"Love Is In Control (Finger on the Trigger)" - 1982
43 years ago this week, Geffen Records released the first single from Donna Summer's second album, "Donna Summer", which they took a huge gamble on by sending her into the recording studio without her longtime producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. This time she was recording under producer Quincy Jones, to deliver a more 'R&B' album and gain more traction with a black audience.
The single was released six weeks before the album was released in mid-July. It was released to radio in a 3:42 7" format, edited down from it's album release of 4:19". It was also released in a 12" remix at just over 7 minutes. It peaked at #10 on the Hot 100 on September 25, 1982 , #4 on the R&B singles, and #3 on the Dance singles. Most critics liked the single, though there was some concern over the lyrics with : 'leave off the safety catch, there ain't no risk, we're gonna have some fun'. It was the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, and there was a massive push for everyone to practice safe sex, and some people said the lyrics were promoting 'unsafe sex' (equating 'safety catch' with 'condoms').
As for the recording of the album, Summer admitted it was not a pleasant experience for her. She was pregnant to her third daughter at the time, and had never worked with Jones before - so there was a bit of 'getting used to' between the two music icons. After the release of the album, Summer commented in an interview, 'Sometimes, I feel like I was a singer on a Quincy Jones album' - alluding to the fact that she hardly had any say on her own album.
A planned duet with Springsteen was shelved in favor of a solo version by Summer. Two more singles released didn't do so well ("State of Independence" #41) and "The Woman In Me" (#33). The album itself peaked at #20, not delivering on Geffen's investment. It didn't do much for her to cross-over to soul music, and her remaining albums went back to pop music.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | June 7, 2025 8:20 PM
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In 2000, Sheena Easton released it as a single off her album "Fabulous". Not bad, but it doesn't make you forget Suumer's version.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | June 5, 2025 12:17 PM
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Loved it. Quincy jones at his best production levels
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | June 5, 2025 12:57 PM
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It's been said he borrowed quite a bit of what he did when he produced Michael Jackson's "Thriller" later in the summer, and "We Are The World" a couple of years after ('State of Independence' was the one track which most inspired his future projects).
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | June 5, 2025 8:11 PM
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It’s a great song that should’ve been a bigger hit.
I like the album as well, even though I think Jones polished it a bit hard.
Her version of Lush Life is my all-time favorite of so many versions. The uncharacteristic edge of bitterness in her voice puts it over for me. I wish she’d done a full standards album produced by Quincy Jones.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | June 6, 2025 12:03 AM
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R4 Before she died, she was finishing up a 'standards' album with producer David Foster. He said it was nearly finished, and what was recorded was outstanding. I wish her family (and Foster) would release it.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | June 6, 2025 12:30 AM
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Donna has several unfinished or close to finished projects in the vaults. Allegedly she recorded the entire score for her musical Ordinary Girl. There was also an album that she did around the time of her late 90's comeback that Sony chose not to release.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | June 6, 2025 12:40 AM
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These are the albums 'Driven By the Music' should be releasing to fans. Not another 'Another Place and Time' or 'Cats Without Claws' re-release with dozens of remixes of the singles. Enough of those, thank you.
Also, Foster said she had begun to work with him on a 'dance album' reminiscent of her 70s disco albums before they put that project aside to do the 'standards' album. Not sure how far they got with that one. All those hours together in the recording studio over a twelve-month period, and he never had an inkling she was terminally ill - she never told him. He had said that's why he was in shock when he heard the news on television that morning.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | June 6, 2025 12:49 AM
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She was a disco singer popular with the gay crowd, and married to a white man. The blacks were never going to embrace her.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | June 6, 2025 1:02 AM
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I love this album but do feel it's a bit overproduced--way too much sound that her vocals have to compete with
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | June 6, 2025 2:15 AM
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The "Donna Summer" album was so good, it's too bad that it didn't do as well as it should have. Like r4, Donna's version of Lush Life is also my favorite.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | June 7, 2025 8:20 PM
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