Robbed Hit of the Week 9/3/12 - Donna Summer's "State Of Independence"....

Donna Summer - "State Of Indenpendence"
from the album Donna Summer (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #41

This week's "Robbed Hit" is by the late great disco singer Donna Summer. After changing labels to Geffen in 1980, Donna scored two more top-10 hits with "The Wanderer" and 1982's "Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)". For the followup to that later hit Donna recorded a song originally by the pairing of British singer Jon Anderson of the progressive rock group Yes and Greek new age musician Vangelis, who just scored a #1 hit of his own with the theme from Chariots Of Fire. "State of Independence" was produced by Quincy Jones, who helmed her entire self-titled 1982 album, and featured a chorus of famous singer, including Michael Jackson, James Ingram, Dionne Warwick, and Stevie Wonder, while Eric Clapton played on the track.

But with all that firepower, the song peaked just outside the top-40 on the American pop chart, though it did make the top-40 on the R&B chart. "State Of Independence" was big in some parts of Europe, where it went top-10 in Ireland and the Netherlands...

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The original version by Jon & Vangelis was re-released in 1984, and peaked at #67 in the UK...

In 1992, trance music act Moodswings did a cover of the song with the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde on vocals, and their renamed "Spiritual High (State Of Independence Pt. II)" made the US Modern Rock top-10 and peaked at #47 in the UK.