| Bad Girls | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 25, 1979 | |||
| Recorded | December 1978 – March 1979 | |||
| Studio | Rusk Sound (Los Angeles,California) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 71:28 | |||
| Label | Casablanca | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Donna Summer chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Bad Girls | ||||
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Bad Girls is the seventhstudio album by American singer-songwriterDonna Summer, released on April 25, 1979, byCasablanca Records. Originally issued as adouble album,Bad Girls became the best-selling and most critically acclaimed album of Summer's career (before the release ofOn The Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II). It was also her final studio album for Casablanca Records. In 2003,Universal Music re-issuedBad Girls as a digitally remastered and expanded deluxe edition.
Bad Girls reached the top of the USBillboard 200, where it stayed for six weeks: for one week on June 16, 1979 and then for five consecutive weeks from July 7 to August 4, 1979.Bad Girls also topped theBillboard R&B Albums chart for three weeks, from June 23 to July 7, 1979, and all cuts from the album topped theDisco Top 80 for seven weeks from May 26 to July 7, 1979.[2] It contained the USBillboard Hot 100 number-one hits "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls", and the number-two hit "Dim All the Lights".
Summer became the first female artist to have two songs in the top three of theBillboard Hot 100 when during the week of June 30, 1979, "Hot Stuff" fell to number two and "Bad Girls" rose to number three.
Bad Girls was certifiedplatinum — now double platinum — by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA) within a week of its release. At the1980 Grammy Awards,Bad Girls was nominated forAlbum of the Year andBest Female Pop Vocal Performance and "Hot Stuff" won the firstBest Female Rock Vocal Performance. Additionally, "Dim All the Lights" was nominated forBest Female R&B Vocal Performance and "Bad Girls" was nominated forBest Disco Recording.
Bad Girls is considered one of the greatestdisco albums of all time.[3] It was ranked byRolling Stone's list of the Women Who Rock: The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time at number 23. The magazine wrote, "The late greatQueen of Disco pulls out all the stops for an album that sums up Seventies radio, from ladies-choice smooch jams to filthy funk."[4] In aBBC Music review of the album, Daryl Easla wrote, "Bad Girls is a fantastic reminder of when [Summer] was theBritney,Christina,Mary J andMissy of her day all rolled into one."[5] Part of the song "Our Love", also available as a B-side, was copied byNew Order on "Blue Monday".[6]
"I have a fantasy about rerecording that whole album," said singerMaria McKee. "It's fabulous."[7]
Having made her name in the preceding years as "the queen of disco," Summer set to work on her new album with long-time partnersGiorgio Moroder[8] andPete Bellotte, as well as various others she had not worked with before. By this time, although disco music was still popular, other styles such aspunk andheavy metal were also doing well on the charts, so the team decided to incorporate a rockier sound into some of the songs. Other songs had a moresoul/R&B feel to them, and in all it was probably Summer's most diverse album to date. The fusion of rock and disco was particularly evident, and synthesizers were used to augment the sound for a more electronic and dance oriented electro music in the first two songs on the album – "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls", which also became the first two singles to be released from the album. Both were huge hits and made number one on the American singles chart. The former also won Summer aGrammy Award forBest Female Rock Vocal Performance and became popular again in the 1990s when it was featured inThe Full Monty and again in the filmThe Martian. "Dim All the Lights" was the third single and also became a huge hit, peaking at number two in the U.S.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [9] |
| Christgau's Record Guide | A−[10] |
| PopMatters | favorable[11] |
| Q |  [12] |
| Rolling Stone | favorable(1979)[13] |
| Rolling Stone | (2003)[14] |
| The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [15] |
| Yahoo! Music | favorable[16] |
Bad Girls was universally acclaimed by music reviews. As well as the winner of the aforementionedGrammy Award for "Hot Stuff" (Best Female Rock Vocal Performance). The song "Bad Girls" was also nominated forBest Disco Recording. "Dim All the Lights" was nominated forBest Female R&B Vocal Performance and the album itself was nominated forAlbum of the Year andBest Female Pop Vocal Performance. The album was also nominated for "Favourite Pop/Rock Album" at theAmerican Music Awards of 1980. The single took anAmerican Music Award for "Favorite Pop/Rock Single", while Summer took awards for "Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist" & "Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist". In 2020, the album was ranked at 283 onRolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.[17]
Bad Girls would be Summer's final studio album forCasablanca Records, who ended 1979 with the release of a greatest hits double-album. For her next studio album, Summer wanted to branch out into other formats of music but since she and Casablanca could not come to an agreement on her musical direction, Summer opted to sign a new deal withGeffen Records, the then-new label formed byDavid Geffen. Her first album with Geffen Records was morerock/new wave oriented. In the meantime, Casablanca chose to release more singles from theBad Girls album into 1980: "Sunset People" and "Walk Away", the latter of which became a moderate hit reaching the top 40. Casablanca/PolyGram also released a special edition compilation entitledWalk Away – Greatest Hits 1977–1980, which featured a selection of her hits from theBad Girls period and the preceding years. In 2003Universal Music, owners of the Casablanca/PolyGram back catalogue since 1998, re-issuedBad Girls as a digitally remastered and expanded deluxe edition.
