Gay men adored her. We still do. The ill-will she produced during her contentious 1980s “Jesus” era was so tough on us because we still cared about her. Aside from the sensational music she made, her legacy will always be as a Gay Icon. The 1970s were an epoch that brought huge changes in our attitudes about systemic racism, sexism and homophobia.
In summer of 1975, I was at a club in West Hollywood, dancing my ass off, when this hot shirtless redhead gave me a huge smile and stuck a little brown bottle under my nose, as we moved, all of sudden, I felt super sexy as the strangest music filled the room, something I had never heard before, a driving thump-thump-thump as a woman purred: “Mmmm… Love To Love You, Baby”. I thought I had gone to gay heaven.
Love To Love You Baby is from Donna Summer‘s second studio album imaginatively titled Love To Love You Baby (1975). Produced by Pete Bellotte, and written by Italian musician Giorgio Moroder, Summer, and Bellotte, the song became one of the first disco hits to be released in an extended form.
In 1975, Summer had been living in Germany for eight years. She had had released an album in The Netherlands, Lady Of The Night (1974), written by Moroder and Bellotte, which brought Summer a couple of hit singles in Europe. She was still a complete unknown in the USA. Summer suggested the lyric “Love to love you, baby” to Moroder and they turned the lyric into a full disco song for Summer to record. At first, Summer said she only wanted to record it as a demo to give to someone else. Summer’s erotic moaning impressed Moroder however, so much so that he persuaded her to release it as her own song, and Love To Love You Baby became a modest hit in the Netherlands, not the world’s biggest market, yet still important as an incubator of hits.
Summer in 1975:
“Everyone’s asking, ‘Were you alone in the studio?’ Yes, I was alone in the studio. ‘Did you touch yourself?’ Yes, well, actually I had my hand on my knee. ‘Did you fantasize on anything?’ Yes, about my handsome boyfriend.”
A tape of the song made it to Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart in the USA, and he played it at a party at his home. Bogart continued to play it over and over all night. He started Casablanca in 1973, first signing Kiss. T. Rex, and other Rock acts, but he is now identified with the rise of Disco by promoting the careers of acts such The Village People. He contacted Moroder and suggested that he make the track longer, possibly as long as 20 minutes. Summer still had reservations; she wasn”t sure about the lyrics. To rerecord it, she imagined herself as Marilyn Monroe. The studio lights were dimmed so that Summer was in darkness as she lay on the floor singing.
The final recording lasts a bit more than 16 minutes, and it contains 23 “orgasms”. It takes up the entire first side of the album of the same name, and a version was also released on seven-inch vinyl.
The song became an international Disco smash hit. It became Summer’s first US Top 40 hit, spending two weeks at Number Two on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, being held back from the Number One spot by Paul Simon‘s 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, a very different sort of love song. Love To Love You Baby stayed four weeks atop the Dance Club chart and Number Three on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart. The BBC refused to play it.
With the success of the song, Summer was labeled as a sexually oriented, fantasy image from which she would forever struggle to free herself. Summer:
“I am sensual and very physical. I’m very erotic. But my sexuality exists on a sort of a fantasy level.”
Casablanca Records became responsible for the distribution of Summer’s music and Bogart was particularly keen for Summer to portray the image of the rich, powerful, sexy fantasy figure. Bogart and his wife became Summer’s managers and close friends. But, Bogart also began controlling everything in Summer’s life. She later became a born-again Christian, denied disco, left Casablanca and the Bogarts behind, filing a lawsuit against them. Summer excluded Love To Love You Baby from her concert playlists for the next 25 years.
Unlike most musical artists in the 1970s, Summer never courted an LGBTQ audience. Yet, her transcendental disco sound was perfect for our gay culture, and we loved her for it. Her sound and her persona were perfect for that pivotal moment in time. But, Summer’s relationship with her gay fans waned after disappointing us with some comments about the AIDS crisis, comments that she denied ever having made. Yet, some of what she said was the cause of her unfortunate fall from the pedestal of Gay Idolatry. It is all so sad, because in a crazy way, she was the one who opened many closet doors.
One of the many ironies of Summer’s spectacular career is that after she left Casablanca Records, where she had pioneered and shaped the whole Gay Disco Music sound with the assistance of a bunch straight guys, she was signed by the most ostentatious gay man in showbiz, David Geffen.
Love To Love You Baby has been covered by Bronski Beat with Marc Almond, Samantha Fox, Tom Tom Club, No Doubt, and Pet Shop Boys.
HBO’s documentary Love to Love You, Donna Summer (2023) is currently streaming on Max and HULU.
Never a smoker, Summer was taken by lung cancer in 2012. Cancer had already claimed Bogart in 1982, at 39 years old. 83-year-old Moroder lives in Los Angeles. Disco never really died.
