BRENDA RUSSELL V DONNA SUMMER Dinner With Gershwin

Another head to head between two great pop divas: Brenda Russell and her composition 'Dinner With Gershwin' which she memorialised on her 1990 set 'Kiss Me With The Wind', and Donna Summer who released it on her 1987 LP 'All Systems Go'. In 1987 when i first saw La Summer perform it on 'Solid Gold' I had no idea it was penned by the great Brenda Russell, who i had become enamored with 8 years before thanks to her debut solo hit 'So Good So Right'. It would be another couple of years before Brenda would return to my orbit with the 'Get Here' album and the rest is for me, history. I just love Brenda's clever and soulful songs and vocals and her discography has pride of place in my collection. What can I say about the iconic Queen of Disco? Donna Summer quickly became a superstar after her first couple of seminal dance classics 'Love To Love You Baby' and 'I Feel Love' and for the rest of the 1970's she would rule the charts with vibrant disco confections, but with the genre in trouble by 1980, Donna had to reinvent herself, and indeed she did! A record label change, a shift in musical direction resulted in some mixed success in the 1980's and some controversy which derailed her career for 3 years before the 1987 comeback LP 'All Systems Go' from which 'Dinner With Gershwin' emanates. I stopped buying her records after 'She Works Hard For The Money'; in part as I was not crazy about her melange of gospel and new wave pop that the 80's releases contained. That said, I loved the self titled Quincy Jones produced set from 1982 which produced 'Love Is In Control' and 'State Of Independence' among other great tracks. 1984's 'Cats Without Claws' did not impress me much, but 'Dinner With Gerswhin ' thanks to the brilliance of Brenda Russell, the mastery of producer Richard Perry and the powerful tones of Donna Summer, and I was hooked all over again. I became a huge Donna Summer fan again in 1989 when she recorded an entire album of Stock Aitken & Waterman songs on 'Another Place & Time' and for the rest of her career and life (and beyond) I have remained a HUGE fan. She was a pioneer, an icon and a kick ass singer. As much as I adore Brenda Russell, it is Donna's version of her song that rules for me. I appreciated Brenda including it on her 1990 album, but it is the 1987 original that is a superior recording in my humble opinion. Over to fellow youtubers....