The Wanderer (Donna Summer song)

Infobox Single
Name = The Wanderer


Artist = Donna Summer
from Album = The Wanderer
B-side = Stop Me
Released = 1980
Format = 7" single
Recorded = 1980
Genre = Pop-rock/new wave
Length =
Label = Geffen
Writer = Giorgio Moroder, Donna Summer
Producer = Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte
Certification =
Chart position = * #3 (US)
* #48 (UK)
* #24 (The Netherlands)
Last single = "Walk Away" (1980)
This single = "The Wanderer" (1980)
Next single = "Cold Love" (1980)
Misc =

"The Wanderer" is a song by American singer Donna Summer. Summer made her name as the queen of the disco genre during the 1970s while signed to Casablanca Records. She left the label in 1980 following a dispute and became the first ever artist to be signed to the new Geffen label. Summer continued to work with Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte who had produced the vast majority of her disco hits. However, disco by now had experienced a backlash - rock DJs were out of work and people were starting to hate disco. Rock music was by now becoming popular and the Summer/Moroder/Bellotte team had incorporated this into Summer's 1979 international bestselling album "Bad Girls" which had seen rock and several other styles of music merged into the disco beat. Summer's first Geffen album, "The Wanderer" however was a fully-fledged new wave/rock-flavoured affair.

Vocally, it was a return to her understated 1975 debut sound - soft, whispery phrases were the norm in this song, instead of the power belt she had used often since her Once Upon a Time album and Last Dance single.

This first single from the album became a big hit for Summer in the United States - peaking at Number 3 on the Hot 100 singles chart and selling over a million copies. A 12" promo single of the song was released. However, unlike her "disco classics" era, the12" single version of "The Wanderer" was not extended beyond the album's 3:44 version.