Donna Summer, On The Radio | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 157^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2023), we recollect and reflect on “On The Radio” by Donna Summer.

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 157^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2023), we recollect and reflect on 🎵 “On The Radio”, performed by 🎙 Donna Summer.

“Someone found a letter you wrote me on the radio / And they told the world just how you felt,” 🎙 Donna Summer sings in the first verse of her classic, 🎵 “On The Radio”. She continues singing, “It must have fallen out of a hole in your own brown overcoat / They never said you name but I knew just who they meant.” Ooh wee! “On The Radio” was one of 14 top-10 hits by the late, 🏆 Grammy-winning, queen of disco, peaking at no. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980.  “On The Radio” graces Summer’s 1979 greatest hits compilation, 💿 On The Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II as well as the soundtrack to 💿 Foxes.  Initially, it seems as if the record is going to be a ballad, given the slower tempo at the start, but soon enough, Summer brings out the dancing shoes and tempo.

“On the radio, whoa-oh-oh-oh / On the radio, whoa-oh-oh-oh.” Indeed! Matters of the heart continue to dominate this radio-driven gem, where, in verse two, Summer asks her ex, “Don’t it kinda strike you sad when you hear our song /… The only thing that I wanna hear is that you love me still.”  Furthermore, the third verse also focuses on the significance of the radio: “If you think that love isn’t foiund on the radio / Then tune right in, you may find the love you lost.” Woo!  Notably, Summers penned “On The Radio” with a fellow legend, producer 🎼 ✍ 🎛 Giorgio Moroder.  The supporting backdrop is #EVERYTHING – warm keys, lush strings, and an epic, epic groove.  Of course, the vocals are electric too.  Honestly, EVERYTHING is electric when it comes to 🎵 “On The Radio” 💯.

🎙 Donna Summer • 💿 On The Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II • 🏷 Mercury • 📅 1979

 Donna Summer, On The Radio: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 157 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Mercury; John Alan Sperry, PIRO via  Pixabay]