Editing Donna Summer (section)

===1986–1989: ''All Systems Go'', ''Another Place and Time''===
[[File:Donna Summer C26796-19.jpg|upright=1.13|thumb|right| Donna Summer performing at the inaugural gala at the Convention Center in Washington DC in 1985]]

In 1986, Harold Faltermeyer wrote the title song for a German ski movie called ''[[Fire and Ice (1986 film)|Fire and Ice]]'', and thought Summer would be ideal to sing the song. He decided to reach out to Summer and, although she was not interested in singing the song, she was very much interested in working with Faltermeyer again. After a meeting with Geffen, the impresario was on board with the project. Summer's main objective for the album was that it have stronger R&B influences; Faltermeyer who had just finished doing the soundtracks to ''[[Top Gun]]'' and ''[[Fletch (film)|Fletch]]'', was after a tough FM-oriented sound. On completion, Geffen liked what he heard, but his executives did not think there were enough songs that could be deemed singles. They wanted Faltermeyer to produce "[[Dinner with Gershwin]]", but he was already busy with another project, so another producer was found. They also substituted a previous recording called "[[All Systems Go (Donna Summer album)|Bad Reputation]]", songs like "[[All Systems Go (Donna Summer album)|Fascination]]", fell by the wayside. Geffen had shared the vision of moving Summer into the R&B market as a veteran artist, but these expectations were not met. Faltermeyer, in a 2012 interview with ''Daeida Magazine'', said, "She was an older artist by then and the label's priority may have been on the youth market. The decision was made afterward by executives who were looking for a radio hit for 1987 and not something that would perhaps last beyond then."<ref>{{cite news|title=Harold Faltermeyer Flood of memory: The Summer reign on Sunset Blvd|first=David|last=St. Mark|work=Daeida.com|date=October 2012|pages=13–28}}</ref> Label president Ed Rosenblatt would later admit: "The company never intended to focus on established superstars".<ref>{{cite web|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=April 16, 1989|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-04-16-ca-2322-story.html|title=Donna Summer: New Label, New Hit?|first=Paul|last=Grein|access-date=June 13, 2014}}</ref> The album ''[[All Systems Go (Donna Summer album)|All Systems Go]]'' became Summer's lowest charting studio album to date, reaching number 122. The single "Dinner with Gershwin" stalled at 48 in the US, though it became a hit in the UK, reaching number 13; the title track reached 54 in the same country.<ref name="chart proof">{{cite web |url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/16574/donna-summer/ |title=Donna Summer |publisher=Official Charts |access-date=January 19, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241130180533/https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/16574/donna-summer/ |archive-date=November 30, 2024}}</ref>

For Summer's next album, [[Geffen Records]] hired the British hit production team of [[Stock Aitken Waterman]] (or ''SAW''), who enjoyed success writing and producing for such acts as [[Kylie Minogue]], [[Bananarama]], and [[Rick Astley]], among others. The SAW team described the working experience as a "labor of love", and said it was their favorite album of all that they had recorded. Geffen decided not to release the album ''[[Another Place and Time]]'', and Summer and the label parted ways in 1988. The album was released in Europe in March 1989 on [[Warner Bros. Records]], which had been Summer's label in Europe since 1982. The single "[[This Time I Know It's for Real]]" became a top ten hit in several countries in Europe, prompting Warner Bros.' sister company, [[Atlantic Records]], to sign Summer in the US. The single peaked at number 7 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming her first top ten single in six years, her fourteenth top ten hit in general, and her last; it also became her twelfth single to be certified gold in the US. Despite this, there was no successful follow-ups in the US and the album also declined to gold in Summer's home country, though in the UK, the album would be certified gold and produced two more hits in the country — "[[I Don't Wanna Get Hurt]]" and "[[Love's About to Change My Heart]]", — reaching numbers 7 and 20, respectively.<ref name="chart proof"/><ref>ITV1/network/The Hit factory: The Stock, Aitken and Waterman Story/Documentary/true story/air date 2012-08-06/</ref> During the same year of that album's release, Summer and husband Sudano had been in talks to do a new kind of reality-based sitcom. It would be based on their own hectic household. At the time, they lived with their children Amanda, Brooklyn and Mimi, two sets of in-laws, and a maid. The television network started changing the premise of the show, making it less funny. Sudano added, "and because we were an interracial couple, they didn't want us to be married anymore". In 1989, this was "an issue. So with that mentality we just backed out of it."<ref name="BIO2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3554408/Donna-Summer-too-hot-to-handle.html|first=Craig|last=McLean|date=June 13, 2008|title=Donna Summer: too hot to handle|work=The Telegraph|access-date=July 25, 2021}} {{subscription required}}</ref>