, in January 1980, her tenth top-ten hit in the U.S. as well as her eighth and final consecutive top 5 single. "On the Radio" peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and number nine on the soul chart. The song was also Summer's fourteenth entry on the Billboard Disco chart, where it peaked at number eight. In Canada, it peaked at number two.
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The song was released in three formats: the radio 45rpm single; the 5+ minute version included on Summer's Greatest Hits double album package, and a DJ Promo 7+ minute version released on 12" single (and included on the Foxes film soundtrack album). This last version was later released on the Bad Girls CD digipack double CD release. The Foxes soundtrack also includes an instrumental version of the song in a ballad tempo and crediting Moroder as a solo artist. In the film, the ballad tempo is heard with Donna Summer's vocals. The disco version is never heard. Donna Summer performed "On the Radio" on many television shows such as American Bandstand. The instrumental parts of this song were occasionally heard on the US version of The Price Is Right in the early 1980s when they displayed jukeboxes and stereos as prizes. While the first two versions included all written lyrics, the DJ Promo omitted the final verse, opting instead to repeat the third. Only the first "short" version ended with the famous "on the radio - adio - adio" echo vocal effect. For the second consecutive year, Summer placed at least three singles in the Billboard Year-End charts in 1980.