Donna Summer: On The Radio 1977 Greatest Hits Volumes I & II CD-New $62.99

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Donna Summer – On The Radio 

In the early stages of Summer’s recording career, her work had been distributed in different countries by different record labels. Varying compilations had been released by these labels. In 1977, Casablanca Records (who had previously been responsible for distributing her work in the U.S.) became responsible for distributing her music in most nations and On the Radio became the first proper international compilation album released by them after years of many successful disco hits. (NB: There were still some countries, such as The Netherlands where other labels continued to distribute her work. A similar compilation was released by Philips Records in this country). The album spanned Summer’s career from her breakthrough, the raunchy “Love to Love You Baby” right through to the more rock-influenced tracks of her Bad Girls album. The majority of the tracks were either remixed or edited, largely to fit such a big number of tracks onto two records. Each side, barring side D, runs as a continuous mix.

The compilation also contained two brand-new tracks. The first of these was the pop–disco flavored “On the Radio” (which opened the album, and closed it in a longer version). Written for the film Foxes, this song was reminiscent of some of her other hits (“Last Dance“, “MacArthur Park“, “Dim All the Lights“) in that it started off with a slow beat. The longer version at the end of the album, like the full-length version of “Last Dance“, also contained a slow part in the middle. The song was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance category. A longer version was used on the Foxes movie soundtrack release, but omits the final “…now I’m sittin’ here with the man I sent away long ago” verse, opting for a repeat of the third instead.

The second new track was a duet with Barbra Streisand entitled “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)“. Like “On the Radio”, it also had a slow beginning but evolved into a disco number. An early example of girl power, the song was released as a 12″ Disco single (with provocative cover – black-and-white photo of Summer and Streisand in merry widow bustiers, Streisand’s favorite font used for the titles) towards the end of 1979 and hit the Number One spot on the American singles chart (making it Summer’s fourth chart-topper there). It was also a big international hit, making Number Three in the U.K. At the beginning of 1980, the shorter version of “On the Radio” was also released as a single, and became Summer’s ninth Top 5 on the U.S. singles chart.