The Disco Queen of my youth has died after a long battle with cancer. She reportedly said some very hurtful things about the gay community during the AIDS crisis, but denied that she even said them.

How spooky. I only was persuing her songs on iTunes last night and bought MacArthur Park.

RIP.
I do love She Works Hard For The Money, very cheesy and fun!

It's hard to overestimate how important "I Feel Love" was. That incredible base line, the voice, the sheer sensuality of the record. It influenced everything from New Order to Madonna.

RIP Donna Summer.

It's hard to overstate how good her voice was, and how under-represented it the public psyche of good singers.

She had a consistent tone throughout her career, as the clip above shows. It was always effortless; her singing voice really did appear to come as easily to her as her speaking voice. She never pushed its upper limits, so unlike the marvellous Patti LaBelle or Aretha, whose voices declined in a neat correlation with years spent belting to the rafters, her's was ageless.

She also resisted the awful modern trend of overdoing melismas and runs, and mostly sang straight at the note in a full, warm, rich tone. It's quite lovely to listen to.

RIP

her songs will live on forever

Outstanding vocalist. Feels like a whole chunk of my youth has gone.

I had the same thing happen. Just the other day I went looking for the MacArthur Park Suite that originally appeared on her Live and More album. I already had MacArthur Park. I found that the suite was not on digital versions of the album, but that it was on a compilation album. Only trouble was that I had to by the whole album- the track I wanted was not available on its own- which I happily did.

Anyway, it's odd, I hadn't really thought about her in years, and when I do, she dies a day later.

I always loved this song. It was sort of a "comeback" song for her for the gay community. It was huge in the clubs.



I also loved her version of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina".



And from one of her best albums.

I follow the Donna Summer Forum daily along with a legion of fans. Nobody knew a thing about this until the announcement on Thursday, no announcement had been made of her illness or anything. Does it sound too dramatic to say it has had a devastating effect on me? I feel like a family member has been taken, that's how familiar Donna's voice and image have become to me since I first heard "I Feel Love" back in 1977. It's such a strange feeling but I am so so sad at the moment and apart from my closest family it's pointless trying to explain to anyone else why I'm a bit down in the dumps.

Please go and listen to at least one Donna Summer song and remember what a truly amazing voice this woman had. We've lost a true legend.

I played Dim All The Lights. Will that help?

I've been away for the last 2 weeks and didn't know about this news until this morning when my brother told me. I have to say I was very shocked, I had no idea she was even ill.

I've always liked her greatest hits and a live album I have. Kev I didn't know about her Don't Cry For Me Argentina version so thanks. I think she was a very under rated singer and chart act.

Does anyone know if she's had one of these post death chart resurgences? Her songs deserve to be hits again.