The Dance Collection
by: Donna Summer
Your Price: $13.98
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Sales Rank: 18911
Sales Rank: 18911
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Music : The Dance Collection |
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Rating:  - * MacArthur Park Suite Finds a home on CD ... Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RIDOX5O6JDF7P My name is Jeremy Gloff. I am a musician (check me out on Amazon!) and retro music enthusiast. If you enjoyed this review make sure to check out my Amazon user profile to check out my other reviews. I am always up for making new friends and discussing the music I love!!! Rating: - * Excellent! ... Great cd!! However if you had the cassette you know that BAD GIRLS was on it. Not enough room for the cd though! Be nice if they released another one with more extended mixes. Would like to see one with On The Radio ! Rating:  - * The Disco Ball Glows Brightly Through Summer's Chart-Topping Period ... As any self-respecting baby boomer knows, Donna Summer reigned over the charts for a brief period in the late 1970's as the Circe of the Studio 54 set. A more capable singer than most of her contemporaries, she put out some intoxicating dance music thanks to fruitful partnerships with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte and writer Paul Jabara. While the material has been covered in truncated airplay versions on previous recordings, this 1987 collection is unique in presenting the extended versions produced for the dance clubs and available as 12" vinyl singles to devoted fans. I have to confess I owned a couple of them to play at dorm parties. Not all the hits from the period are included. Her moaning-toward-ecstasy breakthrough, "Love to Love You Baby" is not here. Neither is the cop whistle-blowing "Bad Girls" nor her valedictory disco hit, "On the Radio". There are even two tracks in this collection that are relatively obscure - the synth-heavy "With Your Love" and the edgier-than-usual "Walk Away". However, the rest is most recognizable - the propulsive "I Feel Love"; the memorably catchy "Last Dance"; the swirling Turkish bazaar of the guitar-heavy "Hot Stuff"; and my favorite, the loping-to-percussive "Dim All the Lights", the latter two songs from her legendary double-LP "Bad Girls" recording. Of course, there is the momentous 1979 duet with Barbra Streisand, "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" in its full, 11:43-minute glory with the competing divas sounding unexpectedly compatible amid the echo chamber of aural effects. But Summer's magnum opus is 1978's "MacArthur Park Suite", a somewhat self-indulgent though ultimately infectious epic nearly eighteen minutes long and encompassing three separate songs including the hoary, pretentious Richard Harris hit. She puts her own stamp on the head-scratching lyrics even though she inexplicably says "MacArthur's Park" throughout. For those of us who lived in shame over our platform shoes and polyester shirts, this is a fun, nostalgic trip down memory lane. The irony is that the studio craftsmanship still holds up surprisingly well even when the songs don't. Rating: - * The Best of Disco Music ... A great CD collection of some of the best 12" LP Singles, punctuated by two top classics - MacArthur Park Suite in the middle, and Enough is Enough (with Barbara Streissand) at the end. Strongly recommended for nostalgia, or for Donna Summer and Disco music fans. Rating: - * Donna Summer: THE DANCE COLLECTION (1987) ... In 1987, after the release of ALL SYSTEMS GO, Donna Summer released her seventeenth album entitled, THE DANCE COLLECTION. This album features only eight of Donna Summer's greatest hits from the '70s, where each song is in an Extended 12" Format. This album is for all Donna Summer fans that want to spend hours on the dance floor. This is a classic album. I FEEL LOVE Original version from the album I REMEMBER YESTERDAY (1977). While the original track ran to 5:55 (five minutes, fifty-five seconds), this classic 12" version runs to 8:14 (eight minutes, fourteen seconds), while remaining in the original musical and vocal arrangement. This is a classic song, and you can possible find me on the dance floor with this one. WITH YOUR LOVE Original version from the original motion picture & motion picture soundtrack THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY (1978). This is a great song, but in my opinion, it doesn't quite match up to "Last Dance", which was THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY's main theme song. LAST DANCE Original