Why is Donna Summer’s Bad Girls on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Why, it’s hot stuff.
What does Donna Summer’s Bad Girls mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
The one-two opening songs punch of Bad Girls is hard to top, whether we’re talking disco (oh, and we’re talkin’ disco here, dig?), non-disco, whatever. “Hot Stuff” and then the title track, “Bad Girls,” are an incredible combo.
What sets those songs, and Bad Girls as a whole, apart from most of the disco music that had come before or would come after, is that it matched Summer’s fabulous, powerful voice and great hooks with a rocked up beat that would sneer derisively at any notion that this is cheesy disco or grist to be mocked by those who would dare to don DISCO SUCKS t-shirts back in the day.
Both songs are incredible, but for me the slight edge goes to “Hot Stuff” for its rock feel, it’s slightly eastern tinged (I think?) keyboards, and its flat out next level chorus. Who doesn’t need some hot stuff in their life, right?
“Bad Girls” is pure exuberant disco at its pinnacle, and its use of whistles for some reason makes me imagine how bonkers the disco clubs in 1979 must have gotten when this song came on. Beep beep, indeed.
Mid-tempo songs like “Love Will Always Find You” and “Dim All the Lights” show that Donna Summer can slow things down a bit and still knock it out. Here’s “Love Will Always Find You,” which has a really fun hook and top-notch production.
Some stats & info about Donna Summer – Bad Girls
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Disco, R&B, Soul
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – #283
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Bad Girls released? 1979
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #827 out of 1,000
Donna Summer’s Bad Girls on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective take on what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.