Bad Girls (Deluxe Edition)

Album Review

Bad Girls marked the high-water mark in Donna Summer's career, spending six weeks at number one, going double platinum, and spinning off four Top 40 singles, including the chart-topping title song and "Hot Stuff," which sold two million copies each, and the million-selling, number two hit "Dim All the Lights." Producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte recognized that disco was going in different directions by the late '70s, and they gave the leadoff one-two punch of "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls" a rock edge derived from new wave. The original two-LP set was divided into four musically consistent sides, with the rock-steady beat of the first side giving way to a more traditional disco sound on the second side, followed by a third side of ballads and a fourth side with a more electronic, synthesizer-driven sound that recalled Summer's 1977 hit "I Feel Love." Though remembered for its hits, the album had depth and consistency, concluding with "Sunset People," one of Summer's best album-only tracks. The result was the artistic and commercial peak of her career and, arguably, of disco itself. This two-CD reissue fits the original album on disc one with a sole bonus track, Summer's original demo of "Bad Girls." Disc two, dubbed "12" Singles & More," presents extended dance remixes of Summer hits from "I Feel Love" to the post-Bad Girls numbers "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" (a duet with Barbra Streisand) and "On the Radio," including versions of all four Bad Girls hits (the fourth being "Walk Away"). The packaging re-creates the expensive, glossy cover of the original LP, with Summer as a scantily clad streetwalker. The choices to augment the album are excellent, giving a good sense of Summer in her 1977-1980 prime.