Often a song can pack so much sound and history that you can close your eyes and be transported. Donna Summer’s “On the Radio” is a song so amazing that it serves as a marker for all songs of the disco century. The song has the DNA of everything that made disco great. Listening to Donna Summer’s classic “On the Radio” puts you right back in the glitter and dance of disco long ago.

The song has a storied past. Initially written by her producer Giorgio Moroder and first played for her at his house in early 1979, the song failed to move Summer. Moroder put the song on the shelf knowing that someday it would be just right for her.

Months later Moroder was working on the soundtrack for the movie “Foxes” and could not get the song out of his head. He approached Summer again and asked her to listen one more time. This time she felt it and agreed to re-write the lyrics and record the song.

Not an easy re-write, she is quoted as saying the whole song came from the lyric “It must have fallen out of a hole in your old brown overcoat.” She wrote the song about lost love and the emotions that remain. From that point on, she knew where and how the song should go. A hit was born. The slow-ballad beginning that gives way to that incredible disco drum beat pushed the song to the top of the charts. The song became so popular so fast that they included the track on her upcoming album release. They named the album “On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I and II.”

Donna Summer’s loved the song “On the Radio” and commented that she always felt the song was a legato Italian melody at its heart. Hearing the song again feels like being in a time machine traveling to an era that has not lost any of its detail or flare. Donna Summer’s “On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I and II” is a fantastic song collection and worthy of inclusion on anyone’s playlist.

Post Written By Michael Brigger