Bad Girls

Bad Girls
Studio album by Donna Summer
Released	April 25, 1979
Recorded	January—March 1979
Genre	Pop, disco, soul, rock
Length	71:27
Label	Casablanca
Producer	Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte
Donna Summer chronology
Live and More (1978) Bad Girls (1979) On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II (1979)
Singles from Bad Girls
"Hot Stuff" Released: April 1979 "Bad Girls" Released: June 1979 "Dim All the Lights" Released: October 1979 "Sunset People" Released: July 1980 "Our Love" Released: August 1980 "Walk Away" Released: November 1980

Bad Girls is the seventh studio album by American pop singer Donna Summer, released April 25, 1979 on Casablanca Records. Originally issued as a double album, it incorporates such musical styles as disco, soul, and rock. Bad Girls became the best-selling album of Summer's recording career, achieving double platinum sales certification in the United States, and selling approximately four million copies total worldwide.

Background

Since the release of her breakthrough album which contained the sexually arousing "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. 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 used in the British film The Full Monty. "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

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	A−[2]
PopMatters	favorable[3]
Q	[4]
Rolling Stone	favorable 1979[5]
Rolling Stone	2003[6]
Virgin Encyclopedia	[7]
Yahoo! Music	favorable[8]

The album became her best-selling album ever, currently double platinum, at over 2 million copies sold in the U.S. and shifting about four million total worldwide. It also became her second consecutive number-one album in the U.S., spending in addition three weeks at number one in Canada on the RPM 100 national albums chart.^[9] 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 Disco Recording. "Dim All the Lights" was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and the album itself was nominated for Album of the Year.

The year 1979 ended with Casablanca releasing a Donna Summer greatest hits double-album, which also included a couple of new songs, one being the hit single On the Radio. For her next studio album, Summer wanted to branch out into other formats of music but she and the label could not come to an agreement on her musical direction. Summer instead 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, a format Summer had always liked, not to mention there had been a "disco backlash". In the meantime, Casablanca chose to release more singles from the Bad Girls album; "Sunset People" and "Walk Away". "Walk Away" 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.

Track listing

Original LP

Deluxe edition

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

Personnel

Musicians

• Donna Summer - lead and background vocals, composition, production
• Giorgio Moroder - bass, synthesizer, guitar, composition, production
• Pete Bellotte - bass, composition, production
• Harold Faltermeyer - composition, drums, keyboards, synclavier
• Bruce Sudano - synthesizer and composition
• Joe Esposito - background vocals and composition
• Keith Forsey - background vocals, drums, percussion, and composition
• Bob Conti - drums and composition
• Edward "Eddie" Hokenson - composition

Production

• Producers: Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte, Harold Faltermeyer
• Engineer: Jason Corsaro
• Production manager: Budd Tunick
• Drum programming: Jimmy Bralower
• Art direction: Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff
• Design: Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff, Jeri McManus

Charts and certifications

Chart positions

Singles

Chart precession and succession

Certifications

See also

• List of number-one albums of 1979 (U.S.)
• List of number-one R&B albums of 1979 (U.S.)

References

External links

• Bad Girls at Discogs
• Deluxe edition reviews