Love To Love You Baby (16:49)

“Love to Love You Baby” is a song by American singer Donna Summer released in 1975. It became one of the first ever disco hits to also be released in an extended form.

By 1975, Summer had been living in Germany for eight years and had participated in several musical theatre shows. She had also released an album in Europe entitled Lady of the Night, written by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte and produced by Bellotte, which had given her a couple of hit singles. She was still a complete unknown in her home country when she suggested the lyric “Love to Love You Baby” to Moroder in 1975. He turned the lyric into a full disco song and asked Summer to record it. The full lyrics were somewhat explicit and at first Summer said she would only record it as a demo to give to someone else. However her erotic moans and groans impressed Moroder so much that he persuaded her to release it as her own song, and “Love to Love You” became a moderate hit in the Netherlands.

A tape of the song was sent to Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart in the U.S. and he played it at a party at his home. He was so impressed with the track that he continued to play it over and over all night. He later contacted Moroder and suggested that he make the track longer - possibly as long as twenty minutes. Again Summer had reservations, and was not even sure of all the lyrics, so imagined herself as an actress (namely Marilyn Monroe) playing the part of someone in sexual ecstasy. The studio lights were dimmed so that Summer was more or less in complete darkness as she lay on the floor.