Songoftheday 1/19/13 - 9 A.M. on the hour hand & she's waiting for the bell & she's looking real pretty just waitin' for her clientele...

Donna Summer - "She Works Hard For The Money"
from the album She Works Hard For The Money (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 17

Today's Song of the Day is by the recently passed away Queen of Disco, Donna Summer, who grew up in Boston, but moved to Europe after getting a role in the German production of Hair in the late 60s. She continued to perform on stage and record, but it wasn't until 1974 that she got any kind of success, and of all places it was the "low countries", as her single "The Hostage" became a top-5 hit in both Belgium and the Netherlands. That record was written by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, both who would guide the singer through her breakthrough in America. That record, the steamy "Love To Love You Baby", was released later that year, and went to #2 on the US pop chart (and #1 on the dance list), as well as being a hit around the world.

By the apex of disco's popularity in 1977, Summer released "I Feel Love", by then her fourth single to top the dance chart as well as spending a month at #1 on the British pop chart. The following year, she covered the epic "MacArthur Park" as a fifteen minute plus suite, and the edited version became her first pop #1 in the US. She went on to have three more chart-toppers in America in the next year, with the classics "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls", and her diva-off with Barbra Streisand, "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)".

As the 80s dawned Donna wished to move away from the disco sound into other types of music, and left her label Casablanca Records for David Geffen's label. After a couple of moderately successful album, where she scored two more top-10 hits with "The Wanderer" and the Quincy Jones-produced "Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)", Summer found out she owed her old label another album to close her old contract. So taking a record produced by Michael Omartian that Geffen initially rejected, Donna's old label released her eleventh studio album She Works Hard For The Money. The title track, written by Summer and Omartian, became one of her most enduring songs...

I loved every time this came on MTV...

The single went to #3 on the pop and the dance chart, while reaching the top of the R&B radio format list. It also went top-10 in Canada, Australia, and France, but surprisingly only stopped at #25 on the UK singles chart. The album also returned summer to the Top-10 of the LP chart that year, her last record to do so.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


In 2008, rapper The Game sampled the melody on his aptly named "Money"..(NSFW)

Another hip-hop artist Tyga also cribbed the chorus for his "Dancin' 4 Dollas" (NSFW) ...

American Idol winner Kris Allen transformed the song into a soft-rock winner with his version of the song...

 Finally, here's Donna live with the song..

Up tomorrow: The Purple One inspires the "Laced One".