Editing Donna Summer (section)

===1980–1985: ''She Works Hard for the Money'' and issues with Geffen===
[[File:Donna_Summer_(1980-10_Geffen_promo_portrait).jpg|left|thumb|Donna Summer during the photoshoot for her first Geffen Records album, ''The Wanderer'', 1980.]]
At the time of Summer signing with Geffen, [[disco]] experienced a [[disco backlash|major fallout with the American record buying public]]. Some radio stations, wanting a return to rock-oriented material, began banning any urban-sounding dance single from playing on the airwaves, which led to many careers that thrived in the disco era to fade from the charts. Summer, who had desired to record different music, took the opportunity to do so on her first Geffen release, ''[[The Wanderer (Donna Summer album)|The Wanderer]]'', which featured elements of [[rock music|rock]], [[new wave music|new wave]] and [[inspirational music]]. The [[The Wanderer (Donna Summer song)|title track]] returned Summer to the top five of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 but the album itself was only moderately successful, peaking at number 13 on the ''Billboard'' 200. The album's follow-ups, "[[Cold Love]]" and "[[Who Do You Think You're Foolin']]" barely cracked the top 40.<ref name="interview1">{{cite web|author=Harold Faltermeyer|title=Flood Of Memory: The Summer Reign On Sunset Blvd|url=http://Daeida.com|access-date=May 13, 2014}}</ref> Still, ''The Wanderer'' became Summer's ninth consecutive gold-certified album in the United States. At the [[33rd Annual Grammy Awards]], Summer won nominations for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance ("Cold Love") and [[Grammy Award for Best Inspirational Performance|Best Inspirational Performance]] ("I Believe in Jesus").

In 1981, Summer, Moroder and Belotte had set to work on the next Geffen release. In the middle of production, David Geffen stopped by the studio to preview the album and was told that while the album was a work in progress that it was close to being done. But Geffen, having heard only a few of the finished tracks and others still in demo form, felt the album "wasn't good enough" and cancelled the project. Later, that album would be released under the title, ''[[I'm a Rainbow]]''.<ref name="interview1"/> Geffen felt Summer's music should be aimed more at black audiences and had the singer work with [[Quincy Jones]] on what would be her second Geffen release, the eponymously titled ''[[Donna Summer (album)|Donna Summer]]'' album, which was released in 1982. The project was recorded under difficult circumstances for Summer. That year, she was pregnant with her and [[Bruce Sudano]]'s second child and in May, Neil Bogart died from a bout with cancer at 39. Despite their acrimonious split, Summer sang at Bogart's funeral.<ref name="bogartfuneral">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1982/05/12/a-rock-farewell/2d38580c-7fb0-4217-93c1-8eae0ae61534/|title=A Rock Farewell|author=Steve Pond|work=[[The Washington Post]]|date=May 11, 1982|accessdate=May 14, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://mixmag.net/feature/from-the-archive-donna-summer-interview-january-1995|work=[[Mixmag]]|title=From the archive: When Donna Summer Made Her Comeback|accessdate=May 14, 2025}}</ref>

