''Live and More'' is the first live album recorded by American singer-songwriter Donna Summer, and it was her second double album, released on August 28, 1978 by

Casablanca Records Casablanca Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Republic Records. Under its founder Neil Bogart, Casablanca was most successful during the disco era of the mid to late 1970s. The label current ...

. The live concert featured on the first three sides of this double album was recorded in the Universal Amphitheater,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

in 1978.

Background and release

During the concert, Summer performed a large number of her disco songs - both her hit singles, and a selection of songs from her previous album, ''

Once Upon a Time "Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 (according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'') in storytelling in t ...

''. However, in this album, Donna also experiments with other musical styles such as jazz, in a medley she named "The My Man Medley". It consists of the

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

song, "The Man I Love", together with "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good" and the old standard "

Some of These Days "Some of These Days" is a popular song, written and composed by Shelton Brooks, published in 1910, and associated with the performer Sophie Tucker. Background Shelton Brooks and "Some of These Days" was brought to Sophie Tucker's attention in 191 ...

", neither of which she had recorded previously. She also performed a version of the ballad "

The Way We Were ''The Way We Were'' is a 1973 American romantic drama film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. Arthur Laurents wrote both the novel and screenplay based on his college days at Cornell University and his ...

", originally recorded by

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

for the film of the same name, again, not previously recorded by Summer, but a big live favorite of hers. This was followed by a self-written ballad called "Mimi's Song", dedicated to her young daughter, Mimi. Mimi was present at this concert for Summer to sing the song to, and she is heard on the recording saying goodnight to the audience. The concert ends with one of Summer's best-known songs in the United States - " Last Dance". This hit song is included on the soundtrack of the film '' Thank God It's Friday'', in which Summer had also acted. The composer,

Paul Jabara Paul Jabara, also known as Paul Frederick Jabara, (January 31, 1948 – September 29, 1992) was an American actor, singer, and songwriter of Lebanese ancestry, born in Brooklyn, New York. He wrote Donna Summer's Oscar-winning " Last Dance" from ...

, won an

Academy Award for Best Song An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

from a motion picture, and Summer herself won her first

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for

Best Female R&B Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (previously called Best Rhythm and Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Female) was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards ...

with this song. Some versions of "Last Dance" have the slow part removed from the middle but kept at the beginning. The full version, however, was sung at this concert. The fourth and final side of this double LP album contains a new studio recording entitled "MacArthur Park Suite", which is a medley of four songs including the main song "

MacArthur Park MacArthur Park (originally Westlake Park) is a park dating back to the late 19th century in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. In the early 1940s, it was renamed after General Douglas MacArthur, and later designated City of Los Angeles H ...

", originally recorded as a ballad by the Irish actor

Richard Harris Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, notably as Corrado Zeller in Michelangelo Antonioni's '' Red Desert'', Frank Machin in '' This Sporting ...

. Summer's disco version was edited and issued as a single, and it became one of her biggest hits - her first number one song on the American ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart, and a Top five song in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. This song also earned Summer a

nomination for

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The awar ...

. Another song in the medley, " Heaven Knows" was an American Top five hit, and it featured vocals by Joe Esposito of the Brooklyn Dreams musical group. That group included the musician

Bruce Sudano Bruce Charles Sudano (born September 26, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, noted for creating songs for artists such as Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and his late wife, the Grammy Award-winning singer Donna Summer. Sudano is t ...

, whom Summer would later marry.

Critical and commercial reception

The album received mixed to favorable reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

. Stephen Cook from ''AllMusic'' website gave the album three out of five stars and wrote that none of the album's songs "eclipse the original versions" but concluded that it is a "very enjoyable concert recording". Robert Christgau gave the album a "C" and criticized the arrangements and the song "Mac Arthur Park Suite," to which he preferred Andy Kaufman's interpretation. Tom Carson from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine gave the album a favorable review and wrote that even though "the hits are exiled to side three, they come across fairly well". ''Live and More'' would become Summer's first number one double album in the United States, and achieved double platinum status in the U.S.

