Live and More

Live and More
Live album by Donna Summer
Released	August 31, 1978
Recorded	1978
Genre	Disco/R&B
Length	65:45 (CD version)
Label	Casablanca
Producer	Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte
Professional reviews
Allmusic link
Donna Summer chronology
Once Upon a Time (1977) Live and More (1978) Bad Girls (1979)

Live and More was the seventh vinyl long-playing (LP) album recorded by Donna Summer, and it was her second double album. The live concert featured on the first three sides of this double LP album was recorded in the Universal Amphitheater, Los Angeles, California in 1978. This album was released in 1978 by the Casablanca Records company, which was starting to have increasing control over Summer's recording and publishing career. However, Casablanca Records would later go out of business.

During the concert, Summer performs a large number of her disco songs - both her hit singles, and a selection of songs from her previous album, Once Upon a Time. However, in this album, Donna also experimented with other musical styles such as jazz, in "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good" and the George Gershwin song, "The Man I Love". She also performed a version of the ballad "The Way We Were", originally recorded by Barbra Streisand for the film of the same name, and a self-written ballad called "Mimi's Song", dedicated to her young daughter, Mimi. She was present at this concert for Summer to sing the song to her, and she is heard on the recording saying goodnight to the audience. The concert ends with one of Summer's best-known disco tracks in the United States - "Last Dance". Though the studio recording of this song was not included in any Donna Summer album, it had been used in the soundtrack of the movie Thank God It's Friday, in which Summer had also acted.

The composer Paul Jabara won an Academy Award for Best Song from a motion picture, and Summer herself won her first Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance with this song. A personal favorite of Summer's, it was one of the first disco songs to also feature slow parts, both at the beginning and in the middle. This would become a format that Donna would use several more times during the disco era. Although the single version of "Last Dance" removed some of the slow parts, the full version was sung in this concert.

The fourth and final side of this double LP album contained a new studio recording entitled "MacArthur Park Suite", which is a medley of four songs including the main song "MacArthur Park", originally recorded as a ballad by the Irish actor Richard Harris. Summer's disco version was edited and issued as a single, and it became one of her biggest hits - her first Number one song on the American Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and a Top five song in the United Kingdom. This song also earned Donna Summer a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Another song in the medley, "Heaven Knows" was an American Top five hit, and it featured vocals by Joe Esposito of the Brooklyn Dreams musical group. That group included the musician Bruce Sudano, whom Donna would later marry.

Live and More would become Summer's first Number One double album in the United States later achieve "double platinum" status in the U.S.

Track listing

All songs were written by Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Once Upon a Time" - 3:03
2. "Fairy Tale High" - 2:20
3. "Faster and Faster to Nowhere" - 2:09
4. "Spring Affair" - 2:34
5. "Rumour Has It" - 2:34
6. "I Love You" - 3:38

Side two

1. "Only One Man" (Summer, Bob Conti, Virgil Weber) - 2:06
2. "I Remember Yesterday" - 3:52
3. "Love's Unkind" - 2:37
4. "My Man Medley" - 6:25
   1. "The Man I Love" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin)
   2. "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good" (Duke Ellington, Paul Francis Webster)
   3. "Some of These Days" (Shelton Brooks)
5. "The Way We Were" (Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, Marvin Hamlisch) - 3:23
6. "Mimi's Song" (Summer, Weber) - 4:28

Side three

1. "Try Me, I Know We Can Make It" - 4:14
2. "Love to Love You Baby" - 3:23
3. "I Feel Love" - 6:54
4. "Last Dance" (Paul Jabara) - 5:50

Side four

1. "MacArthur Park Suite" - 17:35
   1. "MacArthur Park" (Jimmy Webb)
   2. "One of a Kind"
   3. "Heaven Knows" Duet with the Brooklyn Dreams featuring Joe Esposito
   4. "MacArthur Park (Reprise)" (Jimmy Webb)

NB: When Live and More was released on compact disc (CD), the "MacArthur Park Suite" was replaced with an extended version of the song "Down Deep Inside", which Summer had recorded for the movie soundtrack for The Deep the previous year. The "MacArthur Park Suite", as featured on the "Various Artists" compilation record, The Casablanca Records Story, and the Bad Girls Deluxe Edition is from the 12-inch vinyl single, and it is not the original album version. This version can only be found now on The Dance Collection CD, the original Live and More vinyl LP album, and the Japanese CD issue of Live and More (Mercury PHCR 1032). The differences are these: in the 12-inch version, "Heaven Knows" was extended to incorporate the string introduction and the bridge horn solo of the single version for radio stations, and "One of a Kind" was trimmed of some percussion breaks.

The Universal Music Group, the former parent company of Polygram Records and the current rights-holder of all of the defunct Casablanca Records music, has no plans to release the original version of the album as a compact disc in the United States of America.

Chart positions

Album

Single

Personnel

• Donna Summer - vocals

• Keith Forsey - drums

• Richard Adelman - drums

• Sal Guglielmi - bass

• Ken Park - percussion

• Bob Conti - percussion

• Peter Woodford - rhythm guitar

• Mike Warren - lead guitar

• Doug Livingston - keyboards

• Virgil Weber - synthesizer

• Greg Mathieson - moog & clavinet

• Bobby Shew - trumpet

• Rich Cooper - trumpet

• Dalton Smith - trumpet

• Bruce Paulson - trombone

• Bob Payne - trombone

• Dick "Slide" Hyde - bass trombone

• Dick Spencer - alto sax

• Don Menza - tenor sax

• Joe Romano - baritone sax

• John Santulis - concert master, violins

• Pauel Farkas - violins

• Mari Tsumura - violins

• Teri Schoebrua - violins

• Jay Rosen - violins

• Lya Stern - violins

• Leonard Selic - viola

• Alfred Barr - viola

• Victor Sazer - cello

• Robert Adcock - cello

• John Fresco - contractor

• Sheri Wish - production manager

• Keith Robertson - stage manager

• Bryan Rooney - assistant stage manager

• Background vocals: Sunshine (Carlena Williams, Dara Bernard, Mary Ellen Bernard)

• Mike North - equipment

• Marc Figueroa - equipment

• Stanal Sound (Bob Ludwig, Jim Fox, John Taylor) - sound

• Lighting designed by Patrick Woodroffe for TFA Electrosound

• Graphics: Stephen Lumel, Henry Vizcarra

• Photographs by Francesco Scavullo

• Photography assistant: Sean Byrnes

• Donna Summer logotype: Tom Nikosey

• Costumes: David Picon

• Management: Susan Munao Management & Joyce Bogart Management Co.

Production

• Produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte

• Recorded live at the Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA. except "MacArthur Park Suite," a studio recording

• Engineered by: Juergen Koppers, Gary Ladinsky, Steve Smith

• Mixdown engineer: Juergen Koppers

• Mixed at Westlake Studios and Rust Studios

• Conducted by: Michael Warren

External links

• Donna Summer Live And More album info at Discogs

References