Love to Love You Baby (song)

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“Love to Love You Baby”
“Love to Love You Baby” cover
Single by Donna Summer
from the album Love to Love You Baby
B-side "Need-a-Man Blues"
Released 1975
Format 7" single, 12" single
Genre Disco, pop, soul, R&B
Label Casablanca (U.S.)
GTO Records (UK)
Writer(s) Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte
Producer Pete Bellotte
Certification Gold (US)
Donna Summer singles chronology
"Virgin Mary"
(1975)		 "Love to Love You Baby"
(1975)		 "Could It Be Magic"
(1976)

"Love to Love You Baby" is a song by American singer Donna Summer released in 1975 (see 1975 in music). 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 and produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete 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. The final recording lasted over sixteen minutes, and contained the sexiest simulated orgasms ever found on vinyl (according to the BBC it contained 22 "orgasms", while Time Magazine have stated it contains 23). It was also at this point that the song was renamed "Love to Love You Baby." The song took up the entire first side of the album of the same name, and was also released as a 12" single. Edited versions were also found on 7" vinyl, and the song became an international disco smash. It climbed to #2 on the U.S. singles chart, and also made the UK Top 5 (despite the BBC's refusal to promote it). Summer would be named "the first lady of love," which labelled her with a sexual-oriented, fantasy image that she would struggle to rid herself of.

Casablanca Records became responsible for the distribution of Summer's work in the U.S., and later in the majority of nations. President Neil Bogart was particularly keen for Summer to portray the image of a rich, powerful, sexy fantasy figure with which this song had labelled her. Upon Summer's relocation to the U.S., Bogart and his wife Joyce (who also became Summer's manager) would become close friends with Summer, but also begin to interfere with aspects of her personal as well as professional life. Summer eventually felt that she had no control over her life and suffered with depression and insomnia. She would later become a born-again Christian and leave disco, Casablanca and the Bogarts behind and file a lawsuit against them (which was eventually settled). It was at this time that Summer also made the decision to leave behind "Love To Love You Baby" forever. Some twenty-five years later, she would once again begin to perform a newly arranged version of the song in concert.

[edit] 1983 re-issue

Following the dance chart success of the Patrick Cowley remix of Summer's "I Feel Love" in 1982, Casablanca Records/PolyGram re-issued her first hit single "Love to Love You Baby". The single however failed to make an impact on the charts the second time around and it was to be their final single re-release of tracks from the Donna Summer back catalogue in the 1980s. In 1984 the Casablanca Records label was shut down by PolyGram.

“Love to Love You Baby
(1983 Re-Issue)”
Single by Donna Summer
from the album Love to Love You Baby
B-side "Love to Love You Baby (Part Two)"
Released 1983
Format 7" single, 12" single
Genre Disco, Pop, Soul, R&B
Label Casablanca
Writer(s) Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte
Producer Pete Bellotte
Donna Summer singles chronology
"Protection"
(1983)		 "Love to Love You Baby (re-issue)"
(1983)		 "She Works Hard for the Money"
(1983)

[edit] Cover versions

  • Artist Sam Taylor-Wood, under the guise of Kiki Kokova, collaborated with the Pet Shop Boys, in a limited edition 12" release of "Love To Love You Baby" in 2003.
  • French DJ David Vendetta sampled the song and turned it into a hit in clubs, in 2006.
  • The Ritchie Family sang a portion of "Love to Love You Baby" in their medley included in "The Best Disco in Town".
  • Tom Tom Club covered the song on their album The Good the Bad and the Funky.
  • "Love to Love You Baby" briefly appears in an episode of American TV series Eight Is Enough, played by the local band of a character in the show.
Preceded by
"Casanova Brown" / "(If You Want To) Do It Yourself" / "How High the Moon" by Gloria Gaynor		 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play number-one single
October 25, 1975 - November 15, 1975		 Succeeded by
"I Love Music" by The O'Jays