7 ... "where the words never got written" reached number two on the Billboard charts in America.

Her marriage having falling apart, Donna Summer anglicized her name and returned to the United States for the first time in more than eight years. She recalls having conversations where she would lapse back into German, the victim of culture shock. but even more shocking, she was now a pop star. Time magazine counted 22 vocal orgasmic simulations in "Love to Love You, Baby." Because of the character of the song, Donna Summer was marketed to the record-buying public as "The First Lady of Lust" and "Disco`s Aphrodite." It was a persona Donna says she never felt entirely comfortable with. Nevertheless, she made the most of it. The record went gold in 12 days and sold more than 40,000 copies in New York City in less than a week. Arriving just in time, Donna caught the emerging musical wave that became disco.

At the time, Eurodisco had been sweeping the Continent. Producer Moroder, who provided the music for the Academy Award winning film Midnight Express, and his partner Bellotte were at the center of it.

They were the team most responsible for shaping the signature Donna Summer sound that developed after "Love to Love You, Baby." Recalling her early collaboration with Moroder, Donna remembers, "When I first started singing, Giorgio would say, `No, no-- that`s too R&B.` He would make me sing things over and over again till he thought they were right in the middle of pop." It became a sound that transformed her from a mere disco diva into a superstar.

For those too young or too old to have experienced the phenomenon that was disco, you missed a great time. Sex and drugs were harmless pastimes, not pathogens, amusements not addictions. It was the last guiltless party, and donna Summer supplied the music. From 1975 to 1979, while recording with Casablanca records, Donna released seven albums, four of which were double-records sets. Of the seven, four went gold, one went platinum, one went triple platinum. Additionally, she earned the distinction of being the first female artist to have a number one single and a number one album at the same time--twice.

In 1979, Donna initiated legal action to sever her ties with Casablanca Records. Her original producing contract had been bought out; consequently, her compensation package was calculated using a foreign royalty formula that, according to Donna, resulted in her "receiving a third or even less" of what she was due. Though she has yet to repeat the kind of success she experienced during her tenure at Casablanca, it`s not a decision she regrets. Bogart, the man who brought Donna Summer back to the United states and guided her in her meteoric rise, had fallen ill and his company had been acquired by Polygram. About her decision to move on, she says, "It didn`t work anymore." She does, however, lament Bogart`s passing. "He was my mentor," she says. "I miss him a lot."

Extricating herself from her Casablanca contract, Donna became the first artist to sign with the newly established Geffen record label. "David came up me at a party and whispered in my ear, `I want you at my label,` " Of Geffen, she says, "He was such a music person. He was willing to nurture talent, and i need to be nurtured." In leaving Casablanca, Donna was able to break out of a mold that had been created for her that she always found artistically limiting. Her first album on Geffen recoords, The Wanderer, departed markedly from the disco sound for which she was renowned. "David wanted me to do a dance record at that point," says Summer, "I was in a transition emotionally. Everything was shifting in my life." The title track climbed to number three in September 1980 --respectable, but understandably disappointing after an unprecedented string of chart toppers. She characterizes that time in her life as traumatic. "It was very difficult, extremely," she says.

"I found myself in a serious mental and physical condition ... 8