Upon the release of ''Donna Summer'', the album peaked inside the top 20 and produced the top ten hit, "[[Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)]]" but, much like ''The Wanderer'' before it, its subsequent follow-ups — a cover of the [[Jon and Vangelis]] song "[[State of Independence]]" and "[[The Woman in Me (Donna Summer song)|The Woman in Me]]" — failed to match it, with "State of Independence" becoming her first single since "[[Rumour Has It (Donna Summer song)|Rumour Has It]]" to not crack the top 40. Around this time, Geffen had been notified by [[Polygram Records]], which now owned Casablanca, that Summer still needed to deliver to them one more album to fulfill her contract. The result was the album, ''[[She Works Hard for the Money (album)|She Works Hard for the Money]]'', produced by [[Michael Omartian]], and released in 1983 on [[Mercury Records]]. The [[She Works Hard for the Money (song)|title track]] returned her to the top five of the Hot 100 in three years, peaking at number three, while becoming her second number one single on the Hot Soul Singles chart, where it stayed for three weeks. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The video, directed by [[Brian Grant (director)|Brian Grant]], was one of the first times that a black female artist achieved a video spinning on heavy rotation on [[MTV]] in August 1983. Summer later was nominated for [[MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video|Best Female Video]] at the [[1984 MTV Video Music Awards|inaugural MTV Video Music Awards]] ceremony, losing to [[Cyndi Lauper]]'s "[[Girls Just Want to Have Fun]]". Grant later directed Summer's [[Costa Mesa, California|Costa Mesa]] HBO concert special, ''A Hot Summers Night''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Brian Grant/Directing A Diva (Donna Summer)|first=David|last=St. Mark|work=Daeida Magazine|date=February 2013|pages=12–16}}</ref> ''She Works Hard for the Money'' peaked at number 9 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and would become Summer's eleventh and final album to be certified gold in the United States. Much like Summer's previous post-Casablanca releases, the follow-ups on the album — "[[Unconditional Love (Donna Summer song)|Unconditional Love]]" and "[[Love Has a Mind of Its Own]]" — didn't hit the top 40. The ballad, "[[He's a Rebel (Donna Summer song)|He's a Rebel]]", won the singer her third Grammy for Best Inspirational Performance.

Due to his success on ''She Works Hard for the Money'', Geffen hired Michael Omartian to produce Summer's next Geffen release, ''[[Cats Without Claws]]''. Though Summer was happy Geffen stayed out of the studio during its recording and thanked him on the album's liner notes, Geffen refused her request to release the track, "Oh Billy Please", for a lead single, choosing to go with her cover of [[the Drifters]]' "[[There Goes My Baby (The Drifters song)|There Goes My Baby]]" instead. ''Cats Without Claws'' was released on September 11, 1984 and peaked at number 40 on the ''Billboard'' 200, her lowest to chart in her career at the time. It was the first Summer album to not go gold in the United States.<ref name="robio">{{cite web |url=http://rogallery.com/Summer_Donna/Summer-biography.html |title=Donna Summer Biography |work=Rogallery |access-date=June 13, 2014}}</ref> "There Goes My Baby" was also only a modest hit, reaching number 21 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, her first leading single to not reach the top ten since 1977. The video received heavy rotation on MTV but soon faded from the channel, thus becoming her last video to receive such success.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/80s/1984/BB-1984-10-06.pdf|title=Video Music Programming (MTV Adds & Rotation)|date=October 6, 1984|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|page=24|accessdate=May 14, 2025}}</ref> The second single, "Supernatural Love", flopped, peaking at number 75 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with the video receiving only light rotation on MTV, becoming her last video to air on the channel. Summer earned her fourth Grammy in the inspirational category for the song "Forgive Me" on the album. On January 19, 1985, Summer's sang at the nationally televised 50th Presidential Inaugural Gala the day before the [[second inauguration of Ronald Reagan]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/01/21/the-super-duper-supernaugural-tvs-rush-to-gush-all-day/9e166bec-5424-49fd-804e-0ace6897cb6f/|title=The Super Duper Supernaugural! TV's Rush to Gush All Day|newspaper=Washington Post|date=January 21, 1985}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-01-20-mn-10424-story.html|title=Reagan Feted by a Festive Capital : Starts His Day With Snowman, Ends With Gala|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=January 20, 1985}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://carlanthonyonline.com/2013/01/11/reagans-1985-big-chill-inauguration-with-videos-part-7/ |title=Reagan's 1985 Big Chill Sunday Inauguration |first=Carl |last=Anthony |work=Carl Anthony Online |date=January 11, 2013 |access-date=April 14, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505014618/http://carlanthonyonline.com/2013/01/11/reagans-1985-big-chill-inauguration-with-videos-part-7/ |archive-date=May 5, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>