RIP Donna Summer This Weeks Forgotten Gem of the 80s Walk Away

When I started this weekly feature nearly six years ago, I never intended for it to contain the acronym "R.I.P." on a regular basis. Nevertheless, life (and death) have dealt some fairly brutal cards to '80s artists of late, leading to a great deal of spotlight material on this site to seem unreasonably fixated on human mortality. I don't bemoan these developments for primarily selfish reasons (that's my hope anyway) - as these losses of highly musically talented human beings have presented prime opportunities to explore their life's work and considerable legacies. Rather, this recent near-avalanche of early pop music deaths has quite simply dulled the musical landscape for music fans to an extent that clearly bears repeated mention.

The passing last week of former disco diva and longtime R&B singer of tremendous power and grace Donna Summer came as a bit of shock to some observers who didn't even know she had been battling cancer. Certainly no one would argue that the choice by Summer and her family to shroud her illness in some measure of privacy is in any way an affront to any of her fans who may have been dumbstruck by the news. Even so, it 's hard not to feel pummeled by the barrage of musical deaths in 2012.

So, as always, let's use the music as our all-purpose salve. Summer's "Walk Away" - a modest hit for the singer in late 1980 from her massively popular 1979 disco LP Bad Girls - really deserved a far better chart fate than its rather disappointing peak at the bottom edge of the Billboard Top 40. After all, it's not only a classic disco track that perfectly encapsulates Summer's potent appeal at the time; it also serves as a brilliant backdrop for what, again and again across the decades, has been one of pop/rock's finest finest female voices of all time. As always, the best tribute for musical artists who leave us too soon is to sit back and marvel at their artistic accomplishments. Many other songs may seem like far more obvious ways to do this in Summer's case, but the sheer permanence of the singer's work on "Walk Away" speaks volumes about her ability to transcend (and greatly improve) one of the rock era's most allegedly disposable and definitely scorned genres. That alone is cause for celebration amidst justifiable expressions of sorrow.

• Sample or download "Walk Away" here.
• Compare prices on Donna Summer CDs here.
• Top Donna Summer Songs of the '80s
• Top '80s Songs About Work
• Top R&B Artists of the '80s

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Casablanca