Donna Summer – Bad Girls

The “Bad Girls” are prostitutes. Summer got the idea when she was working at the offices of her label, Casablanca Records, in Los Angeles. She sent her secretary on an errand, which took her down Sunset Boulevard, a street known for illicit activity. The secretary, who was black, told Summer that the police harassed her, assuming she was a working girl. This raised the ire of Summer, but also provided inspiration for the song, which came together when she started ad-libbing lyrics in the studio.
Summer wrote this song in 1977 when she was collaborating with a vocal group called Brooklyn Dreams, which was comprised of Eddie Hokenson, Joe Esposito, and Summer’s future husband, Bruce Sudano. All three members of the group contributed to its writing and shared the songwriter credits with Summer.

When Summer played the demo track of the song for the head of Casablanca Records, Neil Bogart, he thought it was too rock for her and suggested the song would be more suitable for Labelle or Cher. This didn’t go over well with Summer, since she wanted to record the song herself, so she shelved it.

In 1979, an engineer named Steve Smith was looking through some tapes, trying to find some blank space to record when he came across the demo of this song. He reminded Summer of the song, which she had forgotten about, and he also told producer Giorgio Moroder about it. Moroder and Pete Bellotte, who are team that produced “Love To Love You Baby,” produced a new version of “Bad Girls” that became the hit two years after the song was written.

This was Summer’s biggest hit. It was #1 in the US for five weeks, helping her earn the title “The Queen Of Disco.”

Summer performed this song on her TV special (unimaginatively titled The Donna Summer Special), which aired January 27, 1980. The performance featured summer dressed as a prostitute singing on a studio replica of Sunset Boulevard. Her fellow “bad girls” were played by the model/actresses Twiggy, Debralee Scott, and Pat Ast.

“Bad Girls” – Single by Donna Summer from the album Bad Girls
Released June 23, 1979
Songwriters Donna Summer, Bruce Sudano, Joe “Bean” Esposito, Edward “Eddie” Hokenson
Producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte
Charted No.1 US; No.14 UK; No.9 West Germany; No. 1 Canada; No.5 Belgium