"Walk Away" by Donna Summer

Song#:  0333
Date:  09/13/1980
Debut:  82
Peak:  33
Weeks:  12
Genre:  Pop, Dance



Pop Bits:  The late 70s was prime era for Summer. She was on a streak of eight Top 10 hits including four #1's. Her first single of the 80s was the #5 title track to her hits disc "On the Radio," but with disco being declared dead, even the queen of the genre was going to be affected. Her streak of Top 10's came to an end when this fourth single was lifted from her "Bad Girls" album. At the time Summer was in a dispute with her record label, Casablanca, as she wanted to change her musical direction while the label wanted to keep her in dance mode. She left the label and moved over to Geffen. Casablanca then decided to issue this single to milk what they could from their investment. In addition, they issued a collector's edition hits disc with the same title. Neither did well and the single brought an end to a remarkable streak. Summer would return to the Top 10 sporadically a few more times, but this pretty much closed the chapter on her mega-successful disco queen days.

ReduxReview:  This is a good, if lackluster, dance tune that makes for a worthy album track, but I don't hear it as a single. And I guess radio and record buyers thought the same since it barely reached the Top 40. Due to the issues above, I doubt this was originally slated for singles release, but it seems the label wanted to make sure to eek out as much as they could from their property and I guess deemed this the best candidate to release - from an album that had basically peaked and had already been followed-up by a hits disc. You can't work backward folks...

ReduxRating:  5/10

Trivia:  Summer was at her peak in 1979. She became the first female artist to have three #1 songs all hit within a calender year ("Hot Stuff," "Bad Girls," and "No More Tears"). In addition to that, she scored her second and third #1 albums that year with "Bad Girls" and the hits compilation "On the Radio." These albums, along with her first #1 album the previous year, "Live and More," were all double LPs. With these releases, she became the first artist to score three consecutive #1 double LPs.

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