Artist · chart history
Donna Summer
Solo artist Boston United States soul/disco diva
Donna Summer is an artist from Boston. Donna Summer has 17 chart appearances on 13 radio countdowns from 7 stations on RockLists, spanning 2005–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “I Feel Love”, which appears on 7 lists with a best position of #27. The station that charted Donna Summer most often is 90.9 The Bridge (Kansas City, MO), with 6 appearances.
Donna Summer, born Donna Adrian Gaines in Boston in 1948, dropped out of high school to front a blues rock band called Crow, headed to New York, and in 1968 landed a part in the German production of Hair in Munich, where she stayed for years. In Munich she met producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, and together they built something new. "Love to Love You Baby" sighed its way onto Casablanca in 1975, and in 1977 "I Feel Love", from I Remember Yesterday, went to number one in Britain on a pulsing, hypnotic throb that Moroder himself called the start of electronic dance music.
They moved the operation to the United States and the hits kept coming: "Last Dance", "MacArthur Park", "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls", "On the Radio" and the Barbra Streisand duet "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)". Live and More, Bad Girls and the On the Radio collection made her the only artist with three number-one double albums, and in 1979 she became the first woman to land three number-one singles in one year. The Queen of Disco had a rock singer's lungs, too, and the Grammys handed her Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in 1980.
When the disco backlash hit, she left Casablanca for Geffen and cut The Wanderer, mostly rock and new wave. "She Works Hard for the Money" put her back on top in 1983, and Stock Aitken Waterman gave her one more big hit in 1989. She died of lung cancer in 2012, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted her the following year.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Donna Summer on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I Feel Love | 7 | #27 | – | – | |
| 2 | Last Dance | 4 | #29 | – | – | |
| 3 | MacArthur Park | 2 | #194 | – | – | |
| 4 | Bad Girls | 1 | #269 | – | – | |
| 5 | She Works Hard for the Money | 1 | #466 | – | – | |
| 6 | State Of Independence | 1 | #1797 | – | – | |
| 7 | The Wanderer | 1 | #818 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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