Hot Stuff (Donna Summer song)

Infobox Single
Name = Hot Stuff


Artist = Donna Summer
from Album = Bad Girls
B-side = "Journey to the Centre of Your Heart" "Heaven Knows" (Brazil) "Bad Girls" (Japan)
Released = 1979
Format = 7" single, 12" single
Recorded = 1979
Genre = Disco/rock
Length = 7" - 3:47, 12" - 6:47, Album - 5:16
Label = Casablanca
Writer = Pete Bellotte, Harold Faltermeyer, Keith Forsey
Producer = Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte
Certification = 2x Platinum (US)
Last single = "Heaven Knows" (1978)
This single = "Hot Stuff" (1979)
Next single = "Bad Girls" (1979)

"Hot Stuff" is a well known hit single released by American disco singer Donna Summer in 1979 as the first single release from her "Bad Girls" album through Casablanca Records. Up to that point, Summer had mainly been associated with disco songs but this song also showed significant rock influences including the guitar, which had never been used in a Donna Summer single before. It was certified double-platinum by the RIAA (for sales of over two million copies in the United States) and remained at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three non-consecutive weeks. "Hot Stuff" would also win Summer the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, making her the first African-American artist to achieve that feat. It is ranked #103 on the "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

The songs also lists at #67 on "Billboard's Greatest Songs of all time." [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top100-titles-70.shtml]

The song also topped the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart, with Summer's follow-up "Bad Girls" as a double A-side.The popular 12" single edition of the song plays the full 6:47 version of the song and then segues into "Bad Girls" 4:55 version.

Cover versions

The track was covered in 1995 by DJ Miko, giving the tune a contemporary dance music twist, and later partially covered by The Pussycat Dolls in their 2005 debut album "PCD". The verses (which were slightly altered) and the overall sound of the song are from Siobhan Fahey's "Bitter Pill", but with the chorus of Summer's "Hot Stuff" and it was renamed it "Hot Stuff (I Want You Back)". For the build up of the 1998 FA Cup final, Arsenal covered the song, using samples from the original, and replacing some lyrics, with descriptions of the squad, who were to play in the final.

The most recent artist to cover the song is EliZe, a Dutch popstar. Her version was released in September 2008 and is currently charting on various charts in Europe.

Appearances in other media

The song was memorably featured in the popular 1997 film "The Full Monty". During a press event on his 50th birthday, Charles, Prince of Wales helped recreate the scene in which the four main characters overhear the song while waiting in line at the unemployment office. [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/213847.stm |title=The Full Monarchy |publisher=BBC News Online |date=1998-11-13 |accessdate=2008-04-14]

The song is also featured prominently in an episode of the British mystery television series "Jonathan Creek" in the episode Angel Hair where it is sung by Caroline Carver who plays popstar Sally Ellen Oakley. It also forms a part of the soundtrack of the movie "Eurotrip".

Steve Allen did a "poetic" reading of "Hot Stuff" on one of his 1980 television shows, along the lines of his "poetic" readings of rock and roll songs he had done in the 1950s. At one point, Allen solemnly intoned, "Hot, hot, hot . . . stuff, stuff, stuff."

Professional Wrestler Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert used it as his theme song throughout the years til his passing in 1995.

The song appears on the video game Karaoke Revolution Volume 2.

Hot Stuff is the background song in Episode 31 of Sex and the City in which Carrie Bradshaw is a guest celebrity judge on Staten Island for the New York City Fire Department's "Calendar Contest". Bad Girls is then played as the gals are getting down on the dance floor afterwards.

References