Donna Summer defined the disco era . Her brazenly sexual hits `` Love To Love You Baby '' and `` I Feel Love '' horrified some and delighted many more when they came out . They also helped to propel disco into a national phenomenon . Even now , the sound of her voice -- controlled yet passionate -- summons up the hedonistic , willful spirit of the late 1970s . Summer died from cancer Thursday at 63 . Her passing offers an opportunity to reconsider her musical contributions and the legacy of disco . News : The legacy of America 's disco queen is lasting . But she deserves more than nostalgic praise , because her records with producer Giorgio Moroder have had a lasting effect on pop music . Listen to Lady Gaga 's `` Born This Way , '' for starters . Not only does the disco-inflected rhythm evoke Summer 's dance tunes , but as a gay-pride anthem , it recalls the roiling , joyful setting in which Donna Summer 's music first found its audience . Disco originated in the 1970s New York club scene , and it was Summer 's `` Love To Love You Baby '' and then the Bee Gees ' `` Saturday Night Fever '' that catapulted it onto the national stage . In `` Love To Love You Baby , '' a strong-voiced woman gives herself over to pure pleasure . This feeling of abandon reflected the spirit of the emerging gay liberation movement . Overheard on CNN : Dim all the lights ; this 'last dance ' goes out to Donna Summer . Back then , the music and its culture was huge . But to be honest , these days Donna Summer -- and the disco craze she embodied -- sometimes get a bum rap . Disco is a kind of guilty pleasure for people of a certain age , a slightly embarrassing hangover from the simultaneously wild and innocent days of their youth . But they -- we -- have nothing to be ashamed of , and neither does Donna Summer . Because underneath the flashy exterior and dated trappings of the best disco records lurks true heart and soul . And disco records do n't get better than the ones Donna Summer made with Moroder . Listen to a playlist of Donna Summer 's greatest hits . `` Love To Love You Baby , '' a Top 10 hit in 1976 , largely consists of vocal moans and sighs over an orchestrated rhythm track . `` At first it was startling , almost embarrassing -- even in this age of rampant pornography , '' wrote critic Albert Goldman in 1978 . And Summer 's sexy album covers fed into the disco diva persona . But she was no moonlighting fashion model . Born in Boston , she had performed in European productions of `` Godspell '' and `` Hair '' before she met Moroder in Germany . Moroder crafted a sleek musical background for her creamy vocals , cushioned by strings , synthesizers and a fluid dance beat . When the tingling `` I Feel Love '' hit the Top 10 in 1977 , her sound became almost purely electronic . Perhaps this is the moment when the machines began to take over the music business . In reality , Donna Summer never conformed to the stereotype of disco singer as producer 's plaything , despite Moroder 's commanding presence . She was ambitious , releasing concept albums such as `` A Love Trilogy '' and `` Four Seasons of Love '' and an epic disco-fied version of `` Macarthur Park , '' by 1960s songwriter Jimmy Webb . And at the end of the 1970s , Summer came into her own . The double album `` Bad Girls '' was her magnum opus . Even disco-hating rock fans were taken aback . `` Bad Girls '' added soaring lead guitar lines and more varied songwriting to the mix . The singles `` Bad Girls '' and `` Hot Stuff '' took this disco-rock fusion to the top of the pop charts , while the slow-dance `` Dim All the Lights '' revealed more of Donna Summer 's personality than her earlier hits . Later in the '70s , Summer became a born-again Christian and began to distance herself ever so slightly from her sexy image . In the 1980s , America moved on from disco , and so did Summer . She dabbled in Las Vegas schmaltz , made an ambitious album with Quincy Jones and came bouncing back with the assertive `` She Works Hard for the Money '' at the dawn of the MTV era . She continued to record comeback albums well into the 1990s , but over the past decade or so , the new music came less frequently . She performed the occasional greatest hits tours after the disco craze had long since retreated . And her music gained hipster cachet , even fully divorced from the cultural flash of its time . Indeed , every synth-pop group from Depeche Mode on down owes Donna Summer a big thank you , if not a royalty check , for the influence and innovation of `` I Feel Love . '' `` Generally I do n't think there is too much art involved in what I do , '' said Moroder in 1978 at the peak of his career . `` But I do know that I achieved something specially different with 'Love To Love You Baby ' and ' I Feel Love . ' These songs will endure . ''
Mark Coleman : Donna Summer , who died Thursday , defined the disco era of the '70s . He says her music first found audience in NYC 's gay club scene , then gained national fame . He says her `` Love to Love You Baby '' was a racy , controversial and influential hit . Coleman : She developed as artist over years , but her disco hits are biggest legacy .