The album was certified double platinum for sales in excess of 2 million copies in the U.S. on December 1, 1993 (double albums are certified per disc by theRIAA rather than per complete unit). It also became her second consecutive number-one album in the U.S., also spending three weeks at number one in Canada on theRPM 100 national albums chart.[18] It has sold over 4 million copies worldwide.[19]
All tracks produced byGiorgio Moroder andPete Bellotte except "My Baby Understands" by Donna Summer and Juergen Koppers.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Hot Stuff" |
| 5:14 |
| 2. | "Bad Girls" |
| 4:55 |
| 3. | "Love Will Always Find You" |
| 3:59 |
| 4. | "Walk Away" |
| 4:27 |
| Total length: | 18:35 | ||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Dim All the Lights" | Summer | 4:40 |
| 2. | "Journey to the Center of Your Heart" |
| 4:36 |
| 3. | "One Night in a Lifetime" |
| 4:12 |
| 4. | "Can't Get to Sleep at Night" |
| 4:45 |
| Total length: | 18:13 | ||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "On My Honor" |
| 3:34 |
| 2. | "There Will Always Be a You" | Summer | 5:07 |
| 3. | "All Through the Night" |
| 6:01 |
| 4. | "My Baby Understands" | Summer | 4:03 |
| Total length: | 18:45 | ||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Our Love" |
| 4:51 |
| 2. | "Lucky" |
| 4:37 |
| 3. | "Sunset People" |
| 6:27 |
| Total length: | 15:55 | ||
| No. | Title | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16. | "Bad Girls" (demo version) | Summer | 4:00 |
| Total length: | 75:28 | ||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "I Feel Love" (12" single) |
| 8:12 | |
| 2. | "Last Dance" (12" single, from the soundtrackThank God It's Friday) | Paul Jabara | 8:11 | |
| 3. | "MacArthur Park Suite" ("MacArthur Park"/"One of a Kind"/"Heaven Knows"/"MacArthur Park (Reprise)") |
| 17:35 | |
| 4. | "Hot Stuff" (12" single) |
| 6:47 | |
| 5. | "Bad Girls" (12" single) |
| 4:57 | |
| 6. | "Walk Away" (12" single) |
| 7:16 | |
| 7. | "Dim All the Lights" (12" single) | Summer | 7:14 | |
| 8. | "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" (duet withBarbra Streisand) |
| Gary Klein | 11:44 |
| 9. | "On the Radio" (long version; from the original soundtrackFoxes) |
| Moroder | 7:35 |
| Total length: | 79:31 | |||
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[43] | 2× Platinum | 200,000^ |
| France | — | 200,000[44] |
| Germany | — | 250,000[45] |
| Greece (IFPI Greece)[46] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[47] | Gold | 7,500^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[48] | Silver | 60,000^ |
| United States (RIAA)[49] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
| Summaries | ||
| Worldwide | — | 4,000,000[19] |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
It really was a gift, and it was quite ironic – and quite sad, really – that we stole it off a Donna Summer B-side. It is a weird song. It's become one of Manchester's greatest records.
It became the best-selling album of Summer's recording career, selling 4 million copies worldwide, (...)
