"Love to Love You Baby" | ||||||||||||||
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A-side label of US vinyl single
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Single by Donna Summer | ||||||||||||||
from the album Love to Love You Baby | ||||||||||||||
B-side | "Need-a-Man Blues" | |||||||||||||
Released | June 1975 (Netherlands, as "Love to Love You") November 26, 1975 (Worldwide, as "Love to Love You Baby") |
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Format | ||||||||||||||
Recorded | 1974 (as "Love to Love You") May–June 1975; Musicland Studios (Munich, West Germany) (as "Love to Love You Baby") |
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Genre | ||||||||||||||
Length | 16:49 (Full-length version) | |||||||||||||
Label |
Oasis (US/Canada) GTO (UK) Polar (Sweden) Ariola (Spain/Portugal) Interfusion (Australia) Atlantic (France/Germany) Durium (Italy) |
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Writer(s) | ||||||||||||||
Producer(s) | Pete Bellotte | |||||||||||||
Donna Summer singles chronology | ||||||||||||||
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"Love to Love You Baby" is a song by American singer Donna Summer from her 1975 second studio album of the same name. Produced by Pete Bellotte and written by Giorgio Moroder, Bellotte and Summer, the song was first released as a single in the Netherlands on June 1975 as "Love to Love You" and then released worldwide on November 1975 as "Love to Love You Baby". It became one of the first disco hits to be released in an extended form.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll, Summer's only selection on this list.
By 1975, Summer had been living in Germany for eight years and had participated in several musical theatre shows. She had also released an album in the Netherlands entitled Lady of the Night, written by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte and produced by Bellotte, which had given her a couple of hit singles. She was still a complete unknown in her home country when she suggested the lyric "Love to Love You Baby" to Moroder in 1975. He turned the lyric into a full disco song and asked Summer to record it. The full lyrics were somewhat explicit, and at first, Summer said she would only record it as a demo to give to someone else. However, Summer's erotic moans and groans impressed Moroder so much that he persuaded her to release it as her own song, and "Love to Love You" became a moderate hit in the Netherlands.
In an interview in 1976, Summer responded to a number of questions that she claimed she'd been asked about the process of recording the song: "Everyone's asking, 'Were you alone in the studio?' Yes, I was alone in the studio. 'Did you touch yourself?' Yes, well, actually I had my hand on my knee. 'Did you fantasize on anything?' Yes, on my handsome boyfriend Peter."