Bad Girls (Donna Summer album)

Bad Girls is the seventh studio album by American singer and songwriter Donna Summer, released on April 25, 1979, on Casablanca Records. Originally issued as a double album, Bad Girls became the best-selling and most critically acclaimed album of Summer's career. It was also her final studio album for Casablanca Records. In 2003, Universal Music re-issued Bad Girls as a digitally remastered and expanded deluxe edition.

Bad Girls
Studio album by Donna Summer
Released	April 25, 1979
Recorded	December 1978 — March 1979
Studio	Rusk Sound Studios (Los Angeles, California)
Genre	Disco Hi-NRG R&B
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 13, 1979 "Bad Girls" Released: June 23, 1979 "Dim All the Lights" Released: October 5, 1979 "Sunset People" Released: July 11, 1980 "Our Love" Released: August 22, 1980 "Walk Away" Released: September 1, 1980

Bad Girls reached atop the US Billboard 200, where it stayed for six weeks: for one week on June 16, 1979, and then for five consecutive weeks, from July 7 to August 4, 1979. Bad Girls also topped the Billboard R&B Albums chart for three weeks, from June 23 to July 7, 1979, and all cuts from the album topped the Disco Top 80 for seven weeks, from May 26 to July 7, 1979.[1] It contained the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls", and the number-two hit "Dim All the Lights". Summer also achieved further success when she became the first female artist to have two songs in the top three of the Billboard Hot 100, when on the week of June 30, 1979, "Hot Stuff" fell to number two and "Bad Girls" rose to number three.

Bad Girls was universally acclaimed and was certified platinum—now double platinum—by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) within just a week of its release. At the 1980 Grammy Awards, Bad Girls was nominated for Album of the Year and "Hot Stuff" won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Additionally, "Bad Girls" was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and "Dim All the Lights" was nominated for Best Disco Recording.

Bad Girls is widely considered one of the greatest disco albums.[2] It was ranked by Rolling Stone's list of the Women Who Rock: The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time at number 23, where the magazine wrote, "The late great Queen of Disco pulls out all the stops for an album that sums up Seventies radio, from ladies-choice smooch jams to filthy funk."[3] In a BBC Music review of the album, Daryl Easla wrote, "Bad Girls is a fantastic reminder of when [Summer] was the Britney, Christina, Mary J and Missy of her day all rolled into one."[4]

Background

Having made her name in the preceding years as "the queen of disco," 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 it was featured in The Full Monty and again in the film The Martian. "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	[5]
Christgau's Record Guide	A–[6]
PopMatters	favorable[7]
Q	[8]
Rolling Stone	favorable (1979)[9]
Rolling Stone	(2003)[10]
Virgin Encyclopedia	[11]
Yahoo! Music	favorable[12]

Bad Girls was universally acclaimed by music reviews. The album was certified double platinum for sales in excess of 2 million copies in the U.S. on December 1, 1993 (double albums are certified per disc by the RIAA rather than per complete unit). It also became her second consecutive number-one album in the U.S., also spending three weeks at number one in Canada on the RPM 100 national albums chart.[13] 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 Female R&B Vocal Performance. "Dim All the Lights" was nominated for Best Disco Recording and the album itself was nominated for Album of the Year. The album was also nominated for "Favourite Pop/Rock Album" at the American Music Awards of 1980. The single took an American Music Award for "Favorite Pop/Rock Single", while Summer took awards for "Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist" & "Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist". In 2020, the album was ranked at 283 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.[14]

Bad Girls would be Summer's final studio album for Casablanca Records, who ended 1979 with the release of a greatest hits double-album. For her next studio album, Summer wanted to branch out into other formats of music but since she and Casablanca could not come to an agreement on her musical direction, Summer 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. In the meantime, Casablanca chose to release more singles from the Bad Girls album into 1980: "Sunset People" and "Walk Away", the latter of which 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.

Commercial performance

The RIAA site has the album certified as 1,000,000 sales as of May 3, 1979 (certification on December 1, 1993, is a format change and not due to sales).[15] The RIAA did not introduce multi-plantinum awards until 1984, thus there are no artist with multi-plantinum certifications on the RIAA web site before 1984. Bad Girls the album was designated Triple Platinum in 1979.[16] It has sold over 4 million copies in the US.[17]

Track listing

All tracks produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte except "My Baby Understands" by Donna Summer and Juergen Koppers.

