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Donna Summer’s Greatest Hits

by Legacy Staff

We are remembering disco queen Donna Summer by putting on our dancing shoes and listening to a few of her greatest hits.

We are remembering Donna Summer, who died May 17, 2012, at 63 after a battle with lung cancer, by putting on our dancing shoes and listening to a few of her greatest hits. 

Singer Donna Summer poses with three awards she won at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles, Calif. (AP Photo / Nick Ut)
Singer Donna Summer poses with three awards she won at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California.
(AP Photo / Nick Ut)

The Queen of Disco was incredibly prolific, with 19 albums and dozens of singles over the course of her decades-long recording career. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but we can narrow it down to her all-time top hits – the ones that hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Summer had hit after hit on the dance charts, but these select few were so great that they electrified listeners off the dance floor, too.

Summer had been a disco sensation for a few years before she released “MacArthur Park,” but the song with the silly lyrics – and great dance beat – was her first to hit the Hot 100.

“MacArthur Park” was followed by three back-to-back No. 1 hits in 1979. “Hot Stuff” was the first – and it won her a Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. She was both the first black artist to win in that category and the first woman to win a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance.

Summer’s record company wanted to give “Bad Girls” to Cher to record, but Summer refused. It was a great call, since it topped the charts and became one of her all-time most successful singles.

For Summer’s next single, she welcomed Barbra Streisand into the disco world with their duet, “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough).” The two divas created a veritable feminist anthem.

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