Track listing

All tracks written by Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder and

Pete Bellotte Peter John Bellotte (born 28 August 1943)Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Birth Index: 1916–2005 atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Index ...

except where noted; all tracks produced by Moroder and Bellotte. Notes *When ''Live and More'' was released on compact disc (CD), the disk-format of that time could only hold a maximum of 74 minutes. Rather than release the album as a two-disc set, it was released as a single CD, and "MacArthur Park Suite" was replaced with an extended version of the song " Down Deep Inside", which Summer had recorded for the film soundtrack for '' The Deep'' during the previous year. The "MacArthur Park Suite", as featured on the various artists compilation, ''The Casablanca Records Story'', and the ''Bad Girls Deluxe Edition''. is the 12-inch single version, not the original album version. The album version can only be found on '' The Dance Collection: A Compilation of Twelve Inch Singles'' CD, the original ''Live and More'' vinyl LP album itself, and the Japanese CD issue of ''Live and More'' (Mercury PHCR 1032). The 12-inch version replaces the original album version of "Heaven Knows" with the 7-inch version; "One of a Kind" was trimmed of some of its percussion breaks. *The 7-inch version of "Heaven Knows" was created by combining the vocals from Summer's ''Live and More'' album with the instrumental tracks from Brooklyn Dreams' ''Sleepless Nights'' album (on that album Joe Esposito sings the lead vocal and Brooklyn Dreams sing the chorus) - a rare instance of a Summer 7-inch single which is actually longer than the album version. Bob Esty produced and arranged the ''Sleepless Nights'' album and should be given co-producer and arranger credit for the 7" version of "Heaven Knows" but the liner notes in every Summer compilation released to date only list Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte as producers and mistakenly credit Greg Mathieson as the arranger. *

Universal Music Japan , often referred to as just Universal Music Japan or UMJ, is a Japanese subsidiary of the Universal Music Group founded in 1990. It is the largest subsidiary for a foreign company in the country regarding music distribution. The company is resp ...

released a mini LP SHM-CD version of ''Live and More'' on August 8, 2012 in Japan (together with seven other Donna Summer albums) which restored the original cover art and included "MacArthur Park Suite".

Personnel

* Donna Summer – vocals *

Keith Forsey Keith Forsey (born 2 January 1948) is an English pop musician and record producer. Early life Forsey began his career as a percussionist in the mid-late 1960s as the drummer for The SpectrumCaptain Scarlet and the Mysterons - The Vault - Chris ...

– drums * Richard Adelman – drums * Sal Guglielmi – bass * Ken Park – percussion * Bob Conti – percussion * Peter Woodford – rhythm guitar * Mike Warren – lead guitar * Doug Livingston – keyboards * Virgil Weber – synthesizer * Greg Mathieson – Moog synthesizer, clavinet * Bobby Shew – trumpet * Rich Cooper – trumpet * Dalton Smith – trumpet * Bruce Paulson – trombone * Bob Payne – trombone * Dick "Slide" Hyde – bass trombone * Dick Spencer – alto saxophone * Don Menza – tenor saxophone * Joe Romano – baritone saxophone * John Santulis – concertmaster, violins * Pauel Farkas – violins * Mari Tsumura – violins * Teri Schoebrua – violins * Jay Rosen – violins * Lya Stern – violins * Leonard Selic – viola * Alfred Barr – viola * Victor Sazer – cello * Robert Adcock – cello * John Fresco – contractor * Sheri Wish – production manager * Keith Robertson – stage manager * Bryan Rooney – assistant stage manager * Sunshine (Carlena Williams, Dara Bernard, Pamela Quinlan, Mary Ellen Bernard) - backing vocals * Mike North – equipment * Marc Figueroa – equipment * Stanal Sound ( Bob Ludwig, Jim Fox, John Taylor) – sound * Lighting designed by Patrick Woodroffe for TFA Electrosound * Graphics: Stephen Lumel, Henry Vizcarra * Photographs by Francesco Scavullo *

Photography assistant A photographic assistant, also known as a photo assistant, photographer's assistant, or also second shooter, is "an individual with both photographic and related skills who assists a professional photographer". The work of an assistant photographe ...

: Sean Byrnes * Donna Summer logotype: Tom Nikosey * Costumes: David Picon * Management: Susan Munao Management & Joyce Bogart Management Co. Production * Produced by Giorgio Moroder and

* Recorded live at the Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA. except "MacArthur Park Suite", a studio recording * Engineered by: Juergen Koppers, Gary Ladinsky, Steve Smith * Mixdown engineer: Juergen Koppers * Mixed at Westlake Studios and Rust Studios * Conducted by: Michael Warren

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

External links

Donna Summer Live And More
album info at Discogs {{Authority control 1978 live albums Albums produced by Pete Bellotte Albums produced by Giorgio Moroder Casablanca Records live albums Donna Summer live albums