Endless Summer

RELEASE
1995
LABEL
Casablanca
GENRES
Rhythm & Blues, House, Disco, Dance-Pop, Urban, Club/Dance

Album Review

With '70s and disco nostalgia taking the U.S. by storm in the early to mid-'90s, it wasn't surprising that Mercury/Polygram saw Donna Summer's recordings as a way to make a quick dollar. What is surprising is that the label came out with this single-disc best-of collection only a year after releasing the two-CD set The Donna Summer Anthology in 1993. Why was another greatest-hits package needed? Though not definitive, this CD does contain many of Summer's essential material. From the erotic club diva of "Love to Love You Baby," "Could It Be Magic," and "I Feel Love" to the Vegas-like pop star of "On the Radio," "Last Dance," and "Dim All the Lights," the Queen of Disco is as charismatic as she is cutting edge. And Summer still sounds incredibly fresh on 1989's infectious "This Time I Know It's for Real" and 1994's previously unreleased "Melody of Love." It would have been preferable to hear many of these songs in their extended versions (as opposed to the shorter ones provided here), but then, a label can only fit so much on a single disc. Although The Donna Summer Anthology is more comprehensive, Endless Summer can work well as a shorter introduction to her innovations.
Alex Henderson, Rovi

Track Listing

  1. Melody of Love (Wanna Be Loved)
  2. Love to Love You Baby
  3. Could It Be Magic
  4. I Feel Love
  5. Last Dance
  6. MacArthur Park
  7. Heaven Knows
  8. Hot Stuff
  9. Bad Girls
  10. Dim All the Lights
  11. No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)
  12. On the Radio
  13. The Wanderer
  14. Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)
  15. State of Independence
  16. She Works Hard for the Money
  17. This Time I Know It's for Real
  18. Any Way at All