Dim All the Lights

"Dim All the Lights"
Single by Donna Summer
from the album Bad Girls
B-side "There Will Always Be a You"
Released August 1979
Format
Recorded 1979
Genre
Length 4:40
Label Casablanca
Writer(s) Donna Summer
Producer(s)
Certification Gold (US)
Donna Summer singles chronology
"Bad Girls"
(1979)		 "Dim All the Lights"
(1979)		 "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)"
(1979)
Bad Girls track listing
"Walk Away"
(4)		 "Dim All the Lights"
(5)		 "Journey to the Center of Your Heart"
(6)

"Dim All the Lights" is a song by American recording artist Donna Summer that bowed at #70 on 25 August 1979 and peaked at #2 on 10–17 November 1979 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was blocked from becoming the third number one hit from the album by "Heartache Tonight" by the Eagles the first week and "Still" by Commodores the next week. Taken from her Bad Girls album and produced by her longtime collaborator Giorgio Moroder with Pete Bellotte, the track combines Summer's trademark disco beats with a more soulful pop sound. This was the third Hot 100 top two single from the album and her sixth consecutive Hot 100 top five single.

Background

Summer had released "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls" and, later, the "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" duet with Barbra Streisand, all of which reached position 1. "Dim All the Lights" was another massive hit for her, reaching number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and number 29 on the UK Singles Chart. Like "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls" before, "Dim All The Lights" and "No More Tears" were simultaneously in the top three, but missed having the top two positions, on the Hot 100.[1]

"Dim All the Lights" was Summer's only hit single that she wrote alone. She had originally intended to give the song to Rod Stewart but changed her mind. The song was nominated for Best Disco Recording at the 22nd Grammy Awards in 1980.[2]

According to Billboard, the song is about sex.[3]

The recording is remarkable for a sustained note held by Summer for about sixteen seconds.[2]

The record's flip side, "There Will Always Be a You," also received some airplay and was charted as an album cut on some North American radio stations (notably CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, where it reached number two in October 1979; interestingly, "Dim All the Lights" never charted on that station).[4]

Official versions

Chart positions

Chart (1979) Peak
position
Dutch GfK chart[5] 28
US Billboard Hot 100 2
US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play 54

Laura Branigan version

"Dim All the Lights"
Single by Laura Branigan
from the album The Best of Branigan
Released 1995
Format
Genre
Length 4:44
Label Atlantic
Writer(s) Donna Summer
Producer(s) Brinsley Evans
Laura Branigan singles chronology
"How Can I Help You to Say Goodbye"
(1994)		 "Dim All the Lights"
(1995)

Laura Branigan had a Top 40 Dance hit in 1995 with her cover version. The single version appears on her US hits collection, The Best of Branigan.[6] While Branigan's version was released in several mixes by Atlantic Records, a popular version in some Hi-NRG clubs at the time came from the DJ-only label Hot Traxx, which gave clubgoers two singers in one song, editing Donna Summer's original in with Branigan's remake. A video for the single, showing Branigan surrounded by a bevy of drag queens (Miss Understood, Hedda Lettuce and Vivacious), was her last, and the release was the end of her association with the label, as she left the music industry to care for her husband, who had been diagnosed with cancer.

Track listings

CD single[7]
No. Title Length
1. "Dim All the Lights"   4:44
2. "Dim All the Lights" (Ehab's Rehab edit) 4:14
CD single (Germany)[8]
No. Title Length
1. "Dim All the Lights"   4:44
2. "Show Me Heaven"   4:09
12" single – The Stonebridge Mixes[9]
No. Title Length
1. "Dim All the Lights" (Stonebridge main mix) 6:39
2. "Dim All the Lights" (Monday bar dub) 6:43
3. "Dim All the Lights" (Stonebridge straight mix) 5:52
4. "Dim All the Lights" (Stonebridge edit) 3:26
5. "Dim All the Lights" (Ehab's Rehab edit) 4:14
12" single – Promo[10]
No. Title Length
1. "Dim All the Lights" (Ehab's Rehab club version) 5:52
2. "Dim All the Lights" (Ehab's Rehab edit) 4:14
3. "Dim All the Lights"   4:44
4. "Dim All the Lights" (Instrumental) 4:44

Charts

Chart (1995) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play 36

Other cover versions

In 2007, the song was sampled by the French electronic duo Justice, for the song "B.E.A.T.", which is a re-edit of their song "D.A.N.C.E.".

References

  1. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1990). The Billboard Hot 100 Charts: The Seventies (30 June - 21 July 1979, 17 November 1979). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, Inc. ISBN 0-89820-076-8.
  2. 1 2 "Dim All The Lights by Donna Summer Songfacts". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  3. ↑ M. Tye Comer, Mariel Concepcion, Monica Herrera, Jessica Letkemann, Evie Nagy and David J. Prince (February 11, 2010). "The 50 Sexiest Songs Of All Time". Billboard. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
  4. ↑ ""There Will Always Be a You" on the Airheads Radio Survey Archive". Airheads Radio Survey Archive. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  5. ↑ "dutchcharts.nl - Discografie Donna Summer". © 2006-2011 Hung Medien. Retrieved 14 March 2011.
  6. ↑ "Laura Branigan ~ Songs List". OLDIES.com. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  7. ↑ "Laura Branigan - Dim All The Lights (CD) at Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Laura Branigan - Dim All The Lights (CD, Germany) at Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Laura Branigan - Dim All The Lights (The Stonebridge Mixes) (Vinyl) at Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Laura Branigan - Dim All The Lights (Vinyl) at Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
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