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Hot Stuff"	Bellotte Harold Faltermeyer Keith Forsey	5:14
2.	"Bad Girls"	Donna Summer Bruce Sudano Joe "Bean" Esposito Edward "Eddie" Hokenson	4:55
3.	"Love Will Always Find You"	Bellotte Moroder	3:59
4.	"Walk Away"	Bellotte Faltermeyer	4:27

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
5.	"Dim All the Lights"	Summer	4:40
6.	"Journey to the Center of Your Heart"	Bellotte Moroder	4:36
7.	"One Night in a Lifetime"	Bellotte Faltermeyer	4:12
8.	"Can't Get to Sleep At Night"	Bob Conti Sudano	4:45

Side three

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
9.	"On My Honor"	Summer Faltermeyer Bruce Sudano	3:34
10.	"There Will Always Be a You"	Summer	5:07
11.	"All Through the Night"	Summer Bruce Roberts	6:01
12.	"My Baby Understands"	Summer	4:03

Side four

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13.	"Our Love"	Summer Moroder	4:51
14.	"Lucky"	Summer Moroder Esposito Hokenson Sudano	4:37
15.	"Sunset People"	Bellotte Faltermeyer Forsey	6:27

Deluxe edition — Disc 1 (bonus track)

No.	Title	Producer(s)	Length
16.	"Bad Girls" (demo version)	Summer	4:00

Deluxe edition — Disc 2: 12" Singles & More

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"I Feel Love"	Bellotte Moroder Summer		8:12
2.	"Last Dance" (from the soundtrack Thank God It's Friday)	Paul Jabara		8:11
3.	"MacArthur Park Suite" ("MacArthur Park"/"One of a Kind"/"Heaven Knows"/"MacArthur Park (Reprise)")	Bellotte Mathieson Moroder Summer Jimmy Webb		17:35
4.	"Hot Stuff"	Bellotte Faltermeyer Forsey		6:47
5.	"Bad Girls"	Summer Esposito Hokenson Sudano		4:57
6.	"Walk Away"	Bellotte Faltermeyer		7:16
7.	"Dim All the Lights"	Summer		7:14
8.	"No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" (duet with Barbra Streisand)	Roberts Jabara	Gary Klein	11:44
9.	"On the Radio" (long version; from the original soundtrack Foxes)	Moroder Summer	Moroder	7:35

Personnel

Musicians

• Donna Summer – lead and background vocals, composition, production
• Giorgio Moroder – bass guitar, synthesizer, guitar, composition, production
• Pete Bellotte – bass guitar, composition, production
• Harold Faltermeyer – bass guitar, composition, drums, keyboards, synclavier
• Bruce Sudano – synthesizer, composition
• Joe Esposito – background vocals, composition
• Keith Forsey – background vocals, drums, percussion, composition
• Jeff Baxter – guitar (solo on "Hot Stuff")
• Bob Conti – percussion, composition
• Edward "Eddie" Hokenson – composition
• Pamela Quinlan – background vocals
• Jai Winding – piano
• Jay Graydon, Paul Jackson Jr. – guitar
• Al Perkins – steel guitar
• Sid Sharp – strings
• Scott Edwards, Bob Glaub – bass guitar
• Gary Grant, Jerry Hey, Steve Madaio – trumpet
• Gary Herbig – saxophone
• Dick Hyde, Bill Reichenbach Jr. – trombone
• Stephanie Straill, Julia, Maxine Willard – backing vocals

Production

• Producers: Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte
• Arranged by: Harold Faltermeyer
• Recording Engineer: Jürgen Koppers, Steven D. Smith
• Assistant Engineer: Carolyn Tapp
• Mixing Engineer: Jürgen Koppers
• Original Mastering Engineer: Brian Gardner at Allen Zentz Mastering, Hollywood[18]
  • recorded and mixed at Rusk Sound studios, Hollywood; January – March 1979[19]
• Production manager: Budd Tunick
• Art direction: Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff
• Design: Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff, Jeri McManus
• Photography: Harry Langdon Jr.