version from the original motion picture & motion picture soundtrack THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY (1978). While the original track ran to 4:56 (four minutes, fifty-six seconds), this class 12" version runs to 8:11 (eight minutes, eleven seconds). This is another ultimate Donna Summer classic song. MacArthur Park Suite: MacARTHUR PARK/ONE OF A KIND/HEAVEN KNOWS/MacARTHUR PARK (Reprise) From the album LIVE AND MORE (1978). First off, this track was featured on Donna Summer's 1978 live album, LIVE AND MORE, where it was the only studio recorded track to be featured on the live album. But it is only featured on the Vinyl edition of LIVE AND MORE, where on the CD and Cassette editions replaced this track with another studio recorded track entitled, "Theme From The Deep (Deep, Down Inside)". When "MacArthur Park" was released as a single back in 1978, it ran to 8:35 (eight minutes, thirty-five seconds). The radio version of the single ran about...3:54 (three minutes, fifty-four seconds), I want to say? Anyhow, the 8+ minute version is featured right here on the "MacArthur Park Suite", in it's full entirety. Right at the very end of "MacArthur Park", the track flows right into "One Of A Kind". I cannot tell if "One Of A Kind" is either mixed or in its entirety, for I never heard the song before, where it was played by itself. Anyhow, after "One Of A Kind", the track flows right into "Heaven Knows". Now, "Heaven Knows" is slightly mixed, and it is most definitely not in its entirety. Finally, the track flows smoothly into the reprise of "MacArthur Park", where it features only one chorus, and the chorus featured in the reprise is the final chorus that is used in the radio version of "MacArthur Park". With these four songs in their places, with a few minutes of instrumental bridges, the track runs to a full 17:47 (seventeen minutes, forty-seven seconds), probably enough to time to dance your a** off on the dance floor, which is enough to time to work yourself into a sweaty frenzy. Awesome track. HOT STUFF Original version from the album BAD GIRLS (1979). With the original track running to 5:14 (five minutes, fourteen seconds), this here extended 12" single version is only a minute and twenty-four seconds longer, where it runs to 6:40 (six minutes, forty seconds). This is a classic song, but I wish "Bad Girls" follows this track for this album. WALK AWAY Original version from the album BAD GIRLS (1979). With the original track running to 4:29 (four minutes, twenty-nine seconds), this extended 12" version runs to 7:15 (seven minutes, fifteen seconds). This is a classic song, and your feet need to be moving along with it. DIM ALL THE LIGHTS Original version from the album BAD GIRLS (1979). With the original track running to 4:40 (four minutes, forty seconds), this extended 12" version runs to 7:10 (seven minutes, ten seconds). Another awesome song. NO MORE TEARS (ENOUGH IS ENOUGH) (performed by Barbra Streisand & Donna Summer) From the album ON THE RADIO: GREATEST HITS VOLUMES I & II (1979). Original version from Barbra Streisand's album WET (1979). The track you see here is the same track featured on Donna Summer's 1979 album, ON THE RADIO: GREATEST HITS VOLUME I & II, where it ran to 11:43 (eleven minutes, forty-three seconds), this being the extended 12" version. The original version that made its first appearance on Barbra Streisand's 1979 album, WET, only ran to 8:22 (eight minutes, twenty-two seconds). This is a classic song, but the only problem I have with this song is the single/radio version, which runs to 4:43 (four minutes, forty-three seconds), for the single/radio version does not to do the song any justice. This is an amazing album, and if you put this album on and dance along with it, you will be extremely exhausted. This is a classic album for any Donna Summer fan who wants to dance their butts off. |
DVD features
Yes, the unrated edition of The Dukes of Hazzard has nudity... but no, it's not of Jessica Simpson, but topless sorority girls. There are also two sets--"PG-13" and "unrated"--of deleted scenes and bloopers. The four minutes of unrated deleted scenes (supplementing the 25 minutes of "PG-13" deleted scenes) include more sorority girls and a menage à trois for Johnny Knoxville . The five minutes of unrated bloopers (the same amount as the "PG-13" bloopers) feature a few more girls but mostly bad language. Featurettes discuss the Daisy Duke short shorts (and show how you can make your own), car stunts, and the making of the movie (narrated by a cast member of the original TV series). --David Horiuchi
