The Journey: The Very Best of Donna Summer

The Journey is, overall, a wonderfully concise overview of Donna's body of work. Not as exhaustive as her 1993 Anthology, and not as skimpy as the 1998 Greatest Hits or 2003 20th Century Masters CDs. In a nutshell, it's basically a revamping of 1994's Endless Summer, now covering her earliest US hit, 1975's Love To Love You Baby, and her last, 1999's I Will Go With You. The songs, the majority of which are in their radio edit versions, are remastered beautifully, and have never sounded better.

One of the catches to this CD, are the two new tracks which reunites Donna with her long-time collaborator, Giorgio Moroder. The two last worked on 1992's Carry On, and before that, 1981's I'm A Rainbow album. Both of the new tracks, in my opinion, are in a word -- stunning.

I Will Live For Love is just so wonderfully over the top, terribly Hi-NRG, but just so much fun to listen to! Follows the classic Donna style -- a slow ballad intro, which then transforms into a pumping dance track, in the vein of Last Dance, Dim All The Lights and Melody Of Love.

That's The Way is one of Donna's best songs in quite some time. It's such an intriguing number, quite an unusual entry in the Donna Summer canon. Everything about the song works: the mid-tempo, plodding beat, the reggae-styled guitar and percussion, and of course, Donna's vocals -- very, very sexy vocals. Not to mention the rather playful spoken passage in the middle... wherein Donna does a little bit of self-promotion. "I wanna love you baby, like you know I'm Donna Summer". Indeed!

This first pressing of The Journey also comes with a bonus CD featuring five 12" mixes, including Hot Stuff, I Feel Love and This Time I Know It's For Real. All of which are basic extended versions. The real treat are the remaining two tracks on the disc.

I Will Live For Love appears a second time, in remixed form, a 9-minute remix done by Giorgio Moroder and Chris Cox. Speaking personally, I prefer this slightly more subdued remix than the perhaps a bit too over-busy original version.

Also making its public debut is the Ultimate Club Mix of You're So Beautiful. A song that made the rounds on bootlegs earlier in the year, it finally gets the public release it deserved. Rather similar to the original bootleg mix, cleaned up, slightly adulterated with more synths and effects, and lengthened by almost 2 minutes. Personally, I have issues with Donna's vocals being so buried in the mix, and I still find it much too hard a mix for my liking. Personally, I would love to hear a more poppier-sounding mix of Beautiful -- something in the vein of the Tommy Musto vocal mix of The Power Of One, for instance.

Overall, Donna's "The Journey" is a tremendous value, combining her classic tunes with some new ones with her old collaborator, Giorgio Moroder, bringing her full-circle. The addition of the bonus remix CD is yet another reason to pick this compilation up without delay.


New Donna Summer ...Great Package!   October 1, 2003
Steven Rivera (NYC)
20 out of 22 found this review helpful

This latest Greatest Hits package is a great overview of Summer's past and present. Universal has released this package as a great companion piece for Donna's new Autobiography "Ordinary Girl" The digitally remastered singles sounds better than ever.
Global pop music at its best.
Plus it is a 2 disc set, with great bonus tracks. The Amazon track listing is incorrect. this is the correct listing:

Disk 1:
Love To Love You Baby 3.22

Could It Be Magic 3.54

I Feel Love 3.46

I Love You 3.18

Last Dance 3.19

MacArthur Park 3.56

Heaven Knows 3.39

Hot Stuff 3.50

Bad Girls 3.57

Dim All The Lights 3.58

No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) Duet with Barbra Streisand 4.48

On The Radio 4.05

The Wanderer 3.46

Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger) 4.19

State Of Independence 4.25

She Works Hard For The Money 4.10

This Time I Know It's For Real 3.36

I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiro) 4.08

That's The Way 3.52 (new recording)

Dream-A-Lot's Theme (I Will Live For Love) 4.52 (new recording)

disk 2
I Feel Love 12" single remix (8:10)

Hot Stuff 12" single remix (6:40)

This Time I Know It's For Real 12" single extended remix (7:22)

Dream-A-Lot's Theme (I Will Live For Love) (D. Summer/N. DiGesare) 12" extended remix (Approximately 10 minutes) Remixed by Giorgio Moroder and Chris Cox, produced by Giorgio Moroder

You're So Beautiful (D. Summer/T. Moran/N. DiGesare) Ultimate Club mix (Approximately 10 minutes) Produced by Tony Moran and co-produced by Nathan DiGesare

The real big news here are the new Giorgio Moroder tracks and the underground club smash "(You Are) So Beautiful". "Beautiful" is already being played on KTU in NYC.
The Moroder tracks "Dream Alots Theme" and "Thats The Way" are even hotter. It makes you look forward to a full new CD from Summer in 2004. The CD is a great value and a great joy. This is for old and new fans. If you never owned a Donna Summer CD, check this one out and you will will want to buy her full CD's which contains the long versions of all of her classic hits.:) I just got my tickets for the Madison Square Garden show. :) I hope she does "Beautiful".


When will a really new record turn up?   October 4, 2003
20 out of 23 found this review helpful

Donna Summer seems to be suffering from a major lack of career confidence. In the past 15 years, she has relied on numerous "Greatest Hits" compilations. She has not released a full record of news songs since the 1991 bomb, MISTAKEN IDENTITY. Summer likes to tease her fans by slipping in a new song or two so that they'll buy yet another "Greatest Hits" collection just to be able to get that new track. It's a formula that's worked for her ever since the 1980's ON THE RADIO record - another greatest hits with a couple of new tracks. It's a miserly way to treat fans - whether it be Summer herself or her record company. Summer, who used to be an innovator in pop music in the 70's and 80's, is now left to having her old music remixed on an annual basis to a new club audience or leaking out some me-too tracks. THE JOURNEY is another example of Summer's musical tease.

From a price point of view, THE JOURNEY is a nice buy - 20 tracks - 18 of which are her hits of yesteryear - plus 2 new tracks and a bonus CD of extended remixes which includes one more new dance track. So, you get 3 new tracks in total! It's a cruel game she's playing - 18 tracks which were available on practically any of her other greatest hits compilations to get these 3 tracks. 2 new songs are produced by her longtime partner, Giorgio Moroder. "That's the Way", written by Moroder and another longtime Summer collaborator, is a nice reggae-flavored song that compliments Summer's career maturity. She's no longer the 20-something or 30-something or 40-something diva singing about lust. It's a bouncy relaxed number about resignation. "I Will Live For Love", penned by Summer herself, is less successful. It's got that "written for a Disney movie" feel of optimism that complements Summer's born-again Christianity. Another sign of a career's stagnation is that both Moroder-produced tracks have nothing particularly innovative about their sound. There is no trademark "Moroder" synthesizer - the tracks are pretty generically produced and arranged.

On the bonus CD is the much talked-about techno number "You're So Beautiful" (not to be confused with Christina's "Beautiful") which is driving hypnotic number. Unfortunately, it's more a piece of technological craftsmanship than anything that showcases Summer's vocals. Anyone could sing that song and it would be exactly the same.

So is the JOURNEY worthwhile for 3 measly tracks? Overall, I was disappointed. Any fan's journey with Donna Summer has been one of heartbreak with precious little in new music. It seems that Summer's career strategy has been to wait long enough until her music has come back around as nostalgia. Perhaps she's run out of steam or perhaps she's well-off enough that she's no longer interested in creating much music, but THE JOURNEY is a good case for music downloads. How many times do we have to buy "Hot Stuff" just to get a new song every couple of years?

Donna, record 3 new records so that you'll have more material for the next 15 years of "Greatest Hits Vol. 2"