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (1979) Peak Position Australia (Kent Music Report)[20] 6 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[21] 8 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[22] 24 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[23] 7 Japanese Albums (Oricon)[24] 9 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[25] 3 Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[26] 3 Spanish Albums (Promusicae)[27] 6 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[28] 3 UK Albums (OCC)[29] 23 US Billboard 200[30] 1 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[31] 1

Year-end charts Chart (1979) Position Australia (Kent Music Report)[32] 21 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[33] 26

Singles

Billboard (North America) Single Chart (1979/80) Peak position "Hot Stuff" Billboard Hot 100 1 Club Play Singles 1 Hot Soul Singles 3 "Bad Girls" Billboard Hot 100 1 Club Play Singles 1 Hot Soul Singles 1 "Dim All the Lights" Billboard Hot 100 2 Club Play Singles 1 Hot Soul Singles 13 Adult Contemporary Singles 44 "Walk Away" Billboard Hot 100 36 Hot Soul Singles 35

Outside North America Single Chart (1979/80) Peak position "Hot Stuff" German Media Control Singles Chart 5 Norway VG-lista Single Chart 2 Sweden Single Chart 2 UK Singles Chart 11 "Bad Girls" German Media Control Singles Chart 9 Norway VG-lista Single Chart 8 Sweden Single Chart 13 UK Singles Chart 14 "Dim All the Lights" German Media Control Singles Chart 25 UK Singles Chart 29 "Sunset People" UK Singles Chart 46

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[34]	2× Platinum	200,000^^
New Zealand (RMNZ)[35]	Gold	7,500^^
United Kingdom (BPI)[36]	Gold	100,000^^
United States (RIAA)[37]	2× Platinum	2,000,000^^
^^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

See also

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

References

1. "Gene J2P and P2J Ver 1 - Billboard 1979-05-26.pdf" (PDF). Billboard Magazine. May 26, 1979. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
2. Terich, Jeff (2014-08-21). "10 Essential Disco Albums". Treble. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
3. Sheffield, Rob; Stone, Rolling (2012-06-22). "Women Who Rock: The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
4. Easlea, Daryl. "BBC - Music - Review of Donna Summer - Bad Girls - Deluxe Edition". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
5. Ruhlmann, William. Review: Bad Girls. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2010-03-27.
6. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: S". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 13, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
7. Malone Jr., Melvin. Review: Bad Girls. PopMatters. Retrieved on 2010-03-27.
8. Columnist. "Review: Bad Girls". Q: 138. November 2003.
9. Holden, Stephen (July 12, 1979). "Donna Summer: Bad Girls : Music Reviews". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2008-10-13. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
10. Hunter, James (August 21, 2003). "Donna Summer: Bad Girls : Music Reviews". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2008-06-18. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
11. Larkin, Colin. "Review: Bad Girls". Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music: March 1, 2002.
12. Walls, Richard C. Review: Bad Girls. Yahoo! Music. Retrieved on 2010-03-27.
13. RPM Magazine – Bad Girls
14. Rolling Stone (2020-09-22). "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
15. RIAA certification
16. Ruben Norte (w/prod)A&E (February 9, 1995). "Donna Summer". Biography. Season 8. Episode 15.
17. "Whitney Houston Pops New Queen". New York Times. 1986-05-25. Retrieved 2016-06-08.
18. Discogs – Allen Zentz Mastering profile, contact info, and discography
19. Discogs – Bad Girls 2-vinyl LP 1979 Polygram (NBLP-2-7150) New Zealand
20. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W: Australian Chart Book. p. 300. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
21. "Austriancharts.at – Donna Summer – Bad Girls" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
22. "Dutchcharts.nl – Donna Summer – Bad Girls" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
23. "Offiziellecharts.de – Donna Summer – Bad Girls" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
24. Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005. Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
25. "Charts.nz – Donna Summer – Bad Girls". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
26. "Norwegiancharts.com – Donna Summer – Bad Girls". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
27. Fernando Salaverri (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
28. "Swedishcharts.com – Donna Summer – Bad Girls". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
29. "Donna Summer | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
30. "Donna Summer Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
31. "Donna Summer Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
32. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 431. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
33. "Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
34. "Canadian album certifications – Donna Summer – Bad Girls". Music Canada.
35. "New Zealand album certifications – Donna Summer – Bad Girls". Recorded Music NZ.
36. "British album certifications – Donna Summer – Bad Girls". British Phonographic Industry. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type Bad Girls in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
37. "American album certifications – Donna Summer – Bad Girls". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH. 

External links

• Bad Girls at Discogs
• Deluxe edition reviews