It’s been announced that Donna Summer was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall Of Fame in a ceremony that took place last week.
Other inductees were Taylor Swift, LL Cool J and David Byrne. This year’s non-performing entrant was Pete Bellotte, who of course was Summer’s co-writer (along with Giorgio Moroder) on all of Summer’s classic run of hits in the 1970s.
“I know how important it was for Donna,” said Summer's husband, Bruce Sudano, in a statement about the induction. “With all the accolades that she received over her career, being respected as a songwriter was always the thing that she felt was overlooked. So for her to be accepted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, I know that she’s very happy somewhere.”
The honour is some belated recognition, at least, of her creative skills. That reductive phrase ‘disco diva’ hung around Summer like a lead weight, for the singer/songwriter was much more than that. Working as a team, Summer, Bellotte and Moroder created a succession of concept albums that were as ambitious as anything cooked up by the prog fraternity. Love To Love You Baby and A Love Trilogy both featured side-long tracks that topped the 15-minute mark and Four Seasons Of Love told the story of an affair over the course of a year.
Their greatest achievement was probably 1977’s I Remember Yesterday, a kind of gazetteer of 20th-century music, from 20s ragtime to 60s Motown, through to I Feel Love, which was specifically intended to be a preview of music’s future.
Moroder’s reputation swelled as a result of his innovative production work on these albums and perhaps overshadowed that of his colleagues. Certainly, Summer’s career ran into difficulty. She struggled to find a foothold in the post-disco world, though in the UK at least, continued to have hits throughout the 1980s.
In an alternate universe, she’s out there performing greatest hits sets around the world and soaking up the acclaim as one of the iconic figures of 20th-century music. Sadly, she succumbed to lung cancer in 2012 before any such third act could get underway. The induction into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame is a long overdue accolade for a figure that despite all her hits (including one of the most important singles of all time) continues to be strangely underrated..
