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Bad Girls is the seventh studio album by American pop singer Donna Summer, released April 25, 1979 on Casablanca Records. Originally issued as a double album, it incorporates such musical styles as disco, soul, and rock. Bad Girls became the best-selling album of Summer's recording career, achieving double platinum sales certification in the United States, and selling approximately four million copies total worldwide.
Background
Since the release of her breakthrough album which contained the sexually arousing "Love to Love You Baby", Summer had been nicknamed "the First Lady of Love" in the press and her record label wanted her to keep this image, despite the fact that she was never truly comfortable with it. Several years later, Summer became addicted to prescription medication. Upon her recovery, Summer set to work on her new album with long-time partners Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, as well as various others she had not worked with before. By this time, although disco music was still popular, other styles such as punk and heavy metal were also doing well on the charts, so the team decided to incorporate a rockier sound into some of the songs. Other songs had a more soul/R&B feel to them, and in all it was probably Summer's most diverse album to date. The fusion of rock and disco was particularly evident, and synthesizers were used to augment the sound for a more electronic and dance oriented electro music in the first two songs on the album - "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls", which also became the first two singles to be released from the album. Both were huge hits and made number one on the American singles chart. The former also won Summer a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and became popular again in the 1990s when used in the British film The Full Monty. "Dim All the Lights" was the third single and also became a huge hit, peaking at number two in the U.S.
The year 1979 ended with Casablanca releasing a Donna Summer greatest hits double-album, which also included a couple of new songs, one being the hit single On the Radio. For her next studio album, Summer wanted to branch out into other formats of music but she and the label could not come to an agreement on her musical direction. Summer instead opted to sign a new deal with Geffen Records, the then-new label formed by David Geffen. Her first album with Geffen Records was more rock/new wave oriented, a format Summer had always liked, not to mention there had been a "disco backlash". In the meantime, Casablanca chose to release more singles from the Bad Girls album; "Sunset People" and "Walk Away". "Walk Away" became a moderate hit reaching the top 40. Casablanca/PolyGram also released a special edition compilation entitled Walk Away - Greatest Hits 1977-1980, which featured a selection of her hits from the Bad Girls period and the preceding years. In 2003 Universal Music, owners of the Casablanca/PolyGram back catalogue since 1998, re-issued Bad Girls as a digitally remastered and expanded deluxe edition.
MacArthur Park Suite: "MacArthur Park"/"One of a Kind"/"Heaven Knows"/"MacArthur Park (Reprise)" (Bellotte, Mathieson, Moroder, Summer, Jimmy Webb) (12" Single Mix) - 17:37
Original version appears on 1978 album Live and More
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