Donna Summer for Disco and Christmas

Donna Summer has been a fascination of mine because she was on the cutting edge of electronic dance music, but since "I Feel Love" and other forays into early electronic music were produced by the legendary Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, it isn't clear what role she played in her sound. Last season I talked to songwriter Bruce Sudano about that among other things. Sudano also wrote songs for Summer and became her husband and manager. This week, I'm running that conversation in its entirety, including material I didn't use then on Sudano's entrance into show business as a member of the one-hit wonder Alive N Kickin', who made their mark in 1970 with "Tighter, Tighter." He talks about learning songwriting from Tommy James, his early days with Summer, and the story behind her 1994 Christmas album, Christmas Spirit. We talked about her career path between her heyday in the late '70s to her faith-based Christmas album.

You can listen to Donna Summer for Disco and Christmas online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Donna Summer for Disco and Christmas is an episode from Twelve Songs of Christmas by Alex Rawls.

This episode is 49:43 long.

This episode was published on Jul 31, 